Surprise Bass while carp fishing

[gman]

Hope all is well. I am new to this forum but have frequented many others in the past primarily in the offshore fishing sections. This summer I rekindled freshwater fishing with my 7 year old son Tyler and we had quite a summer together. I haven't fished freshwater in decades but we had a blast.

Yesterday we went to a local park in Staten Island that holds a lot of carp. I started my routine that works when carp fishing or cat fishing for Tyler. I get the carp rods out baited. Then i give him quantum xlite rod for bluegills or bass depending on where we are to pass the time until we hook up. He is start to finish all him, zero help.

Well ...

Last night, Tyler was having a blast catching some bluegills, then some really massive shiners on these Gulp fake maggots. He is reeling in one then I heard a huge splash and his reel screaming. Fish went under the carp rods and along this rock ledge we were standing on when i saw it was a massive bass. I jumped down to a rock that was out of the water and was able to net it after it just missed a downed branch in the water. That little tiny bluegill hook somehow stayed connected to it's lower jaw. I couldn't believe the size of the bass for downtown Staten Island. On the scale it fluctuated between 6.1 and 6.2 pounds. I'm not a bass guy but this was a pretty big bass. Took a couple pictures and watched it swim away.

Five minutes later the carp rod went off and he was able to land a nice carp. Headed home all smiles. I plan on posting a bunch of our trips as we had a really fun summer together.