Never Give Up On Carp

9 1/2 lbs of carp goodness. All on my 4wt.

My cousin told me his favorite fish to catch was a pike because they fight so hard. I responded, "Yes, pike fight like a bulldog but carp fight like a train with no brakes. They don't stop even when they're tired." I then explained to him that I was actually quite discouraged about carp fishing as I wasn't hooking into any as they were so spooked. I then glanced up at Facebook and noticed a post from Big Bass Dreams. I don't remember liking the page but they posted a blog post entitled"Big Bass Dreams Turned Big Bass Reality." It was kind of catchy so I decided to read it. What I found was quite inspiring....

You see, Big Bass Dreams' writer, Oliver Ngy, was in a slump as he called it. He said he was frustrated because he wasn't catching the big bass out there. I was in the same boat and I quit carp fishing as I couldn't hook into a single carp and was getting discouraged and angry. When I read his post, he said that he didn't have any confidence in himself. I took that in my life as I needed to have confidence that I was going to catch a carp and land it! Well, I will tell you right now that I've never hooked up much less landed so many carp in my life. I HOOKED 24 carp. Not even kidding. I imagine they were the same carp but I still hooked them. I landed 6. This is not including the other menagerie of fish included in the mix like rock bass, smallmouth, and freshwater drum. 3 of the 6 carp I hooked and landed were just shy of 10 lbs. This may not seem like a feat but let me tell you this: I was catching all these fish on my 9' 4wt rod: the Redington Classic Trout. Oh, and I was battling severe rapids that these carp could swim AGAINST and swim perpendicular with the rapids in a straight line. I was about to be knocked over by the rapids and these carp took it like it was nothing! So, I hope you understand the feat that is at hand. Oh, and I was using a 6lb tippet as well. By the end of today, my entire leader is shot as it's been stretched hard.

Below is a short video of me fighting the first carp of the day. The funny/awful thing was that I foul hooked it. In the anus.....

For the next several hours I fished. And listened to jazz....I listened to jazz because it was the Monroe Jazz Festival. All these people were staring and cheering me on while I was catching these carp. It was a lot of fun to listen to jazz and fish. : ) Quite relaxing....

No words can describe the pain that fish felt. Imagine getting a giant pointy thing stuck in YOUR anus and being dragged around in rushing water! 

Below is a video of me catching, weighing, and releasing a decent carp. It was tough to control it as I was on my 4wt but  nevertheless, it was a blast.

After this video was taken, my GoPro died and I didn't have an extra battery that was charged. I swear I need to invest in another battery and have 3 batteries total as recording for every trip gets ridiculous as I don't have enough juice to record everything. Soon.

May not seem  like much but this picture makes me so happy.

At the end of the day, I had a number of carp among some other fish brought to my net, as I mentioned, including my first sheepshead on the fly, which was really exciting! Those who were at the jazz festival were watching me as I was bringing the carp to the net. They were all cheering me on and congratulating me as they saw me literally running down the river with  my fly rod in my hand. Looking back at it, I really shouldn't run down the river again....Too dangerous.... Oh well. I'll keep doing it until I break something...