My First Carp of the Year, In a Weird Way

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My continued quest for a 30 inch walleye has run into a slight impasse. I've been going every time the conditions have been right, and the fish have been there. But they also have gotten a lot more picky. Perhaps there isn't much of interchange of fish in this place and I'm casting over fish that have already seen my flies a dozen times? I don't know. But I do know that I've only had a couple for sure walleye takes in the last few visits.

Sander vitreus

Then, a few nights ago, with absolutely ideal conditions, I had a take that was by all means walleye like.
And then an initial fight that was, by all means, also walleye like. But big. Really big. And my first glimpse of the fish, in what little ambient light there was, it looked to me like it was a walleye of at least 34 inches and well over 10lbs. I won't lie. I was panicking. I was pretty sure this was a fish of a lifetime. But then I got my light on it....
And I laughed. It was a common carp. A pretty sizable one. And it wasn't foul hooked. It had eaten my little chartreuse and yellow streamer, on the strip, in muddy, dark water, at night. I've caught carp sight fishing in the glow of streetlights at night, and I've caught carp blind casting during the day. Friends of mine have caught carp blind at night, so I knew it was a possibility. I also knew it was extremely unlikely.
The place I was fishing had no easy landing spot for an angry, 20lb+ common carp that didn't do any long runs to use up energy, not without getting in the water. Which I wasn't about to do. And so, it was a long, frustrating, and a little annoying getting that thing to hand. But I was glad I did.

Cyprinus carpio

So, that's my first carp of the year; an accident, far later in the year than I'd typically get my first. Since night trout fishing conditions, the herring run, and some other night fishing scenarios are cropping up now, and the walleye are giving me the cold shoulder, I plan to divide my daytime fishing focus between multi species missions and carp for a while. Hopefully I can get my carp mojo back.