Actually, the 100 pound 8 oz. fish in the top picture was caught in France. It was released and caught again a few days later…weighing a bit over 99 pounds…in the same lake by a different angler.
Wow that would be some big tugs…Bet it would be hell to perform the normal surgery before release. That is one big carp.
**Couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t kill a carp in France…or most European countries. That would probably get you a trip to the guillotine…or worse. They worship carpkind over there and almost always release the ones they catch.
Anyhooters, I would never even try to rassle one that big into my tube with me…so that I could perform the complimentary gillectomy.
My biggest carp ever was about a third that size and it was plenty big for me…especially on light gear.
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**Au contrere, mon pere. There are hordes of carplets in the harbors and around the shallows of most carp lakes within a month of spawning. But the little buggers grow fast. They are 4 to 5 inches long by late summer and even bigger by early fall…quickly growing too large for all but the biggest predators to eat. Yearling are well over a foot long and keep growing rapidly, depending on available food supplies.
Not sure if they eat pigeons but I have seen big carp slurp in baby ducks. They ain’t all strict vegetarians.
Now the reason they get so much bigger in some waters…like the prime habitat of some European ponds and streams…is that they have plenty of food and there is a balance with the predators…like pike and zander (huge walleyes). I also suspect they plant plenty of smallmouth fry for food…but don’t tell bassrods.
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Why, it was released “unharmed” (my favorite word[:)])
Not all big fish fight, but the dead weight is fun stuff.
I don’t bother to weigh fish so no judge, but my last outing I had one 35" and one 32" on the same 10 lb line on an 8 weight rod.
Now that was fun stuff.
TD, if carp grow so fast that all you ever see is bigun’s, then they are perzackly like pigeons. And don’t forget that both carp and pigeon are prized table fare in the Old Country. Another parallel.
(I’ve eaten both. Fixed right, they’re fine to darn good.)
You’re sad. Bet u mad i’ll be graduated at like 22. Can’t wait till my grades are posted and then I’ll post them a picture of them here and then i’ll hear how crappy the U’s teachers are or how I paid them to pass, etc. Can’t wait!