Lucky Catch!

Just had to post this in this section as it's such a special catch. The full report can be found here: linky

Took a newbie, FWCarper, out to get his first buffalo. After a decent days catching, he started packing up around 5PM and one of my rods went off. I told him to take it. After quite a bit of back and forth with neither of us wanting to take it, so much so that we were saying we were just going to let the fish shake the hook, FWCarper finally gave in and set into the fish. When the fish surfaced we were both awestruck. I shouted, "IT'S A MIRROR! BE CAREFUL!" right before it slid into the net. Once secure, we took some time to collect ourselves. For those that don't know, mirror carp are exceedingly rare here in Texas. I've personally never caught one, this is only the second one I've seen in person, and one of two I know of from this lake. Very, very rare fish for sure. FWCarper apologized profusely for "stealing my first mirror," but I was more than happy just to bear witness to it. After all, I fish a whole lot more than him so I'm more than confident that I'll get mine eventually. This was just a gift from one of my favorite lakes to a new carper, helping to fuel the fire that is carp fishing. Enough of the story, though, let's see some pics!



Just look at that smile! This is certainly a fish to be proud of. A great size for this lake as well at 14lb 8oz, an overall PB for him and of course his first ever mirror!



We just had to get a couple different angles for such a special fish.



Stunner!



Released to be captured again by another lucky angler!

Awesome!

Well done.

Beautiful fish. Good job.

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! A buddy caught one when we were fishing Richland Chambers, but not anywhere near that big. Very cool!

awesome post, thanks for sharing.

caught this mirror carp last spring on the fly, beautiful fish. Not near as big as the above.
P.S. I promise that's not blood.

nice fish!

Thanks guys! TXmudder, do you have a photo of that one by chance? Smurfs, that's an awesome catch, especially on the fly! That one is known as a "fully-scaled" mirror carp. Those are even more special than your average mirrors, which are typically missing a few scales (they're actually bred to have the large scales and to be lacking scales to be easier to clean). One that is especially rare here in TX is a "leather" carp, which is completely lacking any scales.

Awesome fish. Good job.

Thats a pretty fish! WTG

That's awesome

Nice fish.

They are pretty cool looking fish. Nice catch.

Cool fish. He had a look on his face like, "C'mon man, hurry up with your photos and get me back in the water!".

Congrats!
I too have caught one, but didn't know what it was at the time. Guessing about 7-8lbs and it was caught at RC on a crappie jig tipped with a nibble 2-3 years ago. Guess I should have taken pics.

Beautiful pescado pics! thanks for sharing

Nice one for sure. Caught one I’m pretty sure in the same lake your in. Caught on the same fly sticking out of smurfs fish mouth. They are sure a great fight great fish.

I have only caught one from my dock on Granbury and it was fully scaled. Haven’t seen it since. Catch quite a few buffs now.