Small, Tough and Charged Up

The catches tonight included this mirror double.  Tonight's fish
 were aggressive and charged up.

I tangled with some of the best fighting fish I have caught all year this evening.  Surprisingly, these were all small carp in the 5-8 lb. range.  Summer fish can, indeed, be very good fighters.  They can also be aggressive feeders when they are in the mood, and they were in the mood tonight.
I got home late from commitments today and had a couple of hours to get out after supper. So, I fished locally in one of my"small" spring spots that I rarely fish at this time of year.  I found lots of carp moving around.  Some were grubbing on the bottom, some were moving very close to the shore in small groups.  In all there was lots of activity, and that usually spells decent action.  I landed four mirror carp and lost another in a short period of time while fishing with maize on the hair rig (no method ball).  All the takes were screamers, and these fish were actually ripping drag from my Okuma Avenger reel that was spooled with 15 lb. test mono.  It was like these fish were on steroids.