If memory serves, when a carp takes the bait, they suck it deep into their throat to crush it before they swallow it. So hook tied on like a snell, with short piece (couple inches) of dropper line, and corn is threaded onto that. Results in a lip catch vs. a deep throat catch and blood all over the place.

Set drag light and hang on to first run.....or you will be tying on a new hook + no fish. When soaking the corn, a few drops of vanilla won't hurt.

And who can remember setting bank lines with cotton seed cake?

What do you do with them once you catch them?

Coon bait and fertilizer

I use circle hooks. No hook set required and no deep hook sets.

They are pretty good smoked.
just

Score em.......then fry em.

My first trip to England with the Air Force I was over there for four years. Concentrated on pike fishing as you know, carp are trash fish. Big mistake on my part. Carp in the UK are much harder to catch, because it is all catch and release and the big boys get very smart over time. I mean 60 to 90 pound carp take really refined techniques. That's where the fun is. Here in the US, can of corn and you can catch all kinds of 5 to 20 pounders, with an occasional monster. But if you target big carp you'll normally have to tone your gear down. Boillies are a great carp bait. Lots of exotic flavors. My second trip to the UK I hooked up with some carp fisherman and learned how they fished for them, MUCH smaller hooks, lighter line and much longer carp rods. I have rod pods, bite indicators that beep and light up when I get a bite. It's a lot of fun. Here I have to wade through a lot of smaller fish to get to the big boys. I used to take my kids carp fishing when they were little. They didn't know carp was a "trash" fish, but they learned to fight big fish on light tackle. Non-stop action for the kids, what's not to love!

We can a bunch of Carp every other year or so. I like catching them in the spring for canning.

We pick up nightcrawlers after a rain this time of year. Then when the water in the river is on the rise and is getting muddy from run off, Carp seem to throw caution to the wind as far as line and weight shyness. We use our regular PVC Catfish set line rods, just with snells that have smaller hooks, usually #2 Gamatsu octopus. Thread crawler on and drop close to the bank when water is high. When the water is normal Carp almost never bite a rig like that but something about rising water makes them aggressive. Running 15-20 lines usually boats enough to can in a couple days of checking.

The simplest of methods can be used to catch carp, however carp can be weary and line shy at times and will refuse or spit a bait more than ya realize. The advantage of using a hair rig is the carp tend to mouth a bait- by this they may suck in a spit out a bait with out you having any indication they had messed with the offering. So having a hair rig when they mouth and "spit" the bait the exposed hook nabs them right in the mouth.











The initial feel of the barb makes them "take off" resulting in a automatic hook set!



If you are fishing muddy/grassy bottoms pop ups are the way to go...







If you want to fish this way and not invest much money $$$ here are a few pointers to try... PVA packing pellets are made to dissolve in water (you can find these free) just dampen and wrap around bait and cast out. The PVA quickly melts and you have a bait sitting on top of any weeds or mud.












If you do decide to go the pop up way your bait will stay buoyant, also a great suggestion is to use a marshmallow (I have yet to try this, but sure it would work)...


A great homemade bait can be made by taking a can of corn some kosher(non iodized) salt and some flavored jello mix and let it sit for a day or two...






Fake corn will work too especially if you chum the area for a few days in a row before fishing (check your game laws first) it would be easy to make a tool out of a piece of wire (also free) and use some scrap mono (80-100lb or clothing tag plastic) as your stop at the end of the hair rig...


I will also just cut some maple branches for rod holders (also free lol)...

So you can get yourself started very cheap, carp fishing is lots of fun and a great way to take a KID fishing the action can be so fast at times you can not fish more than one rod!


Here is a 2 min video of a butterfly koi I caught on a ultra light with braid line and a hair rig...













Good Luck



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Way we do it

Great pics River Birch.
I will use a hair rig on occasion but I just leave the tag end of my snell knot long and tie a loop in the end. Since you need a bait needle in order to rig these properly, I just make one. I take a large sewing needle (Dollar Store) and file a slot into the eye. I have also used piece of light gauge SS wire and bend a very small shepherd's hook onto the end... but the needles work better and there is less tearing of the bait.

A lot of great info. Thanks. River Birch,, those are some great pictures, very helpful. Thank you. Looks like you take it pretty serious!

Yup try and have a hook or rig for every type of condition, find myself changing it up depending on a river, lake ,pond or a swamp... Fun fish to catch especially in local waters where people have no idea the size of fish found...

My hook array lol...






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Best cage bait going nothing I have not caught using carp as bait including coyotes and bobcats everything likes carp! Cut into palm size stakes add to your bucket/cage setups and they will come.

I have a cheap Cummings meat saw just for that job cut then frozen right out of the freezer works like a dream and it’s FREE.

Sorry if I missed it but does carp yield decent fish oil?

To me carp makes a much better chunk bait. The oil I have made seems to be a bit sour smelling... It is possible my rendering method is flawed?

I will say because I have access to as much menhaden (bunker) as I need they make a much better fish oil...





This is one throw of a cast net, many times we have to let half the net out before pulling the bunker on board...




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