No, not carp

But, I finally caught something that broke in my 2wt

My son and I went down to the local river today around 3:30PM. We could see a lot of rock bass and tons of little chubs. I was fly fishing a wooly bugger, and my son was using a bugger with his spinning gear with a few split shots. This always produces a bunch of rockies. Well today, it produces nothing. Large and smallmouth aren't in season yet, so we were staying clear of the known spots we usually catch them at.

Well my son was retrieving this bugger slowly he screams "Whoa!" and his rod was bent in half! So I shook my head and grinned. I thought he had a carp or a cat on it. Turns out it was the largest smallie I've ever seen, personally. Was about 16-18". I took a pic before we released it. But that camera I think took a dunk last year. So I'm hoping it turns out.

So anyways, same pool, a little further down (some big boulders), I continue to retrieve my bugger, and then my son started talking about something and pointed to his reel. So, I leave my line where it's at and start checking out his reel. Then my line pulled, and so did I. So I pulled in a good sized smallie, about 12-14". Was real nice on the 2wt! So today turned out well. Funny thing is this. We target bass when in season, and we catch mostly panfish. So, I build a 2wt, and target panfish. ...and catch bass.

Took photos of both fish, so I'll post them if they turn out.

Still can't fool the carp though. . . . . . .

One last thing, the big smallie had a small chunk of meat missing from his tail. About a square 1.5". Kind of looks like a bite, but from what? There's pike in there, but nothing huge that I've seen. Today we seen a few that were about 13-15". I can't imagine a pike trying to eat something as large as it's self.

Shane