Pond Giant

[top_dollar]

        Not a target species unfortunately, but I wanted to share this anyway....I was tossing around a jerkbait at a little pond near my house in st louis.  Normally catch a few 10-12 inch bass, today i got quite the surprise when i snagged this "bighead?" carp in the tail.  He would have spooled me, if it weren't for the pond being so small that it ran out of room and had to turn around.  It wore itself out after a few good runs.  What a battle!!  Im sure it was the biggest fish ive ever caught, my prior biggest was a 28# striper i caught out of beaver, and this was quite a bit bigger.  I have really no idea how to guesstimate the size of this fish, because ive never caught anything that really compares, but it was enormous!  I would guess it was 4 feet long? I tried to use the rod as a reference, but it didnt work.  You can see the 5 inch jerkbait on its tail. 

[top_dollar]

Also, it swam off seemingly alright, although a bit worn out.  I was able to get my jerkbait back as well, although not without avoiding a giant tail splash getting me all wet.

[snagged in outlet 3]

How did it get in there?  Is there an outflow that connects to a bigger river?

[top_dollar]

Thats a good question.  No river connection, its pretty isolated.   

[MoCarp]

Baby Asian carp look like shad

bait bucket dump my guess

 

[Flysmallie]

Well at least it made things interesting. I don't think I could have let it back in there though. 

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

Well at least it made things interesting. I don't think I could have let it back in there though. 

I agree that it would have been hard to release that fish. Likely would have beached that fish or used it as fertilizer. 

[MOsmallies]

I bet that was fun and a big surprise!

I agree with the others though that I don’t think I would’ve released it. I guess it’s not too bad if the body of water can’t connect to a local river system. Anytime I catch/snag one of those I cut their gills and let them go for the turtles to enjoy.

Never seen one that orangeish/yellow

[top_dollar]

Sorry ethics police, I wasn't about to touch that God forsaken creature much less drag it onto shore.  It was at carondalet park...you guys can go fish it out, kill it on the bank, and leave it to rot at a public park for a bunch of people to see.  Not really my objective though for that evening of fishing. 

[Flysmallie]

9 minutes ago, top_dollar said:

Sorry ethics police, I wasn't about to touch that God forsaken creature much less drag it onto shore.

I don’t care about the ethics of it or where it ends up. I was more concerned about the other fish that have to live with that beast.