My First Common Carp

[zippyFX]

Hi All,

I decided to mix things up this evening. I went out for Carp instead of Catfish this evening. I was a bit hesitant to give up a chance to at least get some fish today; I was not sure I wanted to be skunked this evening. But I gave it a try and it paid off.

One of the local fishing groups had a troll about Carp in a storm management facility near my home. I pinged the individual but never got any follow-up. I went there in the spring but did not see any signs of fish. Earlier this week I had some time at lunch so I decided to take a walk and see if there were any signs of fish. The water was cloudy but I did see allot of bubbling and I did see the some fish disturbing the water; Then out of nowhere a carp surfaced at a shallow area near where I was standing looked me in the eye and just slipped back into the water.

I went back to the spot this evening and figured I try for carp at night. I thought it maybe more difficult at night but thought I would give it a go anyway. Lorne from the Carp Anglers Forum had recommend a paylake style pack of oats and cream corn last year so I gave it a try. My mix was a little on the dry side and would not ball up sufficiently for a gentle toss. So I used it as a chum and threw in a couple of kilograms of corn to boot. I figured the pop up corn I had purchased would be better for a clearer water so tossed in a worm on #6 circle hook.

The end result was a 6 brown bullheads and 1 common carp. I think that now that I have dialed into what is required I maybe able to catch more in some more scenic locations in town.

Not that big; Estimated weight was about 2 pounds.

[MichaelAngelo]

Congrats there zippy! I hope this will open the door to many more. Last year I experimented with Lorne's "paylake" method and found that tossing the ball of packbait without breaking it was pretty frustrating. Anybody else have this problem?

I also got tired of blending bread LOL

[mcfly]

Nice Carp!

After this 'summer of carp' I've had, I eventually left off with an interesting chum mix recipe I'll share. I tested a lot of different mixtures, but my 'go-to' mix (if I had the funds - sometimes I do! lol), is the following:

Quick Rolled Oats (Base)
Oatmeal Cookie Dough Mix (Base)
Graham Cracker Crumbs
Animal Cracker Bits
Fruitpunch Drink Crystals
Pigeon Feed (contains several seeds, also dried corn kernals
Cream of Corn
Sweet Corn Kernals
Powerade (trust me, carp love electrolytes!)

In the right consistency it makes a very solid dough. This can be shaped into a baseball size sphere and thrown over 40' (depending on your arm). Also packs amazing on spring feeder and method feeders. I've found the best results with this mix and at times have watched a Pods of Carp hold and feed on a pile for hours. If left in a car, it retains moisture consistency for about 3 days (When it starts smelling awesome). It can also be refrigerated for even better results.

Most of the ingredients can be had from BulkBarn, and a full white bucket of chum should cost about $60

[OldTimer]

I seem to catch quite a few this year just using worms, or corn, or bread squeezed on hook with a dash of artificial vanilla extract.

OT