bait

What’s a good bait for carp? Have a local lake loaded with them but can’t seem to catch them. We use night crawlers catfishing out there and have got a few carp but what would be something carp would love? It’s a small shallow lake with very bad clarity if that makes a difference. Thanks

My go to bait for carp is oatmeal. Buy the quick oats put a little in your hand and get wet an squish it around till a stiff dough forms, form a ball about the size of a big grape and mold around your hook. You also can’t go wrong with using sweet corn. Hope this helps!

Tight Lines!
Kevin

Definitely try corn. You can also try canned shrimp. Mix it up until you figure them out.

Do you guys bobber fish for them or let it sit on the bottom?

Primarily bottom fish for them.

Yup, mostly bottom with a Lindy rig. I sometimes use a small float with it to keep it nuetral buoyant or float a little off the bottom.

One thing I tried once that was fun was using a little grub. The plastic body with feathers for a tail. On the Sandy I’d reel it very slow and they hit it.

Ok thanks for the help!

If you live where it is legal, chum with corn.

I was fishing once and accidentally discarded some corn next thing we knew it was one fish after another.

I don’t think that’s legal in Minnesota but I’ll look

It’s not.

Yes, don’t “accidentally” spill your corn.
DT

On the same lines of the oatmeal bait,
as a youngster buds and I would walk down to the river with a can of flour and water mixture made into a dough. Glob it on the hook cast it out and wate and in no time we would have a heck of a fight on the line.
I tried corn but my line would always break from casting that darn can.

A small box of Wheaties and a loaf of bread used with a dribble of water to make a small dough balls works.

deertracker wrote:

Yes, don’t “accidentally” spill your corn.
DT

Or feed the ducks.

Here’s one for you about feeding the ducks. Chumming is legal in Iowa so I always spray half a can of corn into the water where I am fishing. One day after doing so, a couple families of ducks swam by. One dove in the area I had chummed. Pretty soon, they were all diving and I could see them when the came to the surface, some with a cernal of corn in their beak. Rotten ducks ate all my chum. I didn’t catch a carp that evening.

Heres a good bait to try. Go to you local grocery store, buy a package of doughnut holes (or whole doughnuts for that matter). The ones with sugar and cinnimon seem to work best. Squish a couple in your hand, add some water and mix untill you have a good dough. Put that on a small treble hook and you have some good doughball. Carp love it. I still use corn everytime I go out but the doughnut doughballs are usually a hit. The added bennifit to the doughtnut holes is you can munch on them while you’re waiting.

Carp are fun to catch and they are good to eat. I like them smoked or deep fried.

L8R…Ken

Do they Bite at night or just during the day?