After fishing for Carp for literally decades, I think one of the main reasons Carp fishing can yield such an enjoyable experience is because there are so many different ways to enjoy Carp fishing. From using a cane pole with bread on the hook to a full assault European bank fishing kit complete with electronic bite alarms and baiting up with the latest and greatest money is no object commercial boilies and then of course there is somewhere in between which is where most weekend Carp anglers in the USA probably tend to be.
But regardless of your experience with Carp fishing, I’m willing to bet the majority of “us” have probably gone through a similar cycle of Carp fishing….something like this:
You catch a Carp by accident and you’re surprised just how strong these fish are and how much bigger they are when compared to the fish you typically catch. Even though you’re impressed with these fish, your fishing “buds” are clueless and suggest they are “trash fish”. Obviously you’re smarter than your buds so you cradle the fish with respect, take a few photos and release the fish so that other anglers can share the experience in the future.
You do some research and find out there’s a real possibility of catching 15+lb Carp pretty much in the exact same body of water you have been fishing for years! Even more exciting, you find out you can catch these fish with the cheapest of baits, a simple can of sweet corn bought at your local grocery store. What? You don’t need fancy lures, a messy container of worms?
So now you’re armed with a few cans of sweet corn, a simple slip sinker rig and a small single hook (size #2, #4, #6 work well with Corn kernels). You’ve learned to throw out a few kernels every 15 min or so to keep the fish in the area. Yes, treat them like you’re feeding pigeons, a little bit at a time and they will stay around pretty much all day. You thread several kernels of corn on to the hook and maybe even a few on the line above the hook. You’re pleasantly surprised how much fun it is to catch Carp like this, you’re catching plenty of fish, easily the biggest fish of your life! You’re the Carp King of your domain!
But then one day, you arrive at “your Carp spot” and you see this strange setup, 3 rods pointed horizontally to the water, all grouped close together on some kind of rod holding system. There’s a bloke sitting 30-50ft away from this setup enjoying a cup of tea. He says “Hello, plenty of room, feel free to set up your gear!” You’re a bit puzzled because all you have is two Zebco 33 rods, a net, small tackle box, and 3 cans of corn. It will take what… 5 minutes to setup and start fishing? So you do your usual routine, throw out a few handfuls of sweet corn, bait up the rods, place them in a rod holder and wait for a bite.
All of a sudden you hear what sounds like a loud insect chirping but its coming from the other angler’s setup. He’s using electronic bite indicators and he has a fish on! You get the nerve up to approach the angler and he has no problem introducing you to the wonderful world of European Carp style fishing. You learn all about hair rigs, electronics, bait runners, etc, etc. But easily the most impressive thing you’ve been educated about is how much better it is to use these round commercial baits called “boilies”. You’re amazed how awesome it is to use these little balls of Carp catching magic! So even though the both of you caught several fish, your fish was just as big as his, you’ve made the right choice to invest in some gear and more importantly buy a bunch of those little balls of protein powered Carp catching magic.
So many flavors, so many colors, what an incredible selection! The fish are going to practically jump in my lap at the bank. Sure the routine is the same, you setup your gear, throw out a few handfuls of those fancy balls of Carp catching magic. But now setup and break down is much longer, and it’s much more expensive to fish but that’s ok, you won’t fish as often and you’ll take quality over quantity.
Wow, these “Boilies” work! At first it was a bit slow, but after a few weeks of throwing all those balls of Carp catching magic in the water, you’re catching fish after fish. You’ve even beaten your personal best several times over!
You’re all set, this is the way to Carp fish! You invest in a variety of commercial baits, you realize with all the bait you have purchased you could be the USA distributor for a variety of European Commercial Bait makers. But that’s ok, in order to keep those Carp biting you have to make sure to throw out a lot of that bait every time you fish. Heck with that…. now you’ve learned the proper way to do it is to throw out even more bait 1-2 days before you even fish so the Carp are already there with their mouths wide open, ready to catch the Boilie in their mouth right after you cast! You truly are the Carp King of your domain!
One day you’re all setup, sipping on some ice cold tea (yah…it’s Texas, we ain’t doing the hot stuff lol..), the alarms are going off, you’re catching fish, life is fantastic. All of a sudden a young whipper snapper walks up to you and asks if you don’t mind if he fishes near you. You of course welcome him to the bank. You ask the young lad what he will be fishing for.. “I’m fishing for those big ol gold fish that are in here, I’ve caught a few that are over 25lbs!” You give him a slight chuckle and wish him good luck, after all the Carp King knows there are no fish that big in his domain. You ask the young man if he would like to check out your setup, but the young man says “no thanks, I’m good” and continues to set up his gear.
