That’s what we said when we got a look at this beast my best friend had hooked. She had rigged up a basic fishfinder rig baited with shrimp when she got the hit. We were fishing a flat in about 24 feet of water right beside the channel dropoff. The fish pulled hard, but not like a catfish. This thing felt like something from salt water, so we thought we had hooked a large striped bass, also known as a rockfish. But as she worked the fish closer to the surface, we could see the large scales and general shape, and we knew we had a huge carp on the line.
Our net is 30 inches across, but this fish was a lot longer than our net is wide, close to four feet in length. I’ve never seen a carp that big in the wild, and this fish WAS wild! Every time she got the fish to the surface, it ran off again, peeling line from her reel. She worked hard to gain line only to watch the fish take it back.
After about 30 minutes, we thought the fish was worn out, so I stood on the swim platform and tried to get the net under the carp. The fish was just too large to lift from underneath. I grabbed the leader with one hand and swept the net under the fish’s tail just as it thrashed powerfully and…out came the circle hook.
And the fish was gone. I was left soaking wet, holding the leader and an empty net. I turned to my son who was standing behind us with the camera. “Did you get a good shot?” I asked.
“I was waiting for you to get it out of the water first,” he replied.
So, no pictures. I resisted the impulse to pitch him into the water after the fish. Meanwhile BF decided to never forgive me for losing her trophy fish. To add insult to injury, in the course of the battle, my cell phone clip-on holder apparently came off and sent my phone to Davy Jones’ locker.
Once again, I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But, fishing is like that. The fights you lose are at least as memorable as those you win.
Tight lines and strong knots!
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