This story starts quite a few years ago when we had just
moved in a new neighborhood. I had my son with autism with me as we fished for
bluegills at a local pond. At the time he was still using sign language and
hardly talked at all. He might say maybe cookie or juice. So we were sitting
there when he stands up points and says SHARK! First I was shocked that he
spoke and second I was shocked at what I saw. There was this dorsal fin out of
the water and three feet behind that a tail!!!! That means there was about
three more feet to the head of the beast. This really got my attention and
started my quest to fair hook and land a Grass Carp.
Each year I go out at least twice to carp fish and the grass
carp has been the unicorn that has evaded me. Now the ponds in which I fish
they are very few in number but they are giants. I try standard American carp
fishing for them bread, corn, dough baits, and cherry tomatoes. In all my trips I have only fair hooked two
grass carp until now and lost both. It seems my best chance at success is when
they can be spotted and stalked. They also have to be feeding. One of these
days I will to learn to catch them without seeing them. If anyone across the
pond could point me in the right direction that would be great.
On this day it had just rained and I was looking for common
carp by pipes feeding off the fresh food being delivered via the rain run-off.
I did not see any movement. I was about to leave when a saw a huge tail pop up
out of the water!! I quickly took some bread and threw a few pieces to chum and
see if it would react. It quickly sucked down two large pieces. With my hands
shaking uncontrollably I could hardly form a bread ball. I set the bait one foot down
under a Thill float. I was using a bass pro 8-foot float and fly rod and a
Shimano reel. The first cast the float went down quickly and I have a big swing
and a miss. Man I missed another one I thought to myself. Even shakier I baited
again. This time when it slowly started to swim away I nailed it!!! The next
couple of minutes were shear terror and I watch my reel scream and line leaving
the spool.
At about the five-minute mark I realize that I have no net,
camera, and I am fishing off a 3-foot ledge!!! I franticly call my wife with
one hand while fighting the white whale with the other. JUST DON’T LOOSE IT
JUST DON’T LOOSE IT was playing over and over again in my brain. After about
another 5 minutes my wonderful wife comes running with a net. The fish is soooo
big I actually have to get in the water to land the behemoth.
YES!!! I have finally landed my first grass carp. I could
not be happier. I conservative guess would be that it was 40+ inches and well
over 20 pounds!! What a fantastic moment in my fishing career. Now of course
since I have a bad case of fishing pox I am researching how to increase my
numbers landed per year. It was awesome, my legs shook when it was all over and
I had to catch my breath. What a great memory this will be.
