I’ve been targeting the carp pretty hard the last few weeks in hopes of finally hooking one of the larger ones that cruise a residential pond in my area. finally got to a spot where they were feeding off the surface yesterday and after about 20 minutes of miss casts and spooking them, I finally had one slurp my fly.
All the excitement of the anticipation washed away after feeling like I didn’t come in prepared to do well by the fish once it was on the other end of my line. I didn’t have a net to land a 20+ pound fish, nor was setup ideal given that I’d been using my 4wt over my 8wt which is currently spoiled with sinking line. I definitely don’t regret the experience because it makes me want to do better in the future for the fish’s sake, but I do wish it went down differently. After getting the fish close to shore several times, it seemed like they finally tired out enough for me to remove my fly from its lip, but they gave one final kick and the line snapped at the eyelet. I know it’ll come out with time, but I try to avoid that as much as possible.
Anyways, hope this experience helps me slow down a little more and make better judgments whenever the next big one comes along. Happy fishing!
Posted by wanderingwalnut
5 Comments
Can you share what the general casting technique and the flies used for carp? I’ve never fished Carp before but know they’re in a river near me.
This happened to me with a 30″ trout. I was GREATLY unprepared! I also had absolutely no idea there were fish like that in the dinky little pond I was fishing!
Good on you for recognizing what you should have done differently. Targeting a large fish with lite tackle can be and is often detrimental to the fish.
yeah hope you learned your lesson.
I’ll probably catch hell for this, but it was a carp, man. Don’t worry about it.