Monster Carp in the River beat me

[oates]

Hi all,

 

Was in the Grand last week, wading as usual. So I never landed anything bigger than 2lb in my brief fishing career! So suddenly, something slams my lure, I try to set the hook, BINGO. All I hear is line whistling out of my reel, like I landed Jaws, and it just keeps going and going, so I thought I need to adjust the tension as the fish just ate the lure and said bye, So I do that and I feel the massive weight on the rod, I needed two hands on the rod (using 6lb test line, after all, its the river and I'm looking for walleye), as I adjust the tension, it shows strain, line still trickling out but it feels like it will snap and the fish will not swim towards me, so now 5 mins passed, so I say, what the heck, and start reeling in and it is too strong, as I reel in, it pulls out line, so I'm confused, what to do? so I tighten up the tension and just go for it and it keeps pulling away and I slowly get it closer and maybe 15ft away I see this massive carp, must have been 10LB, The rod is bent up, I have two hands on the rod and my arms are hurting, been 15 mins now, so I get confused as to what to do, I eventually try to grab the line and drag it towards me, once it is about 3 ft in front of me, the line snapped and he left with the lure.

 

Wild, thing is what do you do in that situation? is there a way to bring him in? when you have a way bigger fish than your line should handle, I guess there is no sure way to reel em in.

 

Comments?

[NAW]

10Lb is small for a carp.

 

Imagine what a 40lb'er would have done to your tension.

 

There's not much you can do with big fish, and light line, other then keep holdin on, and let them tire out.

 

If your going to try to hand bomb the line, then you have to let some line out as the fish pulls. If you just hang onto the line, and don't release some line as the fish pulls, then you're gunna snap it for sure.

 

Personally, I wouldn't be hand bombing 6lb line if there's a big fish on the other end. Let the equipment do the work for you.

[4thgen]

In order to land large fish on light line, you need to use your drag. Your drag acts as a brake while your line is being pulled out. You need to keep your drag just tight enough so that the line doesn't break, thereby putting maximum pressure on the fish. The fish will eventually do one of two things depending on its size --

1) it will tire and you will be able to land it

2) you will get spooled (it will take all of your line)

I have landed only a handful of carp on line heavier than 6lb test -- they are usually pretty picky about what they eat and spook easily, especially when sight fishing for them.

Grabbing your line with your hands is the worst thing that you can do-- it takes away all the shock absorption of your fishing rod.

 

Also, carp rarely hit lures so chances are you had it foul hooked. This would have made it much more difficult to land.

 

This 38" carp was landed in about 10 minutes on 4lb line, just to give you an idea of what can be done with a bit of patience.

[purekgw]

biggest carp i pulled out the grand was just over 30 was a very good fight

[EC1]

I wont say that carp barely hit lures. I've had them hit rapalas a number of times this year already. But usually the ones that hit the rapalas are the biggest, fattest and hardest to land. That is why I have yet to have landed a carp this year especially when the fish is around 10 feet below my feet every time.

[fishing]

Nice exercise. When I have a big carp on, I alway drag it slowly towards shoreline or island with the rod. Landed a few in this way. Good luck.

[Victor]

With light tackle, all you can do is attempt to tire her out and hope that it won't spool you in that process.

 

Avoid tightening the drag much during the fight, you will often set it too tight and end up snapping the line. Also, remember to use the rod to its fullest to ease off some of the tension.

 

When you bring them close to shore, they usually will gives you their best shot to run away so just expect that they won't come in calmly even if they're just 5-10ft away from shore, and if you've come this far, be patient and continue to fight it, the end is near .

[Governator]

I've never fished for carp, but once I learned how to properly set my drag I lost a lot less fish. I always set mine to 30% of the lb of the line. So if my line is 20lb my drag would release at 6. I just tie my analog scale to the line and have my partner pull until we get the line releasing at the right number (I'm sure there are much easier methods lol). I also don't like to adjust mine on the water once it's set.

[EC1]

I happen to always lose mine while netting them. They are dead tired, and my netting skills are far from decent..They swim for their lives when they see the net, and then they get off, assuming that their lips are no longer in tact

[Jonny]

Just about any good-sized fish is good for one more "spooked" run when you get them close. You have to be prepared to let them take that extra run and NOT interfere with it by panicking and grabbing the line, or trying to net tail-first, or any one of a number of mistakes. If you do, it's almost always bye-bye fish!

[Greencoachdog]

NEVER grab the line!!!

 

Grab the fish instead!

 

The only way to land a big fish on light line is to wait until they're completely tired out, they will roll over on their side and wave their pectoral fin in the "I surrender" pose... don't touch the line, grab/net the fish!!!

 

The rod and reel are your leverage on the fish!

 

It really tickles me with some of the people I fish with, as soon as a fish starts pulling drag they start hollering "he's getting away, he's getting away"!!! If a fish is pulling drag and you have enough line on the spool, he isn't going anywhere!!!

 

All the "big'uns" that "got away" are always attempted to land too early... much to their benefit!!!

[Rich]

The only way to do it on the Grand is to walk until you find a slack water spot. Grand's got pretty good current and spare the rare occasion that the carp swims upstream, your 6lb line was probably having more trouble bringing 10lbs of dead weight from a tired fish against a heavy current than fighting the actual fish. If you can somehow get into a slack water pool.. behind an island, bridge piling, or turn in the river, you'd probably bring a 10lb carp in no problem.

 

Must have been a pretty exciting fight for you though. Nothing beats carp fishing in rivers!

[Fish4Eyes]

Before I even cast out my lure, or whatever my offering is the drag is set in accordance with my line strength. Losing fish in the past due to the drag not being set right is how I got into the habit of doing this. An exception would be if your using real heavy line, where you risk ripping the fishes mouth apart. Carp have a fairly soft mouth, so this is possible.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Fish4Eyes

[wolfville]

Don't grab the line when a big fish is on the other end.

 

And don't describe fighting a 10lb carp in such a vivid/exciting way, you might get more people fishing for them.

 

I too think you might have foul hooked the carp hence the hard fight, next time I land a carp I will make sure to check if I see your lure ;-)

[Marko]

If you hooked them on the side somewhere and tried to pull them out of current good luck with that one haha. Fairly big fish will take you for a ride thats for sure. But when you hook one, what you should try and do is try to turn their heads so they start comming to the shore even if they are 50 yards from you just try to turn them to the shore. Its possible on light tackle, some patience and practice is required.

OH yea and dont grab for the line, you`ll get cuts on all your fingers.