There's a decent sized lagoon/pond around my old high school and while there's some small bass in there, BIG carp are in there too. Its pretty shallow, so since they're so big you can see them swimming around (they even jump a lot too), but the thing is I've never been able to catch one. So far I've just been bobber fishing with nightcrawlers, would I be better off using corn and then just letting it sink to the bottom? If so, should I patiently let them swallow the bait and try to run off or do I gotta try and hook them fast before they spit out the hook? Thanks.

Granted....I'm fairly hammered right now...but when I saw this I read "fishing for CRAP"...lol

There is also a small pond next to my high school as well, but I think the only thing you'd be fishing out of there are old tires and used condoms. Doh.

Well they are asian carp, you just need to start doing laps in a boat at speed out there on the lake. The carp will litterally jump in the boat.

Frankly I think they are a trash fish, but each their own.

Quoting L-188 (Reply 2): Well they are asian carp, you just need to start doing laps in a boat at speed out there on the lake. The carp will litterally jump in the boat.

I'm not talking about the "flying" carp, these are the "common" types from Europe.

From my experience with those type of carp they will bite on almost anything. I always used corn and caught dozens and dozens. Ham, turkey, hotdogs, and just about anything worked.

My uncle lives on a lake in east Tennessee and he trained them to come around when he knocked on his dock with a hammer. He fed them pellet fish food as a reward and you could literally scoop them up with your hands or a net. I would go on many occasions and just bang on the dock and they'd come, looking for a meal. Totally wild fish, trained to come looking.

It was all a novelty because they were absolutely awful to eat. I never knew one person who actually ate a carp, let alone any fish from a lake around here. It was always trout from the mountain rivers- and even then they were so small you'd have to have a couple just to feed two people, but it was tasty.

The fish from walmart was just as good, with half the price and 10 times less effort and time.

In my admittedly relatively limited experience, I have found that carp love spam. No need to go deep (you say can see them, which is pretty typical).

I have even managed to net them with no bait, though they are pretty quick!

When I was a kid growing up, I lived in a town in southwest Ohio, and the Great Miami River ran right past my town; back then, every paper mill, and every business near the river dumped their chemicals, and anything they didn't want in the river; the only fish that could survive in such polluted water were catfish and carp. We used to catch them just for the fun of it; (always threw them back, btw) We always used doughballs for bait; making doughballs is a bit of an "art"; (I was never worth a nickle at it) As I remember, you just start with plain white bread, get it slightly wet, and keep "working" it with your hands, adding small amounts of water as needed; when you get the dough nice and "doughy", put it on a hook, then let it hang in some boiling water for a few seconds; this makes it much tougher, causing it to stay on the hook much better. Carp will bite on just about anything, but doughballs are the best bait to use. BTW, you were asking, "how to catch carp".............just the opposite of catching a bass; carp are called "bottom feeders"........they don't "grab" prey like a bass does; they swim very slow, right on the bottom, and when they find something to eat, they just kind "suck" it into their mouth; catching them requires a lot of patience; when you first "feel" them taking the bait, you wait for a few seconds, then draw back on the rod, setting the hook very slowly, very "gently"; you really need them to swallow the dougball and hook; if you try to set the hook before they swallow the bait, their mouth parts are very soft, and won't hold the hook. And forget using bobbers; carp get 90% of their food on the bottom; even more so than catfish.


My brother-in-law was 18 yrs older than me, and was kinda like a big brother; used to take me fishing and rabbit hunting when I was still maybe 10 yrs old; he always fished for catfish; he always made jokes about "certain people" who ate the carp they caught; used to say, the BEST way to cook, prepare a carp...........get several fresh "cow pies", lay the carp on a board, pack the "cow-pies" all around the carp, then stick it all in the oven for an hour or so; then take it out, pick away all the "cow-pies", and throw it, PLUS the carp, in the garbage can, and eat the board. ( season to taste, plus add ketsup )

When I was 10 years old, I thought this was the funniest thing ever ! (but that was 70 yrs ago, and I doubt if many will see the humor now !) (My, how times have changed !)

Charley

corn should work fine, normal carp might be fun to bring in they are pretty big.

asian carp = find it, kill it, keep killing. dont ever throw it back in the water.

Top fish. Use no weight and attach a piece or two of popcorn (popped, of course) to the hook and drop it to the water and let it float on the top. You'll catch all you want.

Great fighters. Horrible dinner.

Quoting geezer (Reply 6): We used to catch them just for the fun of it; (always threw them back, btw) We always used doughballs for bait; making doughballs is a bit of an "art"

I did the same when I was younger. I never ate one (kind of gross to think of doing so) and actually never really enjoyed fishing (it was just something to do when I was young and bored)!

My cousin and I used a recipe very similar to this one (an uncle of mine shared it with me at the time):
http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/blogs/...awberry-doughball-recipe-for-carp/

The above is cheap and as effective as anything I'd ever used.

Here in Miami we have the Grasa Carp and European Carp, the grass carp I've noticed is much more willing to bite the pretty much anything but the Eueropean Carp is much more finicky IMO really only dough balls being success with them. Basically, if you want I catch them (they are pretty sluggish fighters, they're just really big) get a nice sized hook and cover it in bread and sit and wait. Don't jiggle the bait dont try to attract anything if you see them you cast it about 2 ft. away and they'll come along. Good luck!