So it wasn't a bass, but it was a great fight.
I headed down to my parents' lake on Sunday with a buddy. We caught about 25 fish in total - mostly bluegill and crappie (one of which was probably close to citation size), but the big excitement of the day was the carp I hooked.
We were fishing from a small pedalboat, and I tossed a small Blue Fox inline spinnerbait out only to see it begin a long slow pull to the right. I knew it wasn't a bass because the strike was too light. In fact, I didn't really feel a strike at all, the line just started moving off to the right. At first I figured I hooked into a big catfish, but then the fish came close enough to the surface that I could see the big scales on it's side and I knew it was one of the giant carp in the lake. I was really surprised because I've never known these carp to go for lures.
I've accidentally hooked into one before a couple years ago, but I was fishing an ultralight spinning setup with 4 pound test and it quickly snapped my line. This time I had a 6 1/2 foot light rod with braided line on it, so I knew I could hang in there for the duration.
The fish actually pulled our small boat around and it took me over 10 minutes to tire him out enough that I could get him close to the boat. I finally managed to grab him, but my fingers slipped, the hooks on the inline spinner bent straight, and I watched my fish disappear into the murky water.
Definitely the biggest fish I've ever caught in that lake. I estimate him to be over 3.5 feet long and around 35-40 pounds. My buddy got a shot of him in the water with his cell phone, so hopefully he'll send it to me and I can post the proof of my fish story.
The other amazing thing about the day was how quickly the bite turned on when it began to rain. We had three squalls blow through while we were out and with each one, it was like a lightswitch turned on and we both started getting fish on almost every cast. In between the rain squalls, we got very little action.
Pic:
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...g?t=1209474172
