Catching Carp , floating hair rig systems?

[JeremyCampbell]

Anyone use a floating style when carp are surfacing?

I've read that,in the UK and all accross,many use hair (rigs) like the picture below with a floater.Would like to try this, thinking it would solve my problem when not catching carp while they are surfacing,if this design is even intended for that purpose.Anyways,the difference is in many parts of the world where it's legal,pitching a handful of bait while stalking the carp is a common practice when fishing this way.Obviously that won't work here in Minnesota with the current regs.

My question for this is,without tossing in some corn or whatever your using.Can a floating hair rig catch carp by itself with out the help of extra feed tossed in to draw them in?

Really thought this setup would be cool to try.Put some pictures down here for those who havnt got the foggiest idea of what I'm talking about.Oh yeah,and the choice of bait I hear needs to be floatable too.Which I thought was neat.

[mainbutter]

hair rigs dont HAVE to float to be effective. It reduces them spitting the hook before a hookset, and also can help reduce gut hooking (not a big problem for me with carp at least)

[JeremyCampbell]

Thanx,going to make a few and give them a try soon.Found out too, many times there used in lakes and not so much rivers.I got a nice area where I know carp hang out on a lake to experiment with.Cant wait!

[CarpO0101]

from what i know a hair rig works well on bottom , I never did with a float .. I should try it sometime ..

any hot bite info for carp .. the swim i fish (coon rapid) has been quite dull and they are not intreasted in my bait anymore . for a change i try tonka greys no bite for over 3hrs .. lots of weed finding a good spot for bottom fishing was difficult .. I should try float but not sure if big ones over 20lb will be feeding on surf...

[akthor]

You can't pitch handfuls of Corn in the water?....

[JeremyCampbell]

Sorry dude, I asked the same thing and got a big NO

Here is what the Dnr says in the book.

“Chumming” (depositing fish parts or other material into public waters to attract fish) is unlawful.

Its too bad, at least for me it is. I really wanted to try some certain methods I read online about stalking carp where you need to spread "material" in the water.Have to go to a different state or country for that kind of stuff

[monstermoose78]

Have you tried smaller rivers, streams, and creeks? We used to wade creeks and watch for them surface feeding and then fish the school with crawlers with air in them.

[Tom Sawyer]

Another option if you want to get your bait off bottom, is to fish a scented marshmallow along with a chunk of worm. Been using this setup for years in snaggy areas on rivers when fish are near bottom. Also floated them without weight right to surface sucking fish too, fun times.

Scented baits work very well, although chumming does seem to calm down spookier lake schools of fish; keeping them in an area longer because they are competitivly feeding.