Carp fishing heats up as the weather cooled off

My first carp in five outings was a seventeen pounder

We had some really hot weather the last couple weeks in southern New England. Most of the days this month were over ninety degrees, with half those teetering around 100. I swam a lot, but the ponds were like bath water. There was no shock at all walking or diving in.

Yes I did go fishing. I have had terrible luck. I have been fishing mostly in the evening either under bridges or in thick shade. Lady luck has not been on my side. With the warm water, the carp had been sluggish also. Early last week I caught three small carp one evening. They were all under five pounds. Certainly nothing to brag about but I’ll take it during one hundred degree heat. From there things got worse. I had four or five outings in a row. It was bad

Finally the weather broke Wednesday. The temperature that evening was comfortably in the low seventies. I landed my first carp in a week of trying. It was a nice 17 pounder mirror. It was the only fish I caught that night, but I felt the monkey was off my back. With one under my belt and cool rain forecast, things were looking up.

Yesterday I baited up a pond known for big carp. It was drizzly and rainy all day. The temperature was in the sixties. Just the kind of weather that could trigger a feeding frenzy (or at least get them active). I threw in at least 10 pounds of field corn and a loaf of bread. I planned on fishing most of Friday and I wanted to give myself the best chance at some fish.

About 6 pm, I got the urge to fish. The weather hadn’t improved so I thought I’d give the spot a

This is my new personal best common carp. Twenty six
pounds

shot. I used one rod with corn and a method ball. The other I baited with hot dogs hoping to induce catfish into biting. I caught all the hornpout I could ever want on the hot dogs, but did not catch anything that resembled a trophy catfish.

On the corn rod I had six hits. I missed the first three, all before dark. After dark I caught three carp. One was small, maybe six pounds. I also caught a 17 pounder. My last carp of the night that I caught about 9:30 was a 26 pounder. This ties my personal best carp, but beats my common carp personal best by two pounds. I fished another hour without a hit.

The next morning after sleeping later than I should have, I started fishing about 9:15am. The beautiful, long awaited northeast wind was bringing drizzle and rain. My spot that I baited up was empty of other fisherman. Dave showed up about 10am. At that time I already had a runner, but nothing to show for it.

Over the next five hours I landed six carp. They varied in size. There sizes in pounds were; 6,5,10,17,18,19. I was extremely happy to catch the three big ones. Dave also ended up with a few.

17 pounder

Two of his carp were also in the high teens. Around four pm I had to leave to run some errands. It was a terrific day of carp fishing.

All fish were caught on unflavored field corn fished behind an oatmeal/bread/cornmeal method ball. I did bait the hell out of the spot before we fished it. I do think the main reason the fish were there and active was the cool wet weather. The prebaiting may have been key to getting fish to feed near our rods, but the weather got them on the feed in the first place. What a memorable day.