Brian Wingard Year In Review 2015

We are just about to start the 2016 season and last year was all over the place for me. The year started off rough with an abscess in my back that extended from my spine around my side. Taking over a month to heal the wound had finally closed a few days before my flight to the ATC in Texas. I had a really fun time flying into Colorado for the first time and then to Oklahoma to meet up with David Moore and see Big Carp Tackle for the first time. I was really amazed at the size of it and how much they have grown over the years. After a day at Big Carp Tackle we drove to Texas and the weather was really strange. It felt more like back home in Pennsylvania than Texas with highs in the 30’s which was insane for Texas. I did catch my first Texas catfish and Carp during the tournament and met a lot of great anglers for the first time and also anglers whom I have spoken to for years online.

After flying home from the ATC I still had plenty of time before the ice would come off. Once the ice came off I met up with my buddy Zach Hoffa and we did a session which involved fly fishing for carp. I have not fly fished since I was very little and it was only for trout. After spending an hour or so learning to cast again we scouted some fish on some city lakes that have a variety of sizes of carp. Zach had some deer hair fly’s and they mimicked the cherry blossoms that were falling off into the lake. The carp were eating the cherry blossoms for some reason so we soon found that to be a winner. I landed quite a few carp and my arms were burning from the fight. The fight on a fly rod is so much different than a carp rod. It was a ton of fun and I recommend anyone who fly fishes to try out carp.

The weather was really tough last year with very thick ice on the lake and then it thawed and went into the 90’s for a solid week straight. This sent the fish right into spawn mode so what usually takes 2 months turned into 2 weeks of prime fishing. I still managed to get a few good fish before the spawn but not like usual.

Shortly after the spawn I visited a lake I have known about for years and years. I knew it held some nice mirrors and after talking to the locals they showed me a few pictures with fish up to 38lbs in there. I managed to get a nice mirror out on my first trip there and was really pleased with the result. The people were very friendly as well. During the battle I had around 10-15 standing behind me watching. They were all very excited to see something big come out of the lake.

Summer went by fast and my fall turned out to be much better as the big ones started to move back into some of the spots. After a day of baiting I showed up at a new spot and landed a few upper 20 near 30lb fish and was excited to see the frame on the was very massive.

Next stop was to a lake we have been messing around with for a few years and finally tapped into some very nice fish. The average fish out of the lake has been around 24lbs and very big bodied frames.

Here is the video of that session as well.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYQlWIDi5w8[/youtube]

Finally the highlight of my year was a new PB mirror on a beautiful fall day. You can read more about this on the Trakker site once the article is uploaded.