Mulberry Drop Peaking

This hefty mirror was landed on a freelined
mulberry this afternoon.

The mulberries are ripe and falling in southern New England.  If you know of a tree that's dropping them in the water and that water holds carp, you are golden.  Carp go crazy for mulberries and they will binge on these delicacies..

Technique is simple.  Just
tie a hook to the end of your
line and impale the berry
with the hook. Cast to
feeding fish that should be
under the mulberry tree.

I know of a couple of spots in RI where the berries are hitting the water and I have been hitting those spots in the last couple of days.  I've landed a number of carp up to 15 lbs.
The technique is very simple.  You want to freeline these.  Simply grab a berry and impale it into a #8 hook. That's it....no sinker, no hair rig, no hooklink. Cast it into feeding carp and you should be onto a fish almost immediately. Note that you will have limited range in your cast since these berries weigh very little.  Realize that carp get wise to this berry thing after awhile.  In some places where I fish these a lot, the carp soon learn to detect which berry has a hook in it and which do not, and they will completely ignore the hooked berry.  And, who said carp are not smart!

Video of the Day....."View from the Net"

Biggie of the Day

The big ones continue to fall for me. This is one of several in the mid to high
twenties that I landed today!

500

I landed a significant fish today.  It was my 500th carp for 2018.
This has been a strange year so far.  The beginning of the season featured real cold weather, and it took a while for the action to pick up. At one point, I was 150 fish behind last year's numbers. Now, I am just about all caught up! From the beginning of May until now has been lights out for me. In that six week period I have landed big numbers of carp as well as good numbers of large fish. So, it has been a memorable stretch for me.  I have been moving around and fishing RI, CT and MA waters a lot since the beginning of May.
There was a time in which I set a goal of 500 carp for the year. But, as I have gotten better and better at this game, and really learned how to fish a number of productive spots, that goal has been upped. Now, I am hoping to hit 1,000 carp for the year. I've reached that goal in the last three out of four years. I'm headed there again this year if the action continues like it has been.

It's not a monster, but this fish is significant.  This good looking mirror
is my 500th carp of the year.  The action in recent weeks has been super.

Photo of the Day....Crazy Looking Mirror

Check out this crazy looking mirror that sits in the water. It was like someone dropped
a handful of gold coins all over its bronze body! The scale patterns on mirrors are like
fingerprints on a human. Each one is a one of a kind and unique to the fish!
The fish was part of a 15 fish haul today. Yup, they were REALLY hitting!

Going Small with Artificials

This nice common, landed this morning, was
part of a 7 fish haul. This fish fell for
one aritificial, white corn on the hair rig.

This has also been working.
It is a combo bait of one small
kernel of maize with a
small, orange artificial
corn on the hair rig.

I've been experiencing very good carp fishing in the last week as the fish have been very active in this warming weather. Plastics, specifically artificial corn, has been the hot producers. Much of my tactics have been focusing on turtle avoidance since they, too, have become very active. 
I have been going small with my rigs using either a #8 or #10 hook along with short hairs that will hold either one artificial corn or an artificial corn along with one very small kernel of maize that I hand-pick. In many instances I am not using a method ball since the method really attracts the turtles.
I have also kept my baiting to a minimum and I try to keep the bait in a tight, small area close to shore.  I generally will bait up three or four spots near where I am fishing.  If a snapping turtle is spotted, I move to another location.
We are now in a summer carp fishing mode. The best fishing seems to be occurring in the morning, evening or nighttime with mid day being less productive. The exception to all this is a rainy day.  In that case the fish remain active all day.

Photo of the Day....Gotta Love those Blackstone River Mirrors!

This good looking fully scaled mirror is the largest of 7 landed today. The hot bait was
a combo bait of maize and an artificial corn fished on the hair rig.