Should have stayed home

[gillchaser999]

I was worried about the wind this morning , and the wind was blowing pretty good , off and on , but it’s what happened that ruined the trip .
First , on about my tenth cast , I hook up , using my St Croix 5’ ULF , 2# Floroclear, and it’s a nice fish .
I’m fishing off a small boardwalk that ends at the riprap , so I immediately work myself off the boardwalk on the riprap to give me a chance at landing this fish . I’m thinking it a nice bass .
Several nice runs and after several minutes I get it close enough to see and it’s a carp .
Up close , it makes about four more runs before I slip its head just up on the rocks .
I take my phone out of my pocket and snap a couple of pictures, instead of trying land it.
I noticed it was bleeding out its gills , but as you can see in the close up pic , my jig is in its mouth .
I take out my hemostats and remove my size 12 hook and use a stick to push it off the edge of the rocks .
It flutters around and goes belly up .
Even though it’s a carp , it’s still a nice fish and I hate to see it croak , but I don’t know how it got injured.
Unless it swallowed my jig , it came loose during the fight and rehooked in the mouth.
I thought carp were a lot hardier than this .

I moved on . I was fishing with almost identical combos, except one had 2# Floroclear on it , the other with Daiwa J-braid x8 1.5# diameter with a 4# Floroclear leader .
Trying to get a comparison between casting , sensitivity, etc .
When I get to my next spot and was about to cast with the SC Avid I’d caught the carp on , I look up and just below the second guide , the rod looks bent . I bent it back straight and it snaps .
What a morning.
I went on fishing using the rod with the braid and with two SC Triumph 5’ ULM that had Floroclear on one , braid on the other .
I only caught a small redbreast and a small warmouth before heading home to fill out the warranty from St Croix .
I should have stayed at home this morning.