The Monster...

[Al Agnew]

Edit:  This is an old post from 2011 which I came across while looking for another couple old posts I remember making.  I added a post to the end of this thread...suffice it here to say that this fish is still alive and swimming in my pond!

 

After supper this evening, I decided to take my lightest intact fly rod out to the pond beside the house to catch some small bass and bluegill to replenish my fish supply in the freezer. There are a lot of bass in the pond, probably too many, so I like to keep a couple dozen 10-12 inchers throughout the year, along with a bunch of bluegill. The bluegill are fairly big, 9-10 inches. The pond is somewhere between a half-acre and three-fourths of an acre in size, and 7-8 feet deep at the deepest.

The cicadas were on the water regularly and getting eaten just as regularly, but I decided to see if they'd take an ordinary white popping bug with black feathers. They did. Mary came out and caught five from one corner where the bluegill bed, but then decided it was too hot and headed for the house. I took a couple more from there, then worked my way around the pond, picking up a few bass. There is a shallow point where the bluegill also bed, and when I got to it I caught a couple more. I could see something moving just below the surface a little farther out on the point, and figuring it was a bass cruising for cicadas, I made a bit longer cast to reach it. The bug landed and the water bulged and moved a bit a couple feet away. Aha, I thought, the fish is moving toward the bug...

There was just a tiny "something" that happened at the bug, and it disappeared.

I set the hook, and instantly the water bulged in a boil the size of a bathtub. A bass? I knew there were a few bass in the pond that would go 6 pounds or better. The fish moved off the point toward deeper water, shaking its head. I could feel each shake...and they were really BIG shakes. Not quivers or jiggles or jerks, but hard, sharp, huge surges. This wasn't a bass, or if it was it was a record.

And then it dawned on me. At least ten years ago, I had put three small grass carp in the pond to control algae. I never saw more than two of them after that, but the two got bigger and bigger. They were shy and wary and really the only way I ever got any kind of look at them was if I climbed up on an observation deck we have on the roof of the house and watched carefully. I've plotted for years how to catch them, because I knew they were getting pretty big. The last couple years I've only seen one at a time, and I suspect that one is all that is left.

I had hooked that grass carp!

It took a good 45 minutes to land it on a 6 weight fly rod, which begs the question of whether I could have handled it at all on the 4 weight I usually use to catch bluegill. It ran all over the pond. I mainly held on, giving it line whenever it moved, slowly pulling it back toward me when it rested. A couple runs were truly epic, halfway across the pond in a second or two, but mostly it just swam around shaking its head and when I'd get it fairly close it would lunge out to the middle again. I really wanted to land it just to really see how big it was. It was hot, and I was truly getting tired. I wanted Mary to see this beast. I wanted a photo of it.

Finally I got it coming toward me for about the umpteenth time, and slid its head up onto the bank by backing up a few feet and pulling as hard as I dared. Then I ran down to it and grabbed it by the gill covers with both hands and dragged it up the bank. I left it a few feet from the water while I ran to the house to get Mary and a camera. She was flabbergasted to see this scaly monster. Here it is in all its glory:

I decided to release it, and it took several minutes of moving it back and forth in the water to revive it enough for it to slowly swim away. I hope the old cow makes it.

It was getting dark and I suddenly realized I had a bunch of fish to clean. I looked down at the bank where I'd left my rope stringer full of fish, holding it down with my foot while I fished...I'd totally forgotten about it, and the fish had swum off with my stringer long ago, I guess.

[podum]

rookie mistake on the stringer. awesome story on the grass carp.

[FishinCricket]

You're like a child, Al.. lol

Congrats on the catch, I think it's the best story you've told us all month!

[laker67]

Wow. That's quite a fish Al. Thanks for sharing.

[stone9-7=2]

Nice fish.....

[Quillback]

Awesome! That thing looks like it could go 30 lbs.

[drew03cmc]

Al, that looks fun!

[Stragler]

Al I fish for Carp with a 5 wt. in Colo. quit a few Golf Course ponds on the west slope. They are great sport on the fly rod. Never had one on as big as your fish most go 5 to 7 lbs, but what a great fight they put up...

[Bman]

Nice catch on the long rod, my arm would have been fried after one like that. Hmmm methinks a good way to condition my arm for the Fall Brown run at Taney!

[Bman]

Hey Al,

I have seen some of your posts for your various canoe setups. I have searched for your posts, but I am unable to find them. Could you send a link or two?

A friend of mine mentioned to me that he was wanting to get two kayaks for him and his son to float & fish our local waters.

I would be more inclined to suggest your canoe set ups. Alas, I don't know where to get them, or what to get.