400th Carp of the Year Landed

 

This common, landed today, is my 400th carp
of the year. It's been a rough road to find numbers
of fish this year.

Today I hit a milestone as I landed my 400th carp of the year. I finally had a few fish today and that got me over the 400 plateau.

I set 500 carp as my goal every year. I keep logs of all my catches.  In my best year of the last ten years numbers-wise, I landed a whopping 1,300 carp.  Last year, my worst year numbers-wise saw 430 fish landed. If I were betting man, I would bet 500 is not going to happen this year.  Heck, I am lucky to reach 400 this year.  Overall, this has been a tough year of carp fishing.  We've had a lot of rain and a lot of warm weather.  That is the perfect storm for weed growth. The invasive weed, mostly milfoil and water chestnut, has been awful most of the year, making for impossible fishing in some of my favorite carp fishing places.  The weed has cleared up with the cooler weather lately, but the fishing overall still remains poor.

The carp fishing calendar is ticking away. It will end with the ice. I'm guessing in early December.  Even skim ice will end it in ponds and lakes. You can still get them in the moving water of rivers and streams, but carp fishing in the real cold is inconsistent and difficult.