Memories Of My Very First Carp Capture

by

Kc Langdon

I’d like to share a story about my very first first carp capture. The fish that started me off on this fantastic journey of carp angling... Please do bear in mind that this was set a few years back and it was my 1st carp so the carp care wasn’t to my present day standard.

I remember not having a car that day for various reasons so I had messaged a friend to drop me off at a small local pond that I had seen two carp swimming around for several years in a row. I had noticed these carp while stalking bass at a young age with friends from school. I’d never targeted the carp but always caught a few bass and enjoyed seeing carp dart off or lazily swim around or even just sulking in one spot all day. 

The spot I had in mind is where I’d seen them in the edge many times before and it was close to the only deeper depression in the whole pond, so I thought I’d start there.

On arriving at the pond, I had planned on walking around it a few times until I’d seen at least one of these carp visibly showing but just as I dropped most of my gear to start my search, I noticed a carp right below the surface in some shallows. It was in the shade of an overhanging tree, my heart starting pounding lol…

I packed on some bait and excitedly threw a rig about 3 ft beyond the carp. This obviously spooked the carp and I was left to throw one more rig in the deeper water in hopes that there might be one in that area willing to eat. I scattered a few handfuls of bait around the hook baits in hopes to keep them interested if they began to feed. Not that I had much if any experience with carp at that time but I remember feeling confident that the hook baits were around a nice noticeable amount of pack bait.

I did feel a bit of pressure because I only had a few hours to fish before being picked up but to be honest, I didn’t count on seeing a fish in my hands that day. The weather soon changed from a bright, mild day to a gusty storm cells with extreme winds and rain passing through . I huddled underneath my small brolly and hoped for the best…

A friend of mine had noticed me hiding on the bank and came over to hang out for a bit. I was thankful to see someone I knew and as we sat there I explained what I was doing and why I was there. He hadn’t ever realized that they were any fish in these small waters let alone a big fish like carp. The afternoon passed quickly and as we were sharing some more jokes and stories, a massive wind gust hit the Brolly, bent it backwards and snapped all of the supporting arms totally exposing us to the elements.

Of course, the heavy rain had just started and it soaked us to the bone in no time as we ran for cover to his jeep. A few minutes later Morgan showed up to pick me up at the time she said. I couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed and I wasn’t ready... When my buddy with the jeep left, I went back to my rods to retrieve the rest of my gear.

In the earlier brolly busting storm panic, I’d left one of my two rods out and when I went to reel it in, I noticed the spool was a bit lower than when I had cast earlier. I began to reel in the line thinking I had missed my one opportunity. The line was curled in a large C shape around the edge of the pond and as my line tightened out, to my complete surprise, there was still a fish connected!

I was in disbelief… Because I’d never caught or even hooked a carp before the power of this fish was just shocking! I immediately began yelling for Morgan to come see what was going on…

The rain kept pouring on me and Morgan didn’t seem to be aware of me calling her name. I didn’t have my net with me yet, so I was fearful that this Carp might come off after a long battle. The first few good looks I had at this fish put me into it state of fishing shock! My legs got wobbly! lol…

Morgan eventually came over after I used my cell phone to call her to help me land it. I tried very hard to get in front of the fish in the water and grab it while Morgan held the rod. Eventually it turned and came back towards the bank a bit more where I was able to scoop it underneath the belly and gently carry it onto the grass.

With this being such a struggling process I realized right then and there that if I were to fish for the species consistently or ever again I would need a larger net, a safe landing mat, and bucket of water to keep this fish as happy and healthy as possible ready to be returned to the water.

I safely and quickly removed the hair rig from the carp’s mouth, it was perfectly hooked and was the only reason that the Carp had been able to stay on the rig before I got to it.

Morgan helped photograph the fish and I on the bank and I brought the fish back down to the water. Only having a small backpack and a bass scale at the time, I was not able to weigh this wonderful fish and realized that I would also need a weigh sling, proper scale, and weigh-pole or tripod to get a real accurate weight of these great specimens.

I soon had the carp resting in the water and I waited for her tail to begin kicking. It took longer than I had hoped… that wait was stressful for me as I thought maybe I had worn the old carp out. Thankfully after a minute or so, as you can see in the video below, the tail began to kick and the fish supported its self upright and waddled back into the murky water.

As you can hear at the end of the vid, at the time, being naive and thinking I had one of the biggest carp ever, I thought it was over 30lbs. I realized now that it was probably around 20 lbs. Still a great fish, especially for a first carp.

I shared the story with Jonny, my younger brother who had been showing me carp pictures from local anglers that had been finding and tempting these big fish.

The next day he had planned on picking me up and going to the pond to check on another Carp we knew was still in there. To be honest, I also wanted to make sure the one I caught the day before had not been washed up or anything bad.

Jonny had a bad leg at the time so we thought the small venue with it’s limited walk from the car was best on an injured day. When we got there we noticed my carp from the day before was hiding in one of its usual spots, very healthy and happy.

It’s buddy, the 2nd carp was also visible just below the surface of the water and I noticed that my baited area from yesterday had been picked clean and I put one rig right over where I had put the most bait the prior day. While waiting I decided to bass fish the edges with structure trying to stay away from spooking our lines. I was about 30 or 40 ft away and had got 2 small bass when I heard Jonny start yelling “it’s going! It’s going off! It’s going!” I immediately yelled back “ WELL GET IT! Don’t wait for me!”

The carp instantly started to work the rod and reel and Jonny was in utter awe, he asked if I wanted it back and I said “No, I want you to catch one now so you know what it was like for me yesterday.

He played his fish as it worked him good taking line and doing what it wanted trying to go from one snag to the others he was able to turn the fish and not have it bank him several yards away. After a few minutes, the carp started to tire and was safely brought into a net I had gotten in the mail that morning.

He was so excited and so much Adrenalin was pumping, his leg no longer hurt… Jonny was soaked from fighting the fish knee deep in the water to keep from going around snags on the walls. 

A beautiful 16lb common was in his hands and he had his first carp he will never forget nor will I…

Since then we have both pushed each other to get proper carp care equipment and practice fish safety will all species with the utmost respect to keeping these in perfect shape and where they are supposed to be, in the water.

Seeing the smiles on another person’s face can be even more happy and rewarding than working so hard for yourself.

We absolutely love the sport and totally respect this awesome species!!

Here are a few more photos of my early captures and please visit my Instagram page @kc.bigfish to see my more recent my Massachusetts fish….

Thank you for taking the the time to read my memories of my first steps into the carp angling universe that has quickly become a serious obsession & passion. I hope to be able to write another blog in the near future…

Tight Lines & Best Wishes,

Kc