05-02-2006, 07:54 PM
My grandfather fished for nothing but carp and taught me how to fish for them when I was a kid.(Many decades ago!) His method is as follows:
Make doughball out of cornmeal. Slowly heat water in a pan. Add some sugar and vanilla because they like a sweet bait. Stir together as water heats up. Slowly stir in yellow corn meal. Add it slowly and get the right texture which is just thick enough to mold but not too hard. Too much corn meal and especially too much heat are what make the bait too hard. Carp like soft bait so they can crush it in their mouth. Mold this into a ball about 1 1/4" and use a #2 or #4 single hook. Use 4 to 8 lb. test monofilament, and use no weight at all. Cast this out gently so it doesn't come off the hook. If using a spinning reel open the bail and when the carp takes the bait let him take it for 3 or 4 feet before setting the hook. The fight is on!
They are a lot of fun to catch but unlike my grandfather, I never acquired a taste for them at all. To each his own. Catching carp on light line is what taught me how to handle big fish on light line. That is the same way my son learned to handle big fish. The nice thing about carp is that they are available virtually everywhere and if they aren't biting you can eat the bait! I haven't fishhed for them in years but used to have a lot of fun with them. Let me know how this works for you.
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Make doughball out of cornmeal. Slowly heat water in a pan. Add some sugar and vanilla because they like a sweet bait. Stir together as water heats up. Slowly stir in yellow corn meal. Add it slowly and get the right texture which is just thick enough to mold but not too hard. Too much corn meal and especially too much heat are what make the bait too hard. Carp like soft bait so they can crush it in their mouth. Mold this into a ball about 1 1/4" and use a #2 or #4 single hook. Use 4 to 8 lb. test monofilament, and use no weight at all. Cast this out gently so it doesn't come off the hook. If using a spinning reel open the bail and when the carp takes the bait let him take it for 3 or 4 feet before setting the hook. The fight is on!
They are a lot of fun to catch but unlike my grandfather, I never acquired a taste for them at all. To each his own. Catching carp on light line is what taught me how to handle big fish on light line. That is the same way my son learned to handle big fish. The nice thing about carp is that they are available virtually everywhere and if they aren't biting you can eat the bait! I haven't fishhed for them in years but used to have a lot of fun with them. Let me know how this works for you.
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