Carpe Diem

Today might have been the best day of fishing I've had in a long time.  Charles came over to fish at 9.  We headed to the main pond to fish a little.  Charles has really nailed down his jig fishing.  We would walk along the banks, and Charles would flip his jig into the path of any fish that scared off the bank. He ended up with lots of bass, and a few over 4 pounds. 

Bobby slept in too long, so he brought our friend Ben at around 11.  We went to the carp pond.  Bobby set up rods and chummed corn, but to no avail.  We saw very few fish there.

Charles had the idea of leaving to check out a pond he found that was full of grass carp.  I wanted some redemption.  We got there and immediately saw grassies everywhere.  The problem is they don't appear to be doing a good job at eating the vegetation.  There is a thick grass mat covering the bank out to about 10 feet from the bank.  

We saw fish everywhere cruising.  Bobby tried throwing bread.  Charles and I threw moss flies, hoppers, nymphs, and whatever else we could scrounge up.  Nothing bit.  Charles had practice, so he had to leave at 2.  At 1:55, I saw a grassie cruising slowly about 20 feet away.  At this point I was already using my 6 weight for the finer touch I needed to cast small flies delicately so as to not spook the fish.  I fired a short cast at the fish, and out of sheer luck, it landed 8 inches in front of the fish.  I watch him slowly tilt upwards and sip my hopper.  I struck as soon as he closed his mouth.  

I yelled as soon as I felt him, then instantly regretted using a 6 weight.  He burned out 50 feet of line in mere seconds, but then let me tug him back in.  This continued for a few minutes until Charles decided to hop back into the pond to grab him.  After 10 minutes or so of back and forth with the fish, Charles was able to bear hug the fish and run to the bank with him.  After the fish hit the bank, a photo session ensued.  The fish was absolutely massive, and I'm still amazed that I got him on a 6 weight rod.  

We took lots of photos.  I really don't remember it too well because everything was such a blur.  I just knew I was holding one of the biggest fish out of freshwater I may ever hold.

Charles got out of the water and posed with my fish and I.  It took a lot of effort just to hold up such a beast for all the pictures.

Since I always regretted not being the one to get in the pond to release my koi and because it was incredibly hot, I decided to hop in and release my fish.  I ended up "falling" in more than hopping in.  I thought I'd lost the fish for a second, but it was stuck in the weeds at my feet.  Before the fish could think to swim away, Charles was back in with the scale.  Our scale put this fish at 35 pounds and 15 ounces.  Easily the biggest fish of my life by over 20 pounds.

We snapped one last picture and then everyone but me rushed to go drop Charles off at home.  I stayed with my fish for 10 more minutes to revive it and send him back into his muddy, weedy home.  What a day!