2019 Report...Numbers Down, Sizes Up, Weather Plays a Big Factor

Biggest carp of the year was this 33 lb.
common, taken in April

It was a strange year if you were a carp fisherman.  I can't remember another year in which the weather played such a big factor. From July till the end of the year it was one big rainstorm after another.  Now, I like fishing in the rain and did well again this year in this nasty weather, but it was the after-effects of all this rain that caused all kinds of problems. The heavy rains swelled both the lakes and rivers and dirtied up the water in many cases. After these big storms, it took days, sometimes a week, for the river flows to return to fishable levels. In both the rivers and some ponds, the fish were feeding in the woods in flooded waters, making catching them impossible. This scenario played out over and over again the second half of the year.

Strangest fish of the year was this
white and orange koi.

I do believe this wet, high water pattern of 2019 led to the poorest year, numbers-wise that I've had in the last five years. I fished the same amount of time this year as in other years but came up way short. According to my logs, I landed and released 704 carp in 2019. The prior three years, 2018, 2017 and 2016, I had over 1,000 fish each year. The numbers were just not there this year.
On the other hand, it was a good year for big fish for me.  I landed 4 carp over 30 lbs. this year.  I usually get one or two.  I also had good numbers of fish from 20 to 29 lbs. Those big fish got me 8th place finishes in the CAG National Spring and Fall Big 4 Tournaments. It's really tough to break into the top ten in these national events so I'm pleased with those results.
Here are a few other facts from my log of 2019:
* Of those 704 fish I landed, 377 were mirrors, 327 were commons
*My best month was June in which I landed 129 carp
*My worst month was January in which I landed 23 carp
*My worst non-winter month was August in which I landed just 30 carp
*My biggest carp, a 33 lb. common, came from RI waters in April
*My biggest carp outside of RI weighed 32 lbs. and was taken in CT waters in June
*My biggest carp from MA was a 24 lb. mirror landed in May
*The strangest fish I caught was a beautiful white and orange koi that I landed in the Blackstone River in August
*My best day numbers-wise was (surprisingly) Feb. 4.  I landed 18 carp that day.