ANYBODY FISH FOR CARP????

[davemo]

Just wondering if any of you folks ever fish for carp? I know it is very popular in europe and asia ,this morning i was watching in-fisherman and noticed they had a segment on it.With the big head carp becoming increasingly abundant in missouri rivers and lakes (and quite a nuisance i think) I am thinking of taking it up myself i know some folks who fish for the common carp regularly and they say it is quite fun as the fish bite very well and are great fighters.I ate some ho-made pickled carp last summer and it was quite good.So post up anybody out there fishing fer CARP???

[DShootnstGentemn]

Yeah, I used to fish for 'em when I was a kid. What you say is dead on, they are GREAT fighters! They are also a pretty easy catch. They are good fried too, if ya score 'em right.

[cook]

Ditto on the great fight/lotsa fun.As far as easy to catch....well I can catch then purty regular....iffin I'm fishing for cats but if I'm targeting carp it seems to slow way down.
They really are a pretty fish,in their own special way.There was a man on the original cafe,Phonebush,that seened to travel the world to fish for dem,quite a character,wonder what happend to him?

[Kutter]

Cook, I tried emailing him several times. Seems he has changed email addresses. I liked that ol bird.

As for carp, I used to fish for them. Read up on how they fished for them across the pond. Used their techniques and gear also. It worked so well, I addapted it to how I fish for catfish when I am bankfishing. Rod Pods, Baitrunners, Hair Rigs, Bite Detecters an all.

[cook]

Hair rig-works quite well!!

[Wolfman]

Lot of fellows staring to use boiles(sp) for cats as well as carp now.
When the cats are slow them carp are a lot of fun on an ultralite rig...lol Make decent eatting if their prepared and cooked right to.

[bullitt]

I'll bite, what's a hair rig? What's a boiles? Hey Wolfie, now you can post up that you caught a 200 pounder! ME!
We baited with corn under a dock up in Rock Creek one tiem for carp. Figured the kids would enjoy catching some bigger fish. Those big carp tore up all the equipment! There were dead Zebco's and Johnson Century's all over the dock. Learned our lesson.

[Wolfman]

Boiles are a mixture of flour and other codiments, formed into a small ball then boiled to make the outer skin tough.

Ive got a mag around here somewhere with several recipies and the method for makeing them, ill see if i can find it.

It's a concoction the europeans came up with thats supposed to work real well for carp. Lot of guys are starting to use them for cats to.

If i remember the process correctly the tough outer skin keeps you from throwing it off when casting.

After it hits the water the skin starts to break down allowing tiny bits to float off drawing small fish and eventualy larger fish. By the time the carp/cat picks it up it's soften considerably so hookset is no problem.

'How to make Boilies.'

http://www.geocities.com/diabolo38/bouille.html



"The hair rig has long been popular with carp fishermen in Europe, and is gaining in popularity in North America, as Americans become tuned in to using either field corn (ie. feed or maize) or boilies (a hard, high-protein man-made bait) for bait. With the hair rig, the bait is actually suspended above the hook, rather than threaded directly on. This enables the carp to mouth the bait unencumbered by the hook. As the fish moves the bait towards it throat to crush it, the loose hook makes its way into the mouth."

http://socalangling.tripod.com/rigging/id5.html



I got the pics back of the 35 pounder bullit, turned out pretty decent. Got my lil 6 year old next to it for size comparison and she's a head taller then other kids her age. Fish looks big as her...lol I need to find a place to upload it as i still don't have an FTP program to upload it to my site.



Not sure how big chinese grass carp will get but 50 pounds for these oversized domestic goldfish we got isnt uncommon....lol

[Wolfman]

Something else thats fun as he!! is useing a flyrod to catch em bullit. Find em when their sucking down maple and elm buds off the surface. get your flyrod and toss a fly similar to the buds on the water real easy in front of a feeding carp. Kinda like going for bonefish, got to be slow, gentle and accurate. let the old carp suck the fly in then nail him and hang on. Even a lil old 5 or 6 pounder will give you one wild fight!

[Kutter]

Sounds like fun the Wolfie.
The hair rig has only limited success for cats. A carp sucks in the bait and blows it back out several times before eating. The idea is with having the bait tied to a thin dacron line, then tying the other end off about two inches, to the hood main shank. Sort of like useing the bait as a tandem. When the carp inhales the bait and blows it back out, the hook generally wil catch on the corner of the mouth. I have tried using the hair rig, but most cats ended up gut hooked. Other than a few for eatin, I release most catfish. Gut hookin them is not an option with me.
All their other ideas work just fine for cats. They rarely use boats to fish out of over there. What we here have progressed over the last 30 years in boat technoldgy, they have progressed way past us in bankfishing knowledge. I do draw the line in some of their rods, though. Some of them folks use 30 ft rods to either cast a mile or to reach around snags. Their various methods of detecting a bite would put us to shame though.

[Wolfman]

Think they was the one that came up with the electronic bite detector, good to 300 feet or so...lol

Got them nasty eel looking wels cats over there to!...lol
One of the guys at Bass pro tonight when he found out i was a catter said he had a pic of the '125 pound record blue' on the cork board. Well haveing already seen a pic circulateing the net and last record blue i heard of being about 116 pounds down in texas, i asked him if it was'nt the fake circulateing. Gave me a funny look and said 'no.'
Soon as i looked at it i started laughing at him and told him it was the wels cat pic thats been circulateing the net as a 125 pound blue. Pointed out the tail, anal fin and other small details to him. Don't know how many people had seen that pic with 125 pound record blue stenciled across it...lol
Some of them nasty buggers will get to be 300 pounds and their mostly catch n release.

[cook]

One question I've never had answered-why those 1-2 pound carp are always jumping out of rhe water?The world may never know.

[oneshot]

Love fishing for Carp and Buffalo.I usally go out and catch a bunch.Can up the Carp,Fry the Buffalo.

oneshot
The big Grin loves Big Fish.

[Wolfman]

Them big ones will take a good leap every so often as well.
Course them stupid big head carp get spooked by passing boats and think their flying fish all of a sudden...lol

Last fall untill the white bass really got going on surface action it was a bit hard at times telling which was carp jumping, and which was white bass up at stockton of a morning...lol Once them whites hit their stride though it was'nt any comparison. Looked like a big hail storm on the water...lol

[bullitt]

Last spring, I was was up Rock Creek on TR. The carp were spawning, and the water was shallow as pizz on a plate. We spooked a blue heron, which flew right down the edge of the bank for 300 yds or so. The carp in that shallow water just blew up! They stirred up so much water, that it looked like the heron was on a bombing run. Really cool!