He thought he was fighting a catfish. Suddenly, the angler saw a “powerful silver carp”
An avid angler from Powiercie (Greater Poland Voivodeship) caught a huge Hypophtalmichthys, breaking the Polish record. He described his feat in an e-mail to the editorial office of the monthly “Wiadomości Wędkarskie”. The enthusiast was filled with great emotions – the specimen had great strength and even “rotated the boat”.
At the beginning of June, a resident of Greater Poland went to Lake Gosławskie. It is inhabited by catfish, zander, perch, pike, carp, bream, as well as grass carp and silver carp.
Dariusz Musiał and his friend launched the boat at night. The beginnings were difficult. “Four hours of whipping the water and changing baits did nothing, we didn’t record a single bite,” he says.
The Polish record was broken. “The mighty bighead carp”
Suddenly, in the morning, a few hours after sunrise, the men noticed silver carp splashing on the surface of the lake. So they decided to try to catch one of the specimens in a place where they had previously found mainly catfish. The fisherman describes that he replaced the bait with a 10-centimeter soft rubber imitating a roach. “I guided her, bumping her up a lot. I was hoping that the vigorously moving rubber band would tempt some predator,” explains a resident of the village of Powiercie.
Effect? The fish finally made its presence felt. “After one bounce, the fish attacked strongly, the rod immediately bent into a stick, and the reel began to rattle constantly. My friend and I were one hundred percent sure that I had a large catfish on my rod. The minutes passed and the fight was in full swing. For 20 minutes I couldn’t lift the fish from the bottom, he turned the boat several times and pushed it forward,” the man describes in an e-mail to the editorial office of the “WW” newspaper.
Musiał explains that “the wrestling with the colossus continued,” but at some point “the fish began to weaken.” After a 30-minute tow, they noticed it below the surface. “What a surprise!” – they thought. At that moment they realized that they were not dealing with a catfish (Silurus), but with a “powerful silver carp”. “After towing the fish to the boat, I took out the bait and we were about to release it when it occurred to us that this might be a new Polish record,” says the angler. When he and his friend reached the shore, they made precise measurements and weighed the specimen.
How tall was the huge silver carp? The Polish record was broken
It turned out that the men were extremely lucky and their skills, patience and determination paid off. The silver carp measured 146 centimeters and weighed 64.7 kilograms. The man admits that he “couldn’t believe it.” “During measurements and weighing, we handled it extremely carefully, but it finally returned to the water safe and sound,” he said, informing about the fish’s fate.
The editorial team of “WW” would like to remind you that the largest silver carp so far was caught in 2021 in the Odra River. She weighed over three kilograms less – 61.1 kg. That is why the Record Catches Committee “WW” presented the angler from Wielkopolska with an award – informs the monthly.
