Last week, a man caught the largest freshwater fish ever recorded in Connecticut: a 45-pound, 8-ounce common carp. According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Rafal Wlazlo caught the whopper mud marlin on Lake Lillinonah, a 1900-acre waterbody in Western Connecticut, just 60 miles of New York City. The epic catch took place on May 25.
Wlazlo lives on Long Island, New York, but has been making a concerted effort to catch a record-breaking carp in Connecticut for a while, he told The Hartford Courant.
“This was no accidental catch. I have been targeting a state record [here] since last year,” Wlazlo said, adding that it took fifteen minutes to land the fish. “The fight was epic. It was a moment. Nothing surpasses it … There’s no easy way to land a 45-pound carp.”
The catch has already been confirmed as a state record by DEEP. The carp just edged out a 45-pound, 5-ounce fish caught by Brian Santos in Lake Lillinonah last fall. Common carp are the biggest freshwater fish caught in the state, with the next heaviest state record being a 29-pound channel caught landed in 2004.
Wlazlo is the founder and owner of Carp Angler, a New York state retailer that imports and sells European carp fishing equipment in the U.S. In Europe, anglers use distinct bait rigs to target large carp and the practice has been growing popular in America in recent years.
“I was introduced to fishing at a very young age in Southeast Poland,” explains Wlazlo in his company’s About Page. “I moved stateside twenty years ago. Carp angler was born out of a lifelong passion for carp angling and a necessity … stateside, we’ve been dealt a shorthand when it comes to the options we have for acquiring (carp-specific) gear.”
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In a similar vein, Wlazlo says he hopes his fish will be topped by himself or another angler soon. “I hope the record is going to be beaten because we want to bring more attention to carp fishing,” he says.
