PICO cranks—trial by fire today.

[M R Dux]

I got out today to pull cranks with clients and new friends, Justin and Kenny. Action started out slow with just a couple of keepers in the first couple of hours.

During our conversations of a bit of everything, the subject of hooking a big Asian carp on a crank came up and I said hooking one was similar in result to hooking into a jet-ski and almost always ended with broken line and lost cranks. A short time later I noticed one line acting strange and asked Kenny to check it in case it had trash or a small fish on it. As soon as he started reeling, he was met with line heading off at a 90degree angle to the boat and a screaming drag on the Shakespeare ATS reel. This thing would have ran laps around any gaspergoo, catfish, or other undesirable. We got concerned about the amount of line on the reel as we saw 300 feet disappear. We had our hopes up for a big striper or flathead cat, all the while having a good guess we knew what we were dealing with.

We got the other rods and lines reeled up and out of harm’s way as I turned toward the direction the fish was headed. I got my EGO Reach net ready while thinking of Capt Quint in “Jaws”— I think we need a bigger net.

As we started gaining line,Kenny was laughing like he was having the time of his fishing career. The fish was making short, rod-shaking screaming runs of much shorter distances each time we got closer to it. Once we got on top of the fish, it decided to sit close to the bottom and bulldog. Kenny gained line as Justin and I laughed at his reaction to the monster on his PICO crank. We got small glimpses of the fish as it swam circles under the boat.

The monster finally had seen enough of the fight. The line had slime 5-6 feet up above the PICO that would be the envy of any catfish swimming. As the now recognized Bighead Asian carp rolled up on its side beside the boat, Justin grabbed a massive gill plate and dragged the beast aboard the Excel. We were amazed at the size of it. It seemed the longer we admired it, the bigger it became. No ground shrinkage here!!

We guesstimated the beast to be in the 60 pound class with a length of almost 5 feet. After fist bumps and high fives, I took the pliers and grabbed the PICO hooks, which almost fell out of the carp’s belly. A few pictures and more handshakes, the beast was dropped over the side, having sustained a mortal injury in the process. One down, millions to go.

The PICO hooks held, the drag held up on the Shakespeare ATS like a much more expensive reel, the Gander Mountain Vortex rod was equal to the task, and the 12 pound Trilene Big Game did the job it was bought to do. That’s what good equipment should do, take a licking and keep on tickin.

Great job guys.


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[crp4570]

Monster carp, gigantic turtles, and ginormous gooos. That more in crappie, gills and more sure has been covering a lot of ground buddy

[dallman]

I have had a Flathead and one of those silver beasts to big to handle. I now carry a gaff hope to never use it. Good job Doug.

Don

[Jwater]

Don't know that I've ever seen one that big, and never put in the boat on a crank bait!

[Takeum]

I thought it was illegal to release them back into the waters,,,,Great fishing trip for sure, I had something like that happen to me last year during the spawn,, but it never came up to see what it was,,, It broke off after its 500 run around the boat and I was glad to see it gone,,,zi just wished I had known for sure what it really was,,,

[Mike58]

Go big or go home Capt Doug


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[CrappiePappy]

I thought it was illegal to release them back into the waters,,,,Great fishing trip for sure, I had something like that happen to me last year during the spawn,, but it never came up to see what it was,,, It broke off after its 500 run around the boat and I was glad to see it gone,,,zi just wished I had known for sure what it really was,,,

It's not "illegal" to release them back into the waters ... but it is "stoopid" to do it when they're still alive !! But, you can take Doug's word for it that this one won't survive, when he says : "the beast was dropped over the side, having sustained a mortal injury in the process."

[Northforker]

We had a similar experience last Saturday. The crank actually lasooed the beast just forward of the tail. 100 yt? Runs with screaming ATS reel.

[Northforker]

Sorry, wrong pic

[M R Dux]

It's not "illegal" to release them back into the waters ... but it is "stoopid" to do it when they're still alive !! But, you can take Doug's word for it that this one won't survive, when he says : "the beast was dropped over the side, having sustained a mortal injury in the process."

Having gills ripped out will leave a mark. I just hope I don't hit the thing running out of Jonathan Creek. It would be like hitting a log.