Frogfish and myself left friday to go carp fishing. We arrived at 11 pm and set up. I fell asleep soon after and around 1:30 i wake up and frogfish already has a fish on. He fought this guy for a while and we had trouble getting the net out but we eventually landed the fish which went 27 pounds even.
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These are mirror carp which are common carp without any scales. These fish are rather special because although there are no mirror carp in North America that are truely "leathers" which means they are completely lacking scales, these have almost no scales which is extremely rare. The fact that these fish are like this is rare in itself because mirror carp only can be produced by two mirror carp and any common carp in the lake spawning with mirror carp will produce common carp which have scales.
We set the baits back out and around 3 am i woke up again from my alarm this time. The line was rolling off the reel and i quickly knocked on the truck to wake frogfish up and then fought this carp this shore. This is my first mirror carp i have ever caught and was also the largest carp as well as largest fish i had ever caught before and i was absolutely estatic. This fish was 32 pounds 8 ounces.
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We released the fish and i fell back asleep. When i woke up again it was almost morning so we rebaited the rods, ate breakfast and then at 7:45 one of frogfish's rods goes off and after a very long fight we caught this guy. We were sure he was a lot bigger than he was at first because he fought really hard and stayed deep even right at shore. He went 34 pounds even. Not bad at all on 12 pound mono!
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Around 10:30 my rod went off again. I set into the fish and realised he felt big. I worked him to shore and when i netted him i couldnt believe it, these fish were all prespawn but this one had a huge stomach. I bet its girth was equal to its length. This was the big fish of the trip that went 36 pounds and 4 ounces!
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by this time a few people had gathered around so one of the people took a picture for us. you can really get an idea just how big this fish's stomach was.
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As we were walking back to the rods one of frogfish's rod alarms starts screaming and he set the hook on another carp! This fish didn't fight very hard and must have saved his energy because once he had him on the mat this fish went nuts flopping around and even smacked frogfish in the face! This one went 31 pounds even.
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After this fish we sat there all day and did not have another run. I decided to have some fun and rigged up my shimano 1000 which had 6 pound test with a carp rig. We sat there all day and through the next night until 2:51 when i woke up to see line screaming off the shimano... as i picked up the shimano which was running towards the left and set the hook... line starts steadily rolling off my abu 4600 c3. I pick up the abu too and set the hook which sure enough has another fish running towards the right. I tighten up on both fish and knock on the window of the truck to wake frogfish up. As i do this i was sure that i heard yet another alarm and told him to check his rods which i was sure just had a run. As i was trying to get both fish under control the one on the abu shook the hook and i reel the abu in empty. I set it aside and start fighting the fish on the 6 pound mono that was spooled on the shimano spinning reel. Meanwhile frogfish is trying to untangle his rods which for some reason have become tangled together in multiple large tangles. Eventually once he got a few free he helped me net the fish on the shimano. As the fish was sitting in the net we noticed a braided line running out to the left where i didnt cast it and realise there must be a carp on it. Sure enough when we grabbed the line we felt him so frogfish handed me the braid to hold onto but about a minute later the line went slack. That line turned out to be one of my rods that had silently been pulled through all three of his lines 20 feet down the bank then the fish turned and ran out to the left where we had felt him on the line before he got off.
We weighed the fish we did land and he went 33 pounds and 13 ounces. Im pretty proud of this catch being the second largest fish ive ever caught and on 6 pound line at that!
This fish was pretty badly beaten and torn up. The poor guy was missing a large portion of his tail. Frogfish said this is from people using those cheap rope nets that will cut the tail when they net the fish and once the tail is cut it often rots and thats how carp lose part of their tail. It looks bad but it didnt seem to be harming him too much. What i was more concerned about was the hook buried under his fin. It was a paylake style hook which is a type of carp fishing where the angler sits right by the rod and when he sees even the slightest movement in the rod they often set it in hopes of hooking the carp even if it is in the side of the fishes face or in this case on its side. Whoever did this must have lost this guy because the hook was still there and although it wasnt deep the wound was really ugly and fesetering. I hope it should heal now that the hook isnt cutting him open every time he moves that fin...
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The last fish came at 6:00 am. Frogfish fought him in and i netted him. The fish weighed 35 pounds even, but unfortunately also had the rotting tail problem.
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I fell back asleep and frogfish woke me up around 9 am to rebait my rods. I noticed one of the two baits i had in the water had moved way off to the left and it noted it to frogfish who said he noticed it but figured i had just casted it at a weird angle. I started reeling but felt no weight so i said the fish must have dropped the bait. I started reeling again and noticed the line wasnt coming in...
i checked the spool and there was no line left and just a knot. I pulled a stretch of line in to get some line back on the spool so it could grip the line and started reeling and walking towards where the line came from. We walked all the way down the bank and found the fish wrapped in a snag... we could feel him but eventually the line broke. The line alarm had almost run out of batteries which was why we hadn't heard him run :(
We continued to fish for two more hours but packed up at 11 am and headed home.
The total was 7 fish equaling 229.8 pounds. All mirror carp between 27 and 36.25 pounds.
Frogfish caught his new personal best mirror carp, as well as his new personal best carp of any type.
I caught my first mirror carp, my personal best mirror carp, my personal best carp, and my personal best fish of all time!
