PB Carp!

I was intentionally fly-fishing for carp at a small private lake. After a couple of past unsuccessful trips, I finally got one to hit. Fought the thing for a good 15 minutes. It broke my line as I tried to land it (no net), but I still managed to drag it ashore.
A Personal Best fat 32" carp, I'm guesstimating it weighed a good 16 lbs.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...yRodCarpA1.jpg

Ain't she a beauty!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...lyRodCarpB.jpg

I was using an 8wt rod, and was very slowly swimming a Hexagenia Nymph fly.

I stuck with it for about 3 hours before catching this fish. The only other fish I caught during that time was a bass in the 13"-14" range.

Dave,

Great job on catching that Carp, they have a ton of power.

I know. I caught a 12 pounder once and it was all my 6 weight rod to do to handle it in the river (11 foot Sage XP).

Great job!!!!!

Larry :D ---sagefisher---

One thing about this fish is...I think it was just a fat, lazy pond fish. It went on several fair (albeit slow) runs...and it was certainly on the reel, plus took some more...but it didn't even make it to the backing. The 5-7 lb carp I caught on this same fly rod out of the reservoir were stronger fish, in my estimation, taking plenty of backing. Had it been a river fish, I'd have REALLY had my hands full, and it probably would have simply snapped my leader or tippett!!

The final 12 minutes of the fight were spent with the fish circling about 10' in front of me, while I repeatedly tried to get it to "land" between some rocks (to somewhat "trap" the fish), so I could then hop down and grab it. It absolutely refused to do as I wanted it to do, but I finally got it to a decent spot to attempt the landing. I'm glad I took my time. Had the fish been any fresher when I tried to grab it initially, and the line broke, it surely would have darted off....leaving at least one angler silently (hopefully) swearing on the bank.

There were a fair number of spectators (cars driving by that had stopped on the road to watch, and kids walking by that saw fit to heckle me during the fight), so I'm glad I was able to put a satisfactory finish on the tussle. :D

I liiiiiiiiiiiike it. Great job Dave.