Record Carp from Washington with competition pole

On the last weekend of June 2007, I went fishing to Washington DC. It is a Beautiful city, with many attractions. This visit my main focus was to catch some fish. The area has a vast variety of waters including rivers, lakes, canals and the ocean. For the location of this trip, I choose the Tidal Basin.

The venue looks like a lake, but in actual fact it is connected to the Potomac River that runs to the ocean through the heart of the city. Due to tidal influence water is constantly moving in and out of the basin, making the water level inconsistent.  Fishing wise it creates a challenge as the depth is constantly changing. Some of Washington's finest attractions, the Jefferson Memorial, and the world famous Washington National Monument were visible from where I sat.

I set up my gear to target larger specimens, I used a Top Mix Xtasy Carp TM02 13.00 m roubasienne, 2.85 Vespe elastic. 0.20 line and a size 16 Kamasan Animal hook.

The pole is made for waters, like the one I was about to explore. Besides catfish to over 6lb, goldfish, suckers, eel's, and other species, the dominate fish here are carp, averaging between 6 to 15 lb. They are, unlike their European relatives. These fish are wildly raised on natural food and makes these creatures an Intelligent and fierce opponent.  An average pole would shatter into pieces from this kind of fishing. The hook I used is one of my favorite for American carp. It has a great shape, thick steel gauge and stays sharp after many fish. The line is one of the strongest I have ever used on the pole, and again, I would not even dream of using heavy line like this on any other Pole. After many years of fishing in the states I have concluded that Vespe elastic is the best available for fishing here. It took hundreds of dollars and many pole caught carp to figure this out. In my opinion, the other hollow elastics, or hydro elastics, tighten up too early after the fish first runs.  This often causes, the fish to panic after only the first seconds of the fight, and then either the line breaks or the hook pulls out. The Vespe gradually stretches and applies tension and this consistency and smoothness is often the key to land a big fish. At least this is what I think, where the truth lies? Who knows?

The fishing started very slowly that day. In the first hour, along with my team mate Axel Boy, we managed to catch only a few wondering cats and sun fish. We were about in the middle of low tide, when suddenly something magical happened. First Axel missed a bite on two grains of sweet corn, then, shortly after I saw some movement in my swim. A Couple of bubbles appeared on the surface, then a line bite, and a few minutes later I unhooked my first fish, an 8lb carp. I introduced more feed to the swim and what resembled a Jacuzzi appeared before me. At first I suspected a huge turtle, as these are common tenants of American waters, but because the kamikaze red worm survived three minutes on my hook, the turtle theory was dismissed. Off came the worm and on went two grains of sweet corn. Not even a minute past by, when I had my next bite. After setting the hook, the fish took off into the open water towards the Jefferson Memorial.

After that she politely asked me to attach the two sections of my pole that were behind me just in case. Somehow I made her change direction, and so she turned and came closer to the bank.

To be safe, I only removed one section of the pole. I tried to force the fish to the surface, but she turned back to the middle of the lake again. A repeat of the prior procedure found the fish in front of me again.

Slowly I removed the bottom three sections, all the while applying steady pressure to bring the fish to the surface. The first visual sign of the fish came in the form of a huge swirl. I estimated her to be about 1.5m under the surface. It went through my mind that any fish that can move the water surface from that depth, must be something else. After a few more minutes of fighting, and just when my arms started to ache, I started to see my prize. I saw the main bulk first, followed by a big mouth, and an even bigger head. Wow! A fish of this size has never made it this close to my landing net before while fishing the pole. Realizing that I was about to break my personal record made me shake. I quickly tried to forget that feeling, and concentrate on driving her head into my waiting net. I did not have the right angle in the first two attempts, but the third time she came up close, and sunk into the net. Gleefully, I grabbed the frame of the net and pulled my prize up onto the bank.

Pictures, measurements, and quickly returned to her element. The Fish was 99 cm long, with a girth of 70 cm. The only unfortunate thing was that we did not have a digital scale, so we could not record her actual weight. However we punched the measurements into various calculators, and they all estimated a weight between 32-35 lb. This was my biggest pole caught fish so far, and an unforgettable Sunday afternoon that I owe all to my Top Mix pole as I doubt any other pole could have handled the fish as well. I wish many similar catches to my fellow anglers. Tight Lines.

Attila Agh
Top Mix USA