They spawn around March or April once the water gets warm enough, and they tend to stay on the flats after they're done spawning. I tend to see the biggest fish of the year on the flats between the spawn and June. Once it gets really hot, only the smaller fish (5 lb and under) seem to stay up all day. Occasionally I'll see a big fish on the flats near daylight, but the bigger double digit fish seem to move deeper as soon as the sun gets up in the summer. Unless it's cloudy, the best fishing in the hottest part of the summer is usually from daylight until about 11:00, and then it's over.
I know Gil Lackey does well on the Cumberland River fish (mostly big buffalo rather than common carp) throughout the day, but he and I seem to have very different fishing styles. We were talking last year during the carp tournament, and we almost seem to look for exact opposite conditions when we're fishing.
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