Another Round Lost to the Grass Carp; A Surprise Fish

Bobby, Ben and I decided to go back to the grass carp pond yesterday.  We spent a solid portion of the morning fishing for bass.  Bobby stuck lots of bass up to about 2 pounds on a buzz frog.  I fished the edges for the few grass carp we saw, and somehow caught a bass.  I pulled it in and realized that I had actually just caught a smallmouth.

Charles said there were smallies in the pond, but we'd never seen one.

We walked around for awhile, and I got the perfect shot at a grass carp.  I landed my hopper 5 inches from the fish's nose, and it turned away.  I thought it was spooked, but it turned and sipped my hopper!  I wasn't expecting it at all, and tried to set with the rod, but the fish was over 40 feet away, and I had too much slack in my line.

We left for lunch, then came back to the pond.  While Bobby and I presented hoppers to the grassies, Ben caught about 6 bass on plastic worms.

We kept continually laying flies in front of the grass carp, only to have bluegill take them and spook the grass carp away.  We caught dozens of bluegill as bycatch, and they were all infuriating.

Eventually, we had to leave.  We had some really good looks, but no fish.