Unofficial World Record Grass Carp

   My little brother Ewing out fished me today...I was trying to go for some big grass carp with a fly rod, but he proved that sometimes you just have to use spinning gear. He landed 3 "small" 25-28" grass carp in Hollymead Lake, and I only landed one. We then went over to some of the smaller lakes with older, larger grassies. I could not get the fish to take flies, they got spooked from the fly line hitting the water! He used a light action spinning rod, with a Shimano Sahara 1500 spooled with 4lb BPS Excel mono. For bait, he had some "in the shell" cicada nymphs, we collected a bunch when they emerged at night, and froze them in bags of 2 dozen. The "rate of fall" that they have is absolutely perfect for grass carp, and they also like the flavor of them considering some of them have swallowed the hook! He managed to hook a behemoth, and after a surprisingly short 10 minute battle, I was able to beach the fish in some shallow water so we could remove the hook and take pictures. The first thing he asked me when we landed it was "is it a world record?" (I had told him the record was definitely in the lake) and the measurements proved that it was. The official all tackle length record is 92cm (36.5") and he landed a 98cm (38.5") fish. It will never be an official record though, because we don't have the "official IGFA measuring device" that all fish must be photographed on for a record. Congrats to Ewing for landing such an awesome fish!

 

I think it's safe to say that the shirt he is wearing won't be worn again!

                                                                           RAWR

                                                                       What a beast...