Hurricane Carpin

As many of you know, I love fishing in nasty weather.  I have made a career out of bad weather fishing in both saltwater and freshwater, and I’ve had some of my biggest and most memorable days of fishing in stormy weather.  Yes, I did fish on Sunday in Hurricane Irene.  I went down to my backyard swim (Scott’s Pond) in the afternoon after the storm started to calm down.  I was in a safe and protected spot with the wind at my back.  What a view of the lake with the rain coming down horizontally in sheets and the wind just whipping huge trees like they were bushes.  Like most fish, carp just love this weather.  It seems to charge them up, and they usually feed big time as all kinds of food is being blown into the water.  They didn’t disappoint as I landed three beautiful mirrors on scopex flavored Pescaviva corn.  Another bad weather day turns into a good fishing day. My kind of fishing weather!

Note: I wrote this article on Sunday, but with no electricity or Internet service for over 3 days, it has taken a while to post.

New CAG Member Scores

I went out this morning with one of our new CAG members named Mathew. I try to get out with all our new members to show them the ropes and get them going in the right direction. While Mathew was new to the RI CAG, he was not new to carp fishing since the guy was an experienced carp fisherman who used to fish for carp a lot in Poland.  Mathew had the whole hair rig/ method ball/rigging thing down real well.  He used boilies he made himself.  I quite surprised that he flavored them with garlic, a flavor he claims is real good.  Well, the two of us landed 5 carp and a massive snapping turtle that weighed about 70-80 lbs., one of the biggest I have ever seen. 

If you are into carp fishing, consider joining our group.  We are always looking for new members.  You automatically become a member of the RI CAG group when you join the national Carp Anglers Group (http://www.carpanglersgroup.com/). Membership information is online. 

What is Pescaviva?

Experienced carp fishermen know Pescaviva is one of the most effective carp baits to use at this time. Pescaviva is actually a can of flavored corn.  What sets this apart from other corn is that it is not really sweet corn and not really the beefier maize.  It is sort of a cross between the two.  The kernels are small like sweet corn, but are incredibly durable and firm for their size.  The flavoring is top notch.  I tend to use it at this time of year because the fish tend to be fussy in the heat and are really looking for sweet corn, yet it is so delicate that turtles, horned pout and bluegills can readily pick it apart.  They are not so successful  at stealing the Pescaviva.  If you are into buying this stuff, it is not cheap, selling for $5 a can from Wacker Baits, www.wackerbaits.com I like to put a small amount of this corn into a small container and put the rest in the fridge to be used at a later date, so a can will last most fishermen a long time. The best flavors to use around here are pineapple, scopex (often sold out) and tutti-fruitti. 

Best Week in Months

The carp fishing lit up this week as I had the best week of fishing in months.  I landed over 30 carp in the last week with many fish in the 10-14 lb. range while fishing here in RI and nearby MA.  Best outing was 9 fish in a couple of hours, terrific fishing for this time of year.  I have been getting most of my fish while fishing in the morning.  Most have been caught on Scopex Pescaviva corn (more about this in next post) fished on a hair rig and fished ahead of a method ball.  Hopefully this prefall fishing will continue. 

400th Carp Landed in Hot August Fishing

I hit some hot fishing in the last three days.  In fact, it was some of the best August fishing that I have ever experienced here in RI.  Landed well over 20 carp with sizes reaching up into the teens.  Credit the heavy rains and cool temperatures of the last few days for getting these fish active and ending the doldrums that I had been experiencing.
In that load of fish, I landed my 400 th carp of the 2011 season (see pic at right).  It is always my goal to try to reach 500 fish as well as take some quality fish.  I've got the quality, as I landed a RI CAG mirror record of 25 lbs. as well as a big 32 lb. mirror that I got in MA that won the Big Mirror Prize in the CAG Big 4 tournament in May.  I've also landed more big mirrors over 15 lbs. than I have ever caught.  If I can get another 100 carp which seems likely, I will have reached my goal for 2011!

Uptick in Fishing

There has been an uptick in carp fishing in the past week. The week before we hit rock bottom with the fishing being poor, but the fishing in the last few days has greatly improved.  I suspect the rain and cooler weather has gotten the fish in a feeding mood.  This is not a fall feeding spree but certainly an improvement over where we were a week ago.
I went out today in the pouring rain, my type of fishing weather.  I had the best outing in a month, catching 4 commons (see photo at left) and 2 mirrors in two different spots here in RI.  A couple of days back I went up into MA and landed 5 small mirrors in another location.  So, clearly the fish are hitting in a variety of spots.  The best bait continues to be sweet corn on the hair rig.  I'm generally using two kernels of pineapple flavored sweet corn with an ending kernel of maize.   The maize is far more durable and if bluegills pick off the delicate sweet corn, I still have a kernel of maize on the hair rig.  It has worked real well in the last week.

Dog Days of August

We are in the dog days of August.  It is the slowest time of the year for carp fishing.  But, there are fish still hitting, and you can still catch carp in August here in RI (see pic of one I got this morning).  While you will catch reduced numbers, I think carp fishing is still one of your best fishing bets here in RI if you are a saltwater or freshwater fisherman.  I have been out the last 5 days and have averaged two fish an outing.  Some of these fish have been decent, running into the low teens. I am also getting other carp hits, fish on and horned pout when fishing in the evening.  It's not hot fishing, but the fish are still hitting in this heat.
My go to bait has been sweet corn on the hair rig.  I'm using my own flavored sweet corn with tutti-fruitti and pineapple being the hot flavors.  I'm also prebaiting with field corn any areas that I am fishing.  It has made a big difference in my success.