Hi guys! Long time lurker and first time poster. I love this site and look at it almost daily. After my experience at Melvern yesterday, I felt compelled to do something I've never done before and that's to enter a post on a forum. I've been fishing Melvern for over 30yrs. and absolutely love what kind of smallmouth fishery this lake has become. It's one of my favorite lakes to fish. A friend and I were in my boat in the Turkey Creek arm, when I hooked what I knew was not a smallmouth. After 40 minutes and a couple of sore wrists and arms later, we finally landed my catch. We weighed it on my Rapala digital scale and it topped out at 34.85 lbs! This was the largest fresh water fish I have ever caught and it was on 8 lb. test line. The lure I was using? The NED RIG! I had no idea that carp would hit a lure like that, but I guess they will. I've caught gar, drum, and catfish over the years while fishing for bass, but this is the first carp I've caught. I guess this dispels the notion that only big baits will catch big fish. We ended up catching about 25 smallmouth and 3 white bass for the day. The biggest smallie was 18", but several 13-15" fish. All in all, a fun day to be out and one I'll certainly never forget. I tried to attach a photo but it said it was too large. If I can figure out how to do it, I will send later.
