May, 2013....One of the BEST Months Ever

For me, May of 2013 will go down as one of the very best months of carp fishing ever.  It was fantastic because it delivered a lot of big fish as well as big numbers of fish, an unusual combination for carp fishing.  Most carp sharpies will tell  you that if you are going after big ones, don't expect big numbers.  There are just not that many big fish to be had.  But this past May delivered both in a big way.  As far as big fish, I landed two carp in the thirties and 15 carp in the twenties with at least 5 of those fish being high twenties.  I probably had another 50 fish in the teens and the rest of the fish were under 10 lbs.  In all my logs indicate I landed 95 carp in May, big numbers for any month. I landed more carp in May than in March and April combined.
One unusual aspect to this year's fishing in May is that the fishing was phenomenal in the daytime.  In fact, most of those big fish I landed were caught in mid day from 11 AM to 2 PM.  In the past I have done real well near dark, but this year's daytime action was a lot better than evening fishing.  Another key to catching these big fish was that the best days by far were rainy, cool, stormy days.
While many people think I fish the same locations, the truth is that I caught May's fish from at least 9 different venues in both RI and MA.  I also got many of these fish in new locations where I did not fish in past years.
As for bait, the usual stuff worked well.  I landed fish on chick peas, flavored maize, sweet corn and doughbballs.  I was often fishing 2 different combinations of bait, something the big fish seemed to be drawn to. For the most part, I was using a method ball ahead of the baits named above.