37 Pound Grass Carp

[Goose52]

Between 12:03 and 12:14pm today I was busy interacting with this baby. 43 inches and 37 pounds. A bit skinny after a lean winter - I bet this thing will be at 45 pounds or more by mid-summer. It is the only grass carp that I've caught that hit the lure and wasn't foul hooked. The treble hook penetrated the roof of the mouth from the inside out through the upper lip. Grass carp are usually vegetarians - since this fish hit on the drop of a yo-yo retrieve, perhaps it thought the bait was some plant matter falling down through the water column.

It usually takes me longer than 11 minutes to land these things (my longest fight was 35 minutes) but since this one was hooked in the mouth, and you have the opportunity to turn it's head, it seemed easier to handle than the foul hooked fish. Still, lots of runs, especially when the fish was near the bank. At about the 9 minute mark, I had my hand behind one gill plate and was getting ready to pull it up on the bank when it got a second wind and shook off and fought for another couple minutes.

Tackle was a 7' medium power rod, PQ reel with 10lb Yo-Zuri copoly line, and a lipless crank. Note the second photo of the lipless crank with the bent hook point - wouldn't have been much longer before this would have been a lost fish...

GREAT fun!

[Daniel My Brother]

Incredible, beautiful fish. I've had 'em hit inline spinners before, but never one that big. Congrats.

[Gardnaaa]

Thats huge! awesome fish man, we have some big carp where i live, in a near by stream, i havent caught one yet, but ive been waiting for the day! congrats!

[SirSnookalot]

Nice fish...........We have them everywhere here and I've only caught 2 on artis, they are vegetarians. A grass carp is really the largest minnow species, called a White Amur, go to be 100# in China, so I've read.

[Dwight Hottle]

Goose, you are the man! Great catch. Better respool that line after the epic fight.

[Goose52]

Thanks guys - these are great fun. This is the 4th ~35-40-pound class fish that I've managed to land in the past 2 years. I hit them with the lipless crank from time to time but don't get a solid hook-up. After a couple of seconds, and some drag peeled, the hook usually pulls free and the fish is gone. I occasionally get a big honkin scale back on the lipless crank for a souvenir but no fish...

I hit another carp this morning - bump, feel the bait drag a foot or so on the fish, momentary hook-up on a scale, fin, or whatever, some drag peeled, then...gone - all in about 2-3 seconds...

Goose, you are the man! Great catch. Better respool that line after the epic fight.

Thanks Dwight - I trimmed off about 5 feet of line, retied, and kept fishing. I probably should respool - I've got lots of YZ...