You notice that foolishly, the young man only has one fishing rod, clearly a Zebco closed faced spinning reel, but a larger one with greater line capacity. You watch him place 2 small rod holders in the ground and then place his rod horizontally on the holders pointing toward the water. He reaches into a bucket and pulls out a large zip locked bag of sweet corn along with a sling shot and starts slinging out a bunch of corn in the same spot, only about 80ft from the bank. He then puts a bunch of kernels on the hook, even threads several on the line itself and casts out directly in the middle of where he slinged out all those kernels of corn. Within minutes of arriving, he’s setup and fishing.
So you’ve caught a few fish like you normally do, the young lad still hasn’t caught anything. But he’s still slinging out new bait and recasting probably every 15-20 minutes. All of a sudden you hear a fast clicking sound, you realize his reel has a bait clicker on it and he has a fish running. The young lad picks up his rod and it immediately bends and it’s obvious he’s tagged into something nice. You ask the lad if he would like some help, he says no thanks. He reaches down to grab his net, but you notice it’s not a small net, it looks like a massive net used for scooping up monster catfish. The young man battles this fish impressively, keeping the rod bent so it tires out the fish. When it gets near the net the boils in the water give it away, this is a large fish. He manages to land the fish and sure enough, it’s the largest Carp you’ve ever seen caught from your domain. The lad asks if you don’t mind taking a photo for him before he cradles the fish one last time before releasing it back into the water. You congratulate him on his personal best, but he disagrees with you about his personal best and proceeds to show you photos of several bigger fish he has caught from your domain.
The above story has played itself out several times in my decades of fishing in various forms. And yes, my wife can vouch that my shed, several times over the years, has indeed looked like a distribution center for a variety of commercial Carp baits. lol..
Boilies mainly work after they have been introduced into a swim over a period of days, weeks, etc, and the bad thing is Carp can end up relying on these introduced foods and once they are gone, the Carp can stop feeding for a while, that’s why if you’re no longer feeding a long term food source to Carp (regardless what it is) it’s better to taper it off slowly so the Carp can adjust to not having as much food which causes them to start foraging for food elsewhere quicker.
Over the years I’ve tried countless expensive commercial baits for Carp fishing; Boilies, Pellets, Dough Baits, etc, etc. Let’s be real, almost any bait that has a pleasant, perhaps a sweet smell, is going to attract Carp. But I keep coming back to the most simple bait there is, canned sweet corn, for almost all of my Carp fishing. Just this past month I’ve had several fishing trips with my main 4 Carp rods, all the electronics, pack bait, etc, and sure I’ll catch fish, but then I’ll have another trip with just 2 small rods and a few cans of sweet corn and end up having the same amount of success.
The color, shape, size & smell of sweet corn has to be the ideal bait for Carp (and also a great choice for the various Buffalo species). While sweet corn is a great Carp bait for any body of water, I think sweet corn is the perfect bait for smaller bodies of water such as ponds & creeks. On these smaller bodies of water it’s much easier to congregate the fish near you by simply scattering just one can of sweet corn in the area you will be fishing at. You can also easily adjust the size of the presentation by how many kernels of corn you put on the hook to target smaller or larger fish. Fishing with sweet corn is an active fishing style, you really don’t want to sit around for a long period without a bite. If you don’t catch a fish in 15 min or so, reel your line in, rebait and cast out again. This repeated process also helps scatter some of the kernels around as they fall off the hook. You want fish to be actively searching for the kernels of corn. On a good day when you have fine tuned your chumming (how often and how much) you could end up catching quite a lot of fish. I’ve had days when an obvious large school of Carp has been attracted to the chum resulting in a fish on every cast!
How to properly chum for Carp (and other fish) using sweet corn: The key thing about chumming for Carp with sweet corn is to only throw out a small handful of sweet corn every 10 minutes or so. It’s just like feeding a group of pigeons. If you were to throw out the entire bag of bird feed at once you would gather a large group of birds, but they would all feed at once and fly off. By chumming only small amounts at a time you can literally keep fish around all day. You want to have just enough chum in the water to cause competition between the fish. This activity will cause more fish to investigate. Keep an eye out for surface bubbles which is a tell tale sign Carp are feeding.
Pro Angling Tip: If possible, cast one line just a bit further out from where your chum area is. I’ve caught some of my biggest fish just past the chum line.
There’s also a one bait wonder for catching both Carp & Buffalo. And it’s even easier to use than sweet corn. I’ll address that in a future article. 😉
June 29, 2024
