Fish of a Lifetime
I've caught many truly impressive fish in my life, some of which could easily be considered the fish of a lifetime. However, what approached my landing net a few days ago was anything but ordinary. I was worried whether I'd even be able to get the enormous fish into my huchen net. It's 90 cm deep, but the massive carp was considerably deeper than a huchen. The fight itself was extraordinary. I knew I could always rely on my #10 CTS Affinity rod, though, and so I controlled the enormous fish with considerable resistance, preventing it from escaping into the trees or other obstacles. When I finally managed to land it and looked into the net, I realized the fish was even larger than I'd initially thought. Thanks to a stand-up paddleboarder, I got some great photos to remember the experience. Since I never bring fish ashore but handle them in the water, photographing it was quite a challenge in itself. A carp on the unhooking mat will run out of air and after some time it can be easily held for a picture.
With a very agile fish, this isn't as easy as it sounds, as you can see in one of the photos. But as it was still fresh it swam much more quickly out of my hands and back into the wild. As it turned out later, it was apparently the largest common carp inhabiting this oxbow lake. Although I've had more than 50 sight fishing trips for carp this year, I'd never encountered such a large fish. I had secretly hoped that such a huge fish would take my fly one day, but it seems it will remain an exception. The magnificent common carp measured well over 115 cm and weighed close to 32 kg. In this exceptional season, I was able to learn a great deal again and land several fish over 90 cm on the fly. This one, however, was by far the biggest. It makes it easy to accept that the heat prevented me from fishing for salmonids.