Looking for carp

[Bill M]

I've caught several over the years trolling crankbaits. Great fight on light tackle. Big drawback is removing the hooks from their gums. Have broken a couple of hooks that way. If I was targeting them I would use barbless hooks.

 

[nzaugg]

Yes! Carp is a much loved fish in Czechia and Poland. The Czechs have been farming trout since the 12th century. Fried carp - Smažený Kapr - is the main dish at many a Czech family Christmas dinner. And they keep the live carp in the bathtub in order to have the freshest fish possible on Christmas Day. I don’t have a clue how they keep the carp alive while they take it home from the market…..

Carp is also very popular in Hungary. They typically serve a fish soup during the Christmas holidays that consists of carp and perch. There are tanks at the market teeming with carp. Typically, there is a market close enough to your home that you can get the carp into the bath tub before they die.

I never developed a taste for carp when I lived there. It was always far too boney for me. However, I once had a fish soup with a beautifully prepared carp. It came from the river and not the market and was brined before it was made into the soup. It tasted very much like prime rib. Of course, the woman who prepared it was one of the best cooks I have ever met.

 

[WaterMan]

Ever try a Hawiian Sling? You might have to get in the water, but I bet you could nail a carp right out of the boat with one of those things.

Looks like fun, getting wet to cool off would be a plus.

 

[Mildog]

I hear Wheatie balls are good bait. Take a box or Weaties, open it up, take your hand in a fist and crush all the Weaties into crumbs. Add water while mixing in the bag/box until you get to a dough like consistency. Lay down a sheet of wax paper, take our a wad of dough, wad around a snelled hook with a small leader on it, packing a ball around 1 inch in diameter around the hook. Place on the wax paper and let it dry. Continue this for a whole pack or two of hooks. When they are all dry they pack and travel well. The carp love them. Or so my good buddy and pro Carp fisherman RonO tells me!!!

I second Wheatie balls, one addition if you have it is some powdered strawberry gelatin. Crushed Wheaties, the gelatin and just a little water at a time mixed by hand until you get a firm dough to put on hook we use about half inch ball on hook. Keep it in a ziplock back and pack it on hook as we use it. I have caught carp at Powell and other places with that recipe. I was lucky to have met Lefty Kreh a few years back. He gave me that Carp bait formula. He told me he learned it from an old carp fisherman on the Potomac River in DC. I can say from past experiences it really works! Once at Powell we didn’t have any wheaties and we wanted to catch some carp off back of houseboat.
I smashed up some fig newtons with a bit of water and made doughballs, the carp ate it up and we caught some using that . You can hang it below a bobber, or fish it on bottom if the carp are cruising the bottom looking for food,

 

[davew]

When I was growing up, my grandparents would target carp -- they were a normal part of their diet.
He lived and fished at Elephant Butte lake in New Mexico.
He would fish for them two different ways --- he would make dough balls ( i do not remember the recipe) and cast from the bank and wait -- this was during the colder months when they were more on the bottom.
During the summer, we would take a cigarette filter, soak it in maple syrup, and use that as a top water bait--- for whatever reason carp love sugar --
I remember when I was about 8 or 9 going fishing with him and having to hold that pole for dear life when one of those big carp hit that cigarette filter.

 

[mcpltret]

the stinkstick filter sounds easy.
but you’ll have to show an id to
buy them

 

[Mildog]

Some craft foam, yarn balls or foam rubber soaked with syrup or scent might work. Some dry flies will get carp as well