Should have stayed home

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.

I left Lake McIntosh and went by the Town pond to check on it and fished for about 20 minutes in the pea soup .
Pea Soup , that’s what the pond looked like .
I did catch a couple of small bass on a 5’ SC Triumph ULM and a Carbon X 500 and 2# Floroclear.
In one of the pics you can see how green the water was .

Darn hate that about the rod.

Yeah some days it pays to watch football I guess. Sorry you busted a nice rod.

Anyone else think that carp I caught not look like what I would call a common carp .
Looks more like a giant shiner of some sort or maybe an aquarium fish somebody’s turned lose.
Could be why it was on the fragile side .
Most common carp I’ve dealt with are pretty tough.
I use to bow fish a good bit and I’ve shot right through one , pull the arrow out and watched them swim off .
I’m sure they died later ( turtle food is what the game warden called them when we asked about releasing them) but swam off pretty fast. This one just bellied up on me .

That's a grass carp. Pretty fragile vs a common carp. Sorry about the rod!

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Originally Posted by happycaster58

That's a grass carp. Pretty fragile vs a common carp. Sorry about the rod!

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Most grass carp I’ve seen have been more elongated, not fat and full bodied like this one . Usually darker back and fins .

No help with the ID but I’m sorry you busted a rod you liked. Hope they do you right.

It's definitely a grass carp. Possibly nicked the gills during the fight with the tiny hook and bled out. Supposed to be vegetarians but I've caught five on jigs and one hit a whopper plopper. Very different than common carp. Certainly a weird spot for the rod to break.

Tough luck on the rod! Guess you’re right about staying home that day!
Bob

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Originally Posted by BobC

Tough luck on the rod! Guess you’re right about staying home that day!
Bob

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I was just joking about staying home .
A broken rod , happens .
This was my newer 5’ St Croix Avid UL . I bought it last year , just before they discontinued them . Paid full price, just my luck . Haha !
I own eight Avids of different lengths, all UL’s and this is the only one I’ve had an issue with.
Had only been fished a couple of trips .
The way it just collapsed and not snapped, I’m thinking it’s was a defect in the blank .
Hopefully St Croix still stands behind their rods .
With it being discontinued , and them not offering a 5’ UL in any of there upper end rods , I’ll probably have to drop down to a Premier for a replacement. Premier’s are nice rods , but they aren’t an Avid .