carp eat a lot more fry than people realise. I hooked a carp on a 2" shad down the canal and have had them following 190mm swimbaits right to the bank.
It's not in the LAS gallery but one lad had a big carp on a 6" jerkbait last year or the year before.. it was "the" fish in the lake all the resident carp anglers were after and although he didn't weigh it, the last time it was caught it was over 40lb! (and it hadn't got smaller)
He only popped out to try a new rod & reel.
mg:
one lake I pike fish has so many carp that they eat everything and it's quite common to see them caught on half mackerel or sardine. First time I saw it I thought the chap was livebaiting as his indicators were doing the dance... he had 6 carp that afternoon on deadbaits!
On the very few occasions I've chucked a deadbait into a trout reservoir for pike, the bloody trout usually end up sending me round the bend.. constantly taking chunks out of the bellies of whole mackerel/blueys etc.. mostly not getting hooked but pulling the indicator off every few minutes... you can feel the buggers shaking their heads down the braid as they take a bite then come back for more. It's worst when you inject fish oils! Arghhhh! I'm getting wound up just thinking about them! :w The Chew record brownie (24lb I think) came to a deadbait and it's not that uncommon on there. Had a few modest trout on big jerkbaits and 8" castaics and a mate had a 7lb+ bass on a 10" Castaic quite a few miles inland.
I've also seen several lamprey caught on spinners on the Severn, but who in the world would want to do that.
hno:
Oh, I had a 4.11lb chub this last winter on a whole mackerel.. not a small one either, 10-12", and the bottom treble, halfway down the flank, was inches inside the mouth so it must have swallowed it head first!