In the Palm of My Hand....

 

I landed this small common this morning.  For
me, it's been a lot of small ones lately.

They are not always big. I'm on what I'd call a "small streak".  I have gotten a number of small carp in the last week in a place where I was catching bigger fish several weeks ago.  That's the way it goes. Groups of fish move in, groups of fish move out. The bigger ones, which probably headed to deeper and cooler water, will be back eventually.

We are in a difficult period of carp fishing right now in southern New England.  There is extremely high and unfishable waters in many places, particularly in the rivers.  Many of the ponds are choking with weed brought on by the run-offs from all these big rainstorms making fishing difficult.  In addition, the vegetation growth along the shore is awful and I find that I am constantly trimming the shoreline vegetation with a clipper that I carry in my bag. Finally, the mosquitoes are out in force due to the rain and warm weather.

Still, the carp continue to hit.  A combo bait of maize and a white, artificial corn pop-up on the hair rig is my main bait these days.  I am also fishing this bait with a method ball packed around my sinker. Mornings and evenings have been the best times, just what you'd expect in the dead of summer.

Back to Maize and Artificials; Best Bait of Summer?

 

Check out this combo bait of maize
and a white artificial corn on the hair 
rig. This has been my hottest bait 
of the last couple of weeks.

My experimenting with big baits (boilies) lasted a few weeks, and in that time period I caught a lot of big carp.  But, gradually my ole standy bait of maize and a white artificial corn on the hair rig began to outfish the boilies. So, I'm back to using that bait, and I have been catching decent amounts of carp in the last two weeks considering we are in the doldrums of summer. I've gotten numbers as well as big ones with several fish in the twenties.

Maize is just a real convenient bait.  It's cheap so you can prebait a lot of it.  The carp also really go for it.  I buy my maize at Tractor Supply.  It's marketed as "whole corn" and comes in a dried state.  A fifty pound bag will cost you about 10 bucks.  

Here's how I prepare it.  Put it in a large pot with water and let it soak overnight. In the morning I will put it on the burner and wait until the water boils.  Then, set the stove timer for exactly 35 minutes. Once finished take it off the heat and let it sit a while to soak up water.  Next, I pack it into zip lock bags and pack it in the refrigerator. It should stay fresh for weeks.

Fantastic Day in Today's Tropical Deluge

 

Here is one of three twenty pound
carp landed today in the tropical
storm. I also had 5 other smaller fish.

Based on past experiences, I just knew that today's carp fishing would be real good in this tropical storm. I've fished in northeasters, hurricanes and tropical storms and all of those events light up the fishing. And, it did today! In all, I landed 8 fish, but here's the big story of the day.  Three of those fish were in the 20 to 25 lb. range.  Those are real good fish for July.

Stormy weather like today's seems to really charge up the carp, and sends them on a reckless feeding spree.  The weather was wild with deluges of rain pelting down, wind blowing the rain sideways and small tree branches coming down.  My kind of fishing weather! Action prior to today had been fair at best for the last week or so with smaller fish dominating the fishing. Along comes a tropical storm and all that changes.

The hot bait today was a kernel of real maize and a white artificial corn on the hair rig.  I was also using a method ball packed around my sinker.

Sorry for the lack of photos....impossible in the heavy rain.

In the Slop

 

A dark colored mirror landed last evening.

I've seen this pattern many times before.  Hot, hot weather suddenly turns to cold and rainy, and it just lights up the carp fishing here in RI.  The last three days of rain have, once again, lit up the summer carp fishing for me.  I landed 30 carp in the last three days of fishing in the sloppiness. While a good number have been smaller carp under ten pounds, I also had a couple of low twenties as well as many in the 10 to 19 lb. range. The fish have been a combination of mirrors and commons.

I'm back to using my old favorite of a kernel of maize

A gorgeous common landed yesterday.

and a white artificial corn on the hair rig.  This seems to be working much better than the boilies these days.  I suspect it is because I am getting smaller fish on average than I was catching several weeks ago when the boilies were red hot for larger carp.  I'm making a note of this. Next year, I plan to really fish boilies on then post spawn when the big fish (over 25 lbs.) are really aggressively feeding.

RI CAG Big Three Tournament Ends.....Final Results

 Our RI CAG Big 3 Tournament has ended, and as usual our guys and gals entered some pretty impressive fish.  The leaderboard was really shuffled around in June as Tom Perron, one of our most steady big fish guys, moved up from 4th to third with a 15 lb. 9 oz. mirror. Jeff Henderson also made a big move from 5th to 3rd place by catching an impressive 24 lb. common.  Our leader all along, Brian Savage, remained in 1st place with a big 19 lb., 6 oz. mirror.  The top three finishers will receive engraved medals purchased by CAG. The final standings along with the weights of the fish are listed below:

1. (gold medal)- Brian Savage- 31/10 + 23/11 + 19/6= 74/11

2. (silver medal)- Tom Perron- 13/2 + 16/2 + 15/9 =44/13

3. (bronze medal)- Jeff Henderson- 20 + 24 = 44

4. Laura Mitchell- 15/13 + 19/2 + 8 = 42/15

5. Manny Dias- 16/8 + 24/8 = 41

6. Eddie Taylor- 15 

Brian Savage- Gold Medal

Tom Perron, Silver Medal

Jeff Henderson, bronze medal