Your Questions About Carp Fishing Tips

Joy answers:

I do a lot of carp fishing here in the USA. I’m not sure where you’re from so I’ll give my tips from an american point of view. First off, carp don’t hang around cover as much as other fish do. Heck, just cast your bait out in the middle of nowhere, a carp will eventually find it and eat it. Most carp hang out in shallow water, especially from fall through early spring. You can find them in anywhere from 3′ to 10′ of water at these times.

Bread will work but to make the fish find the bait faster, I like to use a flavored dough-bait.

My recipe to make it is like this. You need a big bowl, non-stick cooking spray, peanut butter, maple syrup, and bread. First, spray the bowl (and your hands) throughly with non-stick cooking spray, then put two pieces of bread into the bottom of the bowl. Add a BIG scoop of peanut butter followed by a big squirt of maple syrup. You’re going to want to put another piece or two of bread on top of this mixture as well.

Your hands are going to do the dirty work. Just mold this bait into a solid ball. It should be about the size of softball with that list of ingredients, but make any size of dough-ball as you want. One softball sized ball lasts about one or two fishing trips. To put the bait on your hook, simply get a piece from the ball large enough just to cover the hook, and mold it around the hook. It normally looks like a “bell” shape when I mold it on the hook. I prefer #2 baitholder hooks from Eagle Claw for this bait. Treble hooks can work too, size #6 should do fine, but they deeply hook a lot of fish and easily get snagged by weeds.

Use at least 2 rods at least. I prefer to use 2 or even 3 rods out for carp. As these fish will be spread out all throughout the water column.

I prefer a reel that holds anywhere from 160 – 260 yards of 12lb mono. I prefer a 7′ medium action rod rated for 6 to 15lb line. I use mostly 12lb but you can use 8lb, 10lb, 12lb, or maybe even 14lb.