So I was at my local city lake after work flippin and pitchin my home-made football head jigs around some docks and boat ramps when I set my hook into something......big......very big.....at first I thought I was hung up but then my 7'2'' heavy action rod bent over to what I thought was almost breaking point. My Quatnum smoke with full drag ( I think its 14lbs?) was peeling off my 30lb PP braided line like nothing. With my arms tiring out, switching my rod from left to right hand, my line cutting across the water, and my heart pounding I couldnt believe my eyes. This continued for about 5-10 solid minutes(felt like an hour) before I saw....it...???

I dont understand how this happened, my jig was snagged into its belly? I went to weigh the fish and my BPS scale has never felt anything so heavy-21lb.3ozs...

This is the biggest fish I have ever caught.

After this ordeal and catching 2 LMB just before hand, I was content and ready to head home.

However the carp had dug my braid all in around and up itself on my reel, so i attempted to cast as far out as I could and just re-spool my line.....NOT SO FAST!

That very next cast I snag into something big again! Same thing it took me for a ride, a lot shorter this time however so I was thinking cat-fish maybe? NOPE an 11lb carp behind the gill?!?!

Granted my Fball head jig has no weed guard but is this common? I felt so bad for the fish. Both seemed to swim away just fine tho so I dont think I hurt them??

Any ideas why this happened or was this just a freak accident?

notice where the jig is hooked on the belly^^

Wow man thats crazy! I have hooked 6-8 pound carp before on crappie jigs, but they were hooked in the mouth. Heck, last weekend I caught 2 drum on spinnerbaits. My guess is that your situation was a freak accident, but who knows!

I've foul-hooked a lot of carp, mostly in a section of the Erie Canal where there were good numbers of bass, walleye and pike. I rarely foul-hooked the others, so the only explanation I can come up with is that carp, for reasons unknown to me, seem to not get out of the way when a lure is coming at them. Most, but not all, of my foul-hooking was with crankbaits and it seems unlikely that the carp would not be aware of them.

I caught a 37 pound grass carp today - the first one I've caught that hit the lure - it was hooked in the upper lip with the barb penetrating the roof of the mouth from the inside out. Anyway, like Marty said, I usually foul-hook these things with lipless cranks - they just don't seem threatened by the approach of the lure. I usually get 1 or 2 carp hook-ups a month but most of the time the hook will fail to penetrate the hard scales and slip off after a few seconds so I don't often land these things. Grass carp eat in the same places that I target with lipless cranks so collisions between bait and fish happen...