Ok Dopers looking for any hot tips regarding a bait for Carp fishing.
We have a local Carp Classic on the river each 4th of July and I was wondering if anyone had any specialty concoctions for Carp.
I realize this will probably be better received across the Atlantic, but Carp put up a nice fight! I’m serious.
Hey, Mike Tyson is not a pretty man but he can fight.
We use corn and bread. Any other suggestions??
Carpe Carp!!
Sounds weird but I know people who swear by it: Chunks of raw bacon. I’ve asked some fishermen and they’ve never heard of it, and asked others and they say it’s wonderful. Who knows for sure – maybe bring a bit and report back to us? 
This will tell you everything you want to know about carp fishing.
http://www.fishing.co.uk/fishing/index_harris.html
The best method I’ve seen is with a bow and arrows, although dynamite works well, it’s just a little less sporting.
I dunno, but Carp fishing is not unlike fishing for Small Mouth bass. If you find the right place and time of day, you literally can’t beat them off with a stick. I used to go trolling in Lake Winnepesaukee when I was a kid, and we wpent one morning circling an island maybe an acre or two in area, and we were dragging Carp (BIG Carp too) and little Small Mouths faster than you could drop the hook back in the water. We were using good ol’ cheap red-n-white spinners, though it felt like they’d’ve hit a naked hook just as hard. Carp put up a pretty good fight too.
Funny part of the story: Same weekend, same weather, same island the next year: Nothing. Not so much as a nibble the next year. Caught a few trash fish (perch, sunnys) when we switched to bobbing worms after the trolling didn’t turn up anything, but we never did have a morning like that one. It was unreal. Fishing is about 95% pure luck. If you find the right location, you can just about catch them with your bare hands. If not, you might as well be fishing in a swimming pool, your expensive lures and casting techniques will just go to waste.
Around here corn meal dough balls are popular.
When I was a kid we would go to the store and buy a box of wheaties and make doughballs out of them.
To make the cornmeal balls get a medium sized saucepan and put in about two cups of corn meal add about 3/4 cup of flour and some corn syrup. Heat the concoction on low heat and stir constantly.Keep adding corn syrup until you can roll a ball.The stuff is hot so let it cool a bit because it will stick to your hands. it is ready when you can put a test ball in water and it will not disintigrate.
You will use a lot of dough because every time you jerk on the line you will lose the bait. It is just like chumming.
I have used this for carp for years and have never caught anything except carp.
There is a guy teaching european carpfishing methods on the outdoor channel G9 tr 24. He uses sweetcorn right out of the can. He chums first using a modified slingshot.
You may want to check http://www.carp.net
Jayron…
Trash fish???
Perch and Sunfish are excellent table fare!
Never heard of carp on a spinner. Catfish on spinners and Rapalas, Yes. Carp??? Never? Are you sure you weren’t trolling through a school and snagging them?
Hokienautic…
Seems like a waste of good bacon. Mmmm Bacon!!!
But I’ll give it a shot and report back.
This is hook and line only so we are looking for baits.
tcburnett…
I will have to check this out further, Thanks.
Here’s the update for anyone interested.
This past Saturday was the annual Carp Classic in town.
The bacon did not produce any Carp but only saw limited action due to the success of whole kernel corn.
Tally for the end of the day was a victory at 117.5 lbs of Carp.
1st place Woohoo!!!
The guy I was fishing with took the biggest fish category with a 15 1/4 lb Carp.
As to the closeness of the contest. The second place in total tonnage was 117 lbs and i took second place for biggest fish at 15 lbs.
All but 2 fish were caught on corn. The others were bread balls.
There was an attempt at tying spawn sacks filled with cream corn but this was deemed a pain in the —!
I shit you not. We were just as amazed as well. I had always assumed that Carp hit for the smell rather than the look of a lure, and had always had more success with the old ball-o-dough in bacon grease method of catching them. Our theory at the time was that we had caught so many small mouth on the spinners already that they were beginning to smell like something a carp would eat. Unless they were just catfish which looked exactly like carp. (not that we get true catfish up north. Little horned pout, but nothing you would actually call a “catfish”)
I’ve used hot dogs and greasy bratwurst to catch a variety of fish, and those glow in the dark sticks work, but i know it’s illegal to fish with them in some states. I’ve never fished for carp though. What the hell for, they’re terrible. Blech!!!
Not so PK
The smaller ones are quite tasty.
I don’t keep anything over 10 pounds. The larger ones tend to be greasy.
They are really good smoked.
Around here locally owned bar and restaurants have a friday fish special and sell a lot of carp steak.
Take an oak board big enough to hold the carp…cover it with a piece tarp…bake at 350 dgrees…5 minutes per pound. Take out…let cool. Throw away the carp…eat the board and the tarp.
I grew up on the west bend of the Milwaukee River. All i ever pulled out of there was carp! You guys are looking for bait to attract them, when I was a kid I wanted something to repel them! I never aquired the taste for them.
Anyway, I need to add that if you use hot dogs, use BEEF hot dogs, and stick’em in the microwave for just a bit to extract some grease out. These work quite good!