My 1st carp + other strange things

[asianmanofmystery]

Hi folks. I am largely a lurker here but check in on the latest happenings at our fishery regularly. I thought I would contribute this post to add to the wide variety of catches that have been reported lately.

Anyway, this morning I went out as usual looking specifically for catfish and to my surprise I caught my very first carp. Nice sized too...I would estimate it was at least 3 pounds - I could not get my hand around the back of its head. Sorry no pics but he was feisty and I let him go to prevent any unnecessary trauma.

Rewind to before the carp, when I put out my first cast of the day. I pulled up my line to rebait and reset after the usual 10 minutes or so and found that my 12" leader was cut clean, no hook! Strangely, I also found the slime that is typical of catfish (my intended target) on the remaining 6" or so of leader. I won't repeat what I said at the time but I find this extremely weird and I am still stumped. Cut leaders don't typically happen with catfish on the other end.

My theory is that I was about the hook up with a catfish when it was ambushed by the broken beer bottle variety of cichlid that is very common in Wahiawa. Any other ideas of what I ran into or what could have happened?

Anyway, with the long Thanksgiving weekend coming up, I will be out there again looking for the catfish. But if more strange catches are in the cards I am hoping for a nice big pacu as a consolation prize.

[Stan Wright]

I wonder if it might have been a Paku... that vegetarian piraña kind fish?
They have really sharp teeth. They usually eat fruit and nuts, but we've caught them on live bait... if you hook it in the lip or side of the mouth. What were you using for bait?

[Stan Wright]

This is the pacu that Chris caught on a live bait.
Check out those teeth... it ate everything the kids tossed into the aquarium...
carrots, apples, dog food, lettuce, fish food, hot dogs, lizards.......

[asianmanofmystery]

I was using manufactured catfish bait on a dip tube. You mentioned dog food and supposedly there are some common ingredients. But if you ask me to describe the catfish bait it smells most similar to what comes out of the dog's other end. It works though.

I was joking about the pacu but you sold me on it. I started looking into catching them and came accross our state record:
http://www.hawaiifishingnews.com/records_d.cfm?ID=522