It took me over half a year but I finally caught my first carp of the year a few weeks ago.

Over the past few weeks, I had tried to catch a carp with a new friend a few times and skunked out each time! However, I was riding my bike one day by the lakeshore and came across a very visible pod. I returned a few days later with corn and I lost one to a pulled hook (I even got the corn back!).

The next day, I pulled another hook out of one.  I was using 15lb line so I figured it may be too strong for the mouth of the carp. I backed the drag way off (to a suitable drag for 8lb line) and was finally able to land the next fish. And that was it!