Carp Fishing in Central Park: Fishing Life during COVID-19 Pandemic

by Jake Jellison

I got the call on April 2nd, 2020 that I was being deployed to New York City in response to the covid-19 pandemic. I work as a Nurse Practitioner and will be working in the community hospital. I had 72 hours to get my things together and report to Fort Dix, NJ for in-processing. This was a stressful time for me, my family, and our country. I got my sea bag together and brought some non-military attire which included my American Carp Society membership t-shirt. In addition, I brought some fishing gear in case I would have the chance to fish. It ended up paying off.

My hotel was in Manhattan and Central Park was about a 35-minute walk away. I have only been there one time in my life and have always been curious about the fishing. I did a little research and learned there is a decent population size of carp. Central Park has several ponds, including a place called “The Lake” which is where I went for my sessions. My first session came when I was about 1 month into my deployment. My teammates from Linear Bait mailed me some additional gear and bait which helped me a lot. It took me about 30 minutes to find an open area from the bank. The access was a little tight, but I felt optimistic about my luck since there was no other recreational water activity going on, which is rare for Central Park.

I went with my go to tactics of using the bolt rig with method feeder. Using tiger nuts, pop-up corn, and boilies were my hook baits of choice. I had 2 rods with me but that was all I needed. It was about 20 minutes into my session when I hooked into my first Central Park carp. It was small but I was happy to land this one. It fell victim to a Linear Bait juicy pear tiger nut that was tipped with an Enterprise Tackle pop-up corn.

Towards the end of my session when I was thinking about packing up, I had a run on my other rod. This was on the cc moore ns1 pop-up boilie. The fight was good and could feel this was a much bigger fish. I was surprised to learn that it was a mirror carp on the end of my line. Central Park guests were in the background and were amazed with the fish on the end my line. I had one of my fans net the fish for me. I was super stoked to land this linear mirror carp since it was my first linear. I ended my session after this catch and left on a good note.

I was happy with how my first session went. I needed something good to ponder about while I worked in the hospital with covid patients. I just knew I had to get back out there quickly and could not wait to see what else I could catch. I had three more short sessions at that spot in Central Park. Lots of carp were landed including one session where I caught more than 100 pounds of carp in a 3-hour session and that happened on my 2nd outing. I caught a total of 9 carp all going between 10-15 pounds. I kept to my usual go to tactics. Even though it was a short session, I was remarkably busy with the catches. All fish were common carp. The people at Central Park were beginning to wonder how I could catch all these so quickly.

My last session was my most memorable. I brought a friend with me. He is a Commander in the Navy Reserves and he was tasked to work the same hospital as me. He is an avid fisherman and his personal best carp at the time was roughly 5 pounds. We were going to change that! I showed him the European style of carp fishing with the pack bait, method feeder, and hair rig. He seemed interested and entertained by this technique and he quickly learned how effective this method is to catching carp. He reeled in a nice mirror carp and slammed his previous personal best.

There was no weight on this fish but estimating around 16 pounds. More spectators came around to see his carp capture. A boy and his mother came by and were immediately taken back by how big the fish was. The young man wanted to stay, and I told him if you wait about 10 minutes, there will be another fish. Roughly 5 minutes later, I get a run and I hand it off to him. The boy was excited and surprised how big the fish was. I coached him into helping him get his biggest carp.

More people came by including a lady who also wanted to catch a fish. She stuck around with us for a couple hours and she caught some nice-looking carp as well.

It was during this moment I realized that fishing was not just for my own mental well-being but for the people of New York. The residents of New York City have been on lockdown and have not been able to enjoy the things they love to do. Throughout my stay here in New York, I saw a lot of grief, sadness, hopelessness, and despair. People were not motivated to do anything. I was extremely happy to see the happy faces of the boy and lady who were able to catch these fish and forget about what is happening in the world for a short time. You can view all my carp adventures in Central Park at Top Tactic Fishing on YouTube

For myself and for others, carp fishing is more than just catching carp. It is a passion. It is a lifestyle. Fishing on my downtime in New York was the perfect outlet for me to help me cope with the work I was doing. I want to personally thank my Linear Bait teammates for sending me the perfect fishing care package. Also, thank you to American Carp Society for continuing to raise catch and release carp awareness throughout the United States.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog…. Jake