I'm not much of a carp guy. I don't usually target them per say but I do enjoy when an opportunity presents itself.
Yesterday was another fall day on a mixed bag lake. I caught a decent smallmouth and a nice rainbow. The water is way drawn down for the year so there was some very interesting structure to target. As the afternoon went on the rain started and after a long kick one way I decided to work my way back. I was getting cold.
That's when I noticed something was happening in the middle of the lake. As I worked my way over I started putting together what I was seeing.
Large pods of carp were feeding and exposing themselves in 80 feet of water. Mixed with little fish feeding, it was a party going on! All I had was my type 5 and type 7. Not ideal.
I tried a few casts with my big jig craw and instantly spooked two different pods. Ok they didn't like that. I tied on a small olive jig. Size 10 with a 3.5 mm shiney green bead.
My theory was I could cast to fish and let it sink carefully watching my line since I couldn't see the strike.
After awhile I was about to give up hope and continue my kick back when my line went tight.
It was like hooking a submarine. It came in, after about 5 minutes and just sort of looked at me.
Then it got mad. It did this crazy sturgeon style jump and went deep. If anyone was watching from shore I probably looked and sounded hysterical.
Try as I could and I'm not delicate with fish I struggled to get this thing in. FInally I just decided to keep kicking towards the launch. When I got shallow after 20 minutes it became time to land this beast. In the pouring rain I set my phone up. Bear hugged this goofy, lovely thing and lifted what I think conservatively was a 25 pound fish.
My little size 10 barbless jig jook was perfecly in the lip. It had chomped it.
I was no longer cold. I see why you guys enjoy these things
Billy
Yesterday was another fall day on a mixed bag lake. I caught a decent smallmouth and a nice rainbow. The water is way drawn down for the year so there was some very interesting structure to target. As the afternoon went on the rain started and after a long kick one way I decided to work my way back. I was getting cold.
That's when I noticed something was happening in the middle of the lake. As I worked my way over I started putting together what I was seeing.
Large pods of carp were feeding and exposing themselves in 80 feet of water. Mixed with little fish feeding, it was a party going on! All I had was my type 5 and type 7. Not ideal.
I tried a few casts with my big jig craw and instantly spooked two different pods. Ok they didn't like that. I tied on a small olive jig. Size 10 with a 3.5 mm shiney green bead.
My theory was I could cast to fish and let it sink carefully watching my line since I couldn't see the strike.
After awhile I was about to give up hope and continue my kick back when my line went tight.
It was like hooking a submarine. It came in, after about 5 minutes and just sort of looked at me.
Then it got mad. It did this crazy sturgeon style jump and went deep. If anyone was watching from shore I probably looked and sounded hysterical.
Try as I could and I'm not delicate with fish I struggled to get this thing in. FInally I just decided to keep kicking towards the launch. When I got shallow after 20 minutes it became time to land this beast. In the pouring rain I set my phone up. Bear hugged this goofy, lovely thing and lifted what I think conservatively was a 25 pound fish.
My little size 10 barbless jig jook was perfecly in the lip. It had chomped it.
I was no longer cold. I see why you guys enjoy these things
Billy
