Changing Tactics Delivers

This has been the hot producer of the
last several days. The white, artificial
pop-up corn is the key.  No method
ball is being used due to turtles.

I had been in a bit of a funk in the beginning of July.  Not many carp, lots of irritating pests, loaded with turtles. So, I decided to change tactics, something I often do when things are not going well. First off, I got rid of the method ball packed around my sinker.  That method ball was a turtle attractor, and I swear every turtle within a hundred yards of my bait made a b-line right to the method ball as soon as it hit the water.  Secondly, I changed colors on my pop-up artificial corn.  I had been using pink which was so hot earlier in the year, but lately it was not even getting a look.  I went back to using a white artificial corn along with a kernel of maize on the hair rig. Carp will often change their color preferences during the year, and white has produced for me in the past in the summer.  Finally, I'm off fishing boilies.  There was a period in the spring in which they were producing but lately they have not.

Those changes have led to some decent fishing in recent days.  I've landed a dozen carp in the last three days with at least two of them in the mid twenty pound range.  Not bad for the dead of summer.

Here's a twenty pounder being released today.  It hit the
bait pictured above.