5/6/16 The Mystery Fish and White Bass Wow!

I had a few hours after work on Friday to do some fishing. Where to go though? Muskies were on my mind but I really didn't have enough time to make a go of it. Instead I decided that a little Crappie and White Bass fishing sounded good. So I grabbed my ultralight rods and headed for one of the nearby reservoirs. Upon arriving I decided to start off jigging a couple downed trees for crappies. On about my third cast I threw out my bobber and jig. The float set up and immediately went down. Sweet! I set the hook and something was wrong. The fish didn't move one bit on my hook set. Then it was peeling drag and completely out of control! I tightened my drag a bit and steered the fish around several laydowns. After a few minutes I managed to get the fish to open water. The tug of war continued without one side budging either way. What is it? A Flathead? A Carp? After 5 minutes or so the fish showed itself for the first time. It was a Carp. Not just any Carp though, the biggest Carp I have ever had on! I pulled out my GoPro and stuck it on my head. When I reviewed the footage later it took me an additional 6 minutes to land this fish! The battle had to be well over 10 minutes total! By the end my arms were burning. I'll tell you what, I'm not a huge carp fan but anybody that has ever caught one knows that these fish fight harder than damn near any other fish out there. You have to appreciate them for that. I eventually scooped the fish up and got her picture. I released her and finally went back to fishing. The Crappies were a no-go which really surprised me. Fortunately the White Bass fishing was absolutely phenomenal! I would say in under two hours I boated more than 100 white bass between 10 and 13 inches. It seemed like every cast you at least got a hit. The carp makes for a better story but the White Bass fishing was the best I have ever seen. Yeah, it was a good Friday night.