DO NOT USE LIGHT TACKLE FOR CARP FISHING! LESSON LEARNED!

nikkogi

WARNING: NOT A FISH STORY!

I was fishing at the Lawrence/North Andover Line today near Salvatores. Anywho, I had my main carp rod, a Shimano 6500B loaded with braid and my Shimano Sahara 2500FD with 6 lb Trilene in the "mouth" where the Shawsheen and Merrimack meet. I didn't get one bite on my Baitrunner but I look over and my LIGHT duty rod was bent half way in the water. The first run almost spooled me! I make him work hard for all the line he took out. I battled the fish for quite a long time, I'd say five minutes. Then, the unthinkable happened. The fish must have ran me in some structure and my line SNAPPED! No joke, I would say that fish was easily in the 25 lb range. I have caught a 30 in. Striper on the same rod. The Carp felt waaaay stronger. Plus, using light tackle puts more stress on the fish so I will be sticking to the "big guns" from now on. By the way, I tried a myriad of different baits and I only got that one on "extra sweet corn"... It was GORILLA!

weldinghank · Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:54 pm Post subject:

the current in the merrimack make them so incredibly strong. The current itself makes it worse, I saw how high the water is on my way over the lower part of the 495 bridge, its moving fast and hard.