1st Philly Tarpon of the Year! - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

jmurr711 · #1 04-19-2014, 07:36 PM

after tough day on the river yesterday i debated going back after seeing my buddy got a 34incher striped catfish yesterday but i said nah lets go for carp. got to the lake threw some corn out & had a nice fish rooting in the shallows within 5 minutes but no bites. casted a worm around on the ultralight & nothing dead zone. suddenly as i reeled in the worm i saw a long thin flash that bit my hook off & it looked like a walleye or a pickerell to me, but i never caught 1 in this place before but had hard there was bowfin in there which have similar frames. so i put on a bigger hook with a new worm & caught te culprit a nice 18inch slime dart. never saw 1 in there before but was cool to see i hadn't caught a pickerel in ages but grew up catching em in the pines i felt like an 8 year old again. I couldnt' get a good pic as the critter was slithering all over & i wanted to get him back in the water asap as i know they lose there slime quick.

After that didn't have much of anything for a bit & then BAAAAAAMMM! my heavy rod goes off & 20lb test is flying off i am getting spooled!beast finally slowed down & the fight was on took over 20 minutes to land the beast but i got em! def the biggest carp i have caught since high school, pics do not do him justice, i had to use 2 hands to lift him! i am guessing 15-20lbs. fish hit corn.
after that i caught a crappie & a chunky largemouth. Water was colder today than last weekend.not sure if i should stick to this spot or not bottoms so weedy it hass to be tough for the carp to see the bait but thenagain carp root in the weeds for food so maybe i am overthinking thi? I dunno