CENTRAL PARK? FOR REEL!
20-pound carp with bagel-bite bait
To most people, Central Park is the heart of the urban jungle — but to this kid, it’s the ol’ fishin’ hole.
George Gjerdji, 13, made an amazing catch in an unlikely place Thursday, when he hauled in a massive 20-pound carp from The Lake.
The young angler told The Post that he hooked the big one because he figured out that city fish particularly like to nosh on a New York favorite.
“I used a size-four circle hook with a piece of bagel bread” as bait, he said.
The teen regularly travels from his home in Yorktown in Westchester County to try his luck angling in the park — and Thursday’s catch wasn’t even his biggest fish story.
“I’ve caught one that was about a 30-pounder,” George said, noting that big catch came exactly a year ago. “I caught him last year on June 18. I have a picture of it.”
Both monster fish got thrown back, as the park has a catchand-release policy.
Unbeknownst to many New Yorkers, the Central Park Conservancy allows fishing at the Harlem Meer, The Lake and The Pond. Anyone over the age of 16 needs a license from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Meer is the park’s premier fishing hole, with casting allowed year-round from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays, the conservancy says.
The waters have an astounding number of aquatic creatures, including carp, bass, catfish and crayfish. The Reservoir, however, is off-limits.
George says the park isn’t the only fishing spot he likes in the five boroughs.
“My dad has a boat in City Island in The Bronx,” he said. “I like City Island because the fish bite more,” he added. they’re more lazy.”
He noted that he has had more luck fishing off the Bronx island, where his father, Paul, still has a 21-foot Striper docked and where there are bigger fish to catch — that you can keep.
“Off City Island, I caught a 60pound striped bass,” the youngster said. “I caught that one last year sometime in October.”
He said that whopper fed his family for two days.
But although George and his dad have been fishing together, it doesn’t necessarily run in the family — his twin sister, Teresa, isn’t on board.
“She hates fishing,” he said.
“Here