On our evening walk around Lady Bird Lake, Bill and I came upon the following scene:
Turns out that today is the first day of a fishing contest in downtown Austin: the 10th Annual Austin Team Championship, Carp Anglers Group. And that fish is a carp.
Two-man teams are competing for two days to amass the most fish poundage. I like this rule from their web site: Only Cyprinus Carpio count for total weight and big fish (no buffalo, grass carp, Old tires, tennis shoes etc.) Seems logical to me that only fish should count in a fishing contest.
The fish are released back into the lake after being weighed. Watching the guys wade into the lake was almost as scary as seeing the size of that fish.
Our new friends are currently in second place with 169 pounds. They said the first place team was way ahead in total weight (355 pounds! What are these fish eating?) and were unlikely to be beaten tomorrow.
That fish in these photos was the smallest this team had caught all day. Bill and I were astonished to learn that all these gigantic carp are living in Lady Bird Lake. But then we watched this video about Carpie…just another fish story?
An update: We didn’t see this team on the second day, but according to web site, they DID win, with a total 454 pounds for 23 fish. This is about 20 pounds per fish!
Gag me. Whenever I think of carp, I think of slime. Carp will eat anything. I can’t imagine holding one of those “suckers.”
Just never know what you’ll find downtown, do you.