The thought of this behemoth was consuming me. Moby Carp and I had locked in a tug of war for only moments, but my burnt flesh reminded of the sting of losing that beast before I could lay hands on it.

Okay, maybe my burnt flesh was more of an isolated rope burn on my finger, but you’d be surprised how annoying that can be.

I was on a mission to stick a very large grass carp I’d been seeing in a pond on a property where I hunt. I shot a 40 pounder out of there last year and wanted another. It wasn’t just for the sheer challenge of killing a fish with a bow however. The brined and smoked meat from that previous grass carp was one of the best things I’d ever eaten. It legitimately tasted like ham. They’re the pig of the pond.

After stalking and putting a good hit on one of these monsters, it zipped line out of my bottle reel and charged headlong through a submerged willow tree. After it calmed down from the initial hit, I began gingerly pulling it back toward me, hoping it would slip back through the tree branches allowing me to land it on the bank.

It hung up on part of the tree and eventually the line went slack and my heart sank. From the way that fish erupted once I shot it, I knew it had been a big one. At that point, it would only be another fish story caught on video.

But I came back. That fish played on my mind for a few days. I had come so close. Did it survive the shot? Was it lying on the bottom feeding snapping turtles and crayfish? I had to keep searching for it. I had to know what happened to my scaly adversary. Come along with me on the hunt for Moby Carp in the video below.

Do I say, “Holy crap!” enough?

This fish was impressive. When I got over it in the boat and saw that massive tail fin boiling up mounds of water, I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew. She was hit through meat and had a tremendous amount of fight left in her as a result. What the video doesn’t show is how long it really took to tire her out and get her boated. Nor did it show the couple times I almost swamped the boat trying to heft it aboard.

When I saw the wound near its pectoral fin I knew this was the beast. This was the Moby Carp I had shot and days prior. Given the fight she put up, she was obviously not much worse for the wear. Maybe she was waiting for a rematch.

The fish went 57 pounds, had a girth of 31 inches and a length of 48 inches. It was indeed a spectacle.

When I finally got home, I knew my standard fish cleaning kit was not going to scale for this job (pun intended). How I filleted it is a post for another time. For now, I’m going to put more salve and gauze on this finger as an angry caudal fin churns the waters of my mind. Maybe I’ll stroke my chin for added effect.