If you read all that then props to you and thanks for reading! If you just looked at the pictures i can't blame you lol
til next time, tight lines!
These are mirror carp which are common carp without any scales. These fish are rather special because although there are no mirror carp in North America that are truely "leathers" which means they are completely lacking scales, these have almost no scales which is extremely rare. The fact that these fish are like this is rare in itself because mirror carp only can be produced by two mirror carp and any common carp in the lake spawning with mirror carp will produce common carp which have scales.
We set the baits back out and around 3 am i woke up again from my alarm this time. The line was rolling off the reel and i quickly knocked on the truck to wake frogfish up and then fought this carp this shore. This is my first mirror carp i have ever caught and was also the largest carp as well as largest fish i had ever caught before and i was absolutely estatic. This fish was 32 pounds 8 ounces.
We released the fish and i fell back asleep. When i woke up again it was almost morning so we rebaited the rods, ate breakfast and then at 7:45 one of frogfish's rods goes off and after a very long fight we caught this guy. We were sure he was a lot bigger than he was at first because he fought really hard and stayed deep even right at shore. He went 34 pounds even. Not bad at all on 12 pound mono!
Around 10:30 my rod went off again. I set into the fish and realised he felt big. I worked him to shore and when i netted him i couldnt believe it, these fish were all prespawn but this one had a huge stomach. I bet its girth was equal to its length. This was the big fish of the trip that went 36 pounds and 4 ounces!
by this time a few people had gathered around so one of the people took a picture for us. you can really get an idea just how big this fish's stomach was.
As we were walking back to the rods one of frogfish's rod alarms starts screaming and he set the hook on another carp! This fish didn't fight very hard and must have saved his energy because once he had him on the mat this fish went nuts flopping around and even smacked frogfish in the face! This one went 31 pounds even.
After this fish we sat there all day and did not have another run. I decided to have some fun and rigged up my shimano 1000 which had 6 pound test with a carp rig. We sat there all day and through the next night until 2:51 when i woke up to see line screaming off the shimano... as i picked up the shimano which was running towards the left and set the hook... line starts steadily rolling off my abu 4600 c3. I pick up the abu too and set the hook which sure enough has another fish running towards the right. I tighten up on both fish and knock on the window of the truck to wake frogfish up. As i do this i was sure that i heard yet another alarm and told him to check his rods which i was sure just had a run. As i was trying to get both fish under control the one on the abu shook the hook and i reel the abu in empty. I set it aside and start fighting the fish on the 6 pound mono that was spooled on the shimano spinning reel. Meanwhile frogfish is trying to untangle his rods which for some reason have become tangled together in multiple large tangles. Eventually once he got a few free he helped me net the fish on the shimano. As the fish was sitting in the net we noticed a braided line running out to the left where i didnt cast it and realise there must be a carp on it. Sure enough when we grabbed the line we felt him so frogfish handed me the braid to hold onto but about a minute later the line went slack. That line turned out to be one of my rods that had silently been pulled through all three of his lines 20 feet down the bank then the fish turned and ran out to the left where we had felt him on the line before he got off.
We weighed the fish we did land and he went 33 pounds and 13 ounces. Im pretty proud of this catch being the second largest fish ive ever caught and on 6 pound line at that!
This fish was pretty badly beaten and torn up. The poor guy was missing a large portion of his tail. Frogfish said this is from people using those cheap rope nets that will cut the tail when they net the fish and once the tail is cut it often rots and thats how carp lose part of their tail. It looks bad but it didnt seem to be harming him too much. What i was more concerned about was the hook buried under his fin. It was a paylake style hook which is a type of carp fishing where the angler sits right by the rod and when he sees even the slightest movement in the rod they often set it in hopes of hooking the carp even if it is in the side of the fishes face or in this case on its side. Whoever did this must have lost this guy because the hook was still there and although it wasnt deep the wound was really ugly and fesetering. I hope it should heal now that the hook isnt cutting him open every time he moves that fin...
The last fish came at 6:00 am. Frogfish fought him in and i netted him. The fish weighed 35 pounds even, but unfortunately also had the rotting tail problem.
I fell back asleep and frogfish woke me up around 9 am to rebait my rods. I noticed one of the two baits i had in the water had moved way off to the left and it noted it to frogfish who said he noticed it but figured i had just casted it at a weird angle. I started reeling but felt no weight so i said the fish must have dropped the bait. I started reeling again and noticed the line wasnt coming in...
i checked the spool and there was no line left and just a knot. I pulled a stretch of line in to get some line back on the spool so it could grip the line and started reeling and walking towards where the line came from. We walked all the way down the bank and found the fish wrapped in a snag... we could feel him but eventually the line broke. The line alarm had almost run out of batteries which was why we hadn't heard him run :(
We continued to fish for two more hours but packed up at 11 am and headed home.
The total was 7 fish equaling 229.8 pounds. All mirror carp between 27 and 36.25 pounds.
Frogfish caught his new personal best mirror carp, as well as his new personal best carp of any type.
I caught my first mirror carp, my personal best mirror carp, my personal best carp, and my personal best fish of all time!
If you read all that then props to you and thanks for reading! If you just looked at the pictures i can't blame you lol
til next time, tight lines!