One of the last species you’d ever expect to catch on a soft plastic lure is a carp, but that’s exactly what happened during a lure fishing competition over the weekend. Luke Jordan was participating in the Elite Pro League, a competition where anglers face off in a series of rounds and venues before a champion is crowned.
The round took place in Bristol, where Luke and the other competitors expected to catch species like perch, pike, bass, and mullet, as the stretch was tidal. However, it was a rogue carp that ended up stealing the headlines.
"I was fishing in the Elite Pro League lure competition this weekend, and knowing the venue was full of perch, that was the fish most anglers were targeting," Luke told us.
"Given this information, I was using a small fry imitation pattern, which seemed to be successful as I hooked and landed around 20 perch pretty quickly."
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"Then I hooked a much better fish—I thought it could have been a bass since it felt too heavy and powerful to be a perch," he added.
"As I was playing the fish, I saw a slight flash of gold, and my legs went to jelly. For a second, I thought I might have hooked a massive perch!"
"I had been playing the fish for a while, and because of the public setting, a crowd of about 10 people had gathered behind me to see what the commotion was about."
"When I finally got it in the net, I couldn't believe it was a carp and I fully expected it to be foul-hooked."
"However, upon closer inspection, the fish was hooked fair and square in the mouth. Definitely one of the weirder captures I've had while lure fishing," he said.
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