Pa. angler talks about breaking West Virginia carp record and his next goal

A Pennsylvania man broke the record for the longest carp in West Virginia, and he’s now looking for a record breaker in his home state.

Ayden Minick, 19, of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, reeled in a 41.2-inch common carp May 7 while fishing on Summersville Lake in Nicholas County, West Virginia.

The fish, one of six carp he caught that day, beat the previous record of 41 inches that’s been standing since 1988. It was caught by Charles Cook at Stonecoal Lake. West Virginia has two size records for carp, the other being weight. Minick’s fish topped the scales at 45.2 pounds, just less than two pounds less than the current record of 47 pounds caught in 1998 by Gary Johnson in Preston County.

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The adventure was part of an annual carp outing Minick has taken with his friends for the past three years. “It’s just a time to get together and hang out,” he said in a telephone interview.

The day started when he caught a 19-pounder at 7:30 a.m., a little later he netted a 26-pound carp, a couple hours later he got another 19-pound fish and then at noon, the big one hit his bait.

He said the trophy fish took his line really slow and kept going where it wanted to go. “We knew he was big,” Minick said.

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“I tried to get her in, but she wouldn’t come to the surface. Every once in a while there would be a big ripple on the top of the water from her.” After about 10 minutes, he was able to get a glimpse of the lunker and said, “Holy smokes, this is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”

It took about 15 minutes to get the trophy toward his friend, Domenic Firestone, to net the prized catch. “We couldn’t believe how big it was.” Minick said he previously caught a 40-pounder on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania and could easily see this fish was much heavier.

He’s familiar with Pennsylvania’s 1962 record for the common carp being 52 pounds from the Juniata River, and he didn’t expect his catch to be a West Virginia record. “I almost put it away after I got pictures,” he said about releasing it back in the water. His friend who hosts the get-together, Derek Williams, told him not to release the fish yet as it probably was a record breaker for the Mountain State.

They had a retaining sling to keep the fish alive and healthy until a state marine biologist arrived and documented the fish. When the monster-size fish was placed on the measuring board, the biologist told him, “Well, we have a new state record for length.”

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Minick said it was exciting to catch the record with his friends being there. He said they kept fishing, and he personally ended with six carp together weighing about 160 pounds. The fish are spawning and are full of eggs. He said the fish could lose several pounds overnight when they lose their eggs.

His record female fish may have have lost weight from the time it was caught until it was documented several hours later. “It was still a big fish,” he said about it narrowly missing the weight record. He credited the biologist for coming out to the lake on his day off to record the catch. “They were all real nice,” he said about the officials who worked with him.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice congratulated him on Facebook for breaking the record, saying, “Our lakes and streams continue to produce record catches!”

Minnick was fishing with an artificial bait corn on a hair rig off the bottom of the water. “It’s like sport fishing,” he said about targeting carp. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The trophy fish is back in the lake for someone else to enjoy. “They are just fun to catch,” he said about releasing carp back in the water. “They’re really an aggressive fish; they really fight,” he explained about the challenge of getting the heavy species to shore.

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While he’s happy about being in West Virginia’s record book, he’s now interested in Pennsylvania’s record.

“That’s my next challenge. To try to catch the state record for here. ... That’s the good thing about carp fishing; you never really know the size of them.”

There are several Pennsylvania waterways that are known for carp fishing. He said the Pymatuning Reservoir has the numbers, but not the size. The Monongahela and the Yough rivers have heavy carp as well as in Presque Isle in Erie. “I’ve been meaning to go to Raystown (Lake). I’ve heard there are good ones there, too. I just haven’t had the time to drive out that way.”

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When reflecting on the West Virginia record, he concluded, “It’s a good thing. It’s neat knowing that I got it. I wasn’t expected to do that. It shocked me at first. It’s an amazing thing to have,” he said about hoping it increases the popularity of carp fishing.

“It was a fun fish. I’ll never forget it, that’s for sure,” he said about catching a record with several friends watching him reel it in.

He enjoys fishing in Pennsylvania but plans to fish again in West Virginia. “I’m definitely going back," he said. "It’s a good lake. There are probably bigger ones in there, too.”

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on your website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on social media @whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Pa. angler reels in new W.Va. record carp