bait

[Andrew Erickson]

Whats is everyones favorite bait to use and how do you use it.Like on the bottom or under a bobber.Just curious

[jweitgen]

My favorite is a green fiberglass arrow shot from a compound bow.

If I have to use a rod and reel, a crawler sitting on the bottom has always worked the best for me.

[mnheadshot]

I prefer the white fiberglass, myself. It seems like that works better in the murkier water!

[Metroguy99]

Usually an arrow, but for real excitement I use bread floating on the surface. The hook-ups are harder to get, but you recieve an awesome display of swarms of carp hitting, or missing. If im looking for numbers, i go with corn or bread on the bottom.

[MedicDan]

Angel worms have actually worked pretty well for me.

[Tyler Holm]

Corn on the bottom.

[Mrkeb]

Depends on where i'm fishing. If i'm at the river, nightcrawler on the bottom. If i'm at a lake, nightcrawler under a bobber. But either way, 9 times out of 10 i'm goin with a nightcrawler.

[HuskerBen]

In muddy water and/or rivers, I go with a crawler on the bottom. In clear, shallow water, I prefer corn. In little to no current, I sometimes suspend the bait a few inches over the bottom using a transparent float. Carp have pretty good eyesight and they spook easily, so I think the transparent float helps.

Ben

[mplspug]

I am starting to like corn more and more. If I solely want to catch carp, I am going to use corn. If I don't care what I am going to catch, I'll use a crawler.

[ChemE]

I was reading the carp article in a recent edition of In-Fish. The author expounded on the efficiency of "boilies" as carp bait when used with a hair rig. He also included a recipe at the end of the article for making your own boilies. Seems like a lot of cooking effort, not to mention the price of some of the secret ingredients. However, they do seem to have the ability to last longer than corn on a hook. Has anyone ever tried making their own or using the premade version available in select carp stores? Curious.

[Roughfisher]

An English pro carp angler I know visited me here and I took him carp fishing. He had about sixteen different flavors of boilies with him. He did catch carp on them, and the hair-rig ensures a good lip-hook on them. But canned corn outfished the boilies three to one.

[ChemE]

Thank you for that piece of evidence! I really didn't want to have to start over thinking fishing for one of the most fun species ever. Whew!

[Toad]

Boilies can be an incredible carp bait. Thing with boilies, though, is that you've got to condition carp to become familiar with eating them. That means lots of free offerings frequently spread out over the flats carp use to feed. Sometimes, the conditioning thing takes mere minutes. Other times, the process might take several days before you start to see an increase in catches.

The biggest factors affecting the timing of the conditioning process include both carp size and numbers. The best scenario for using boilies is a large population of carp, ten pounds and up. Smaller carp don't usually display any sort of feeding selectivity-- again, they eat what they get used to eating. They will indeed inhale and readily accept things like canned sweet corn when larger carp reject it. In smaller carp waters, canned corn is almost ridiculously productive.

For large carp-- fish in the 20 to 40, 50 . . .lb. class-- really, you'll be hard pressed to beat maize-- not canned sweet corn, but maize (slightly boiled and softened field corn).

True boilie artists typically frequent more heavily fished waters where carp often encounter and sample a wider variety of baits. In most of Minnesota (and the U.S. as a whole) the concept of a heavily fished carp water is almost an oxymoron . Which is why, I suspect, this bait may not come in to it's own in the U.S. for some time to come.

For now, I've in mind a certain super clear lake that's full of absolutely mammoth carp. These fish have haunted me; have kept me up nights . These are openwater fish who usually cruise just beneath the surface where they're exceedingly difficult to tempt. Beyond fly-fishing, my next attempts will include medium sized ribbon leeches freelined in front of their noses. We'll see what happens. I'll tell ya, anyone who thinks big carp are easy to catch is a much better angler than myself.

-a friend called Toad

[Ritz]

No bait out there beats HOMEMADE baits!!! I have my own recipe in making some real good carp bait! My bait stinks real bad, but works real well!

[carpshooterdeluxe]

nothing beats a john boat, polarized sunglasses, and my buckmasters bow with a zero drag reel!