I caught this 41.5" (calculated wt. 35.5 lbs) Grass Carp last night with a 5 wt fly rod with 8 lb tippet. It hit a light gray Rick Z’s Boa Yarn Leech tied on a #8 dry fly hook.
At the hookset, it was like 3 bombs exploded in the water as it did some quick thrashes and tail slaps, then it took off like a missile and porpoised out of the water twice as it headed for the middle of the pond.
After all that, it became much more docile, and allowed me to walk it 70 yards down the shoreline to get to a spot where I hoped I had a chance of landing it. After 1/2 dozen or more attempts, I DID land it. I was SO EXCITED!!!
The top picture is horrible. I propped my iPhone up on a park bench, and had to use the “selfie” camera which doesn’t use a flash and has lower resolution than the regular camera. I set the timer for 10 seconds, snapped the one picture, and returned the fish to the water.
wow!!! that is one big carp
Nice fish and nice job landing it.
Rick
Rick…would this be the biggest fish caught (so far) on a Boa Yarn Leech?
As far as I know, YES.
Rick
About 4 years ago a member posted a photo of a steel head caught in Oregon and taken on a White Boa with a red boa tail.
It looked to be a 20 pound fish
Rick should be awarded for bushing the boa onto us.
Tim
Great picture!
WOW! That thing is a BEAST!
I agree, Tim! They simply catch fish! Boa Yarn Leeches were practically all I used for several years, and I caught practically every thing on them… I will start using them more once again, especially every time I see a Grass Carp!
The gray version…also caught my largest Channel Catfish ever… a 31-incher.
Them are some enormous fish!
Could you post a picture or a link to one of the boa yarn leech fly?
Thanks
Really nice fish!
Dave, I like the first picture, it looks like a painting. Great fish! I’ll bet that got the adrenaline going!
Thanks! The original photo was little more than a dark silhouette. So I tried to lighten/brighten it, which brings out even more of the bad stuff, turns out.
Yeah…I was on an adrenaline high for a good 24 hours after that one. Its my new PB fish on a fly rod (and possibly an all-tackle PB even), one that will be very tough to beat in freshwater.
Great job landing such a huge fish on light tackle