CARP!

Well it’s spring again, when there is love in the air and a young man’s fancy turns to CARP FISHING! I don’t know much but I do know this… and here is everything from my time tested recipe for carp dough... to how to catch ‘em. Good luck!

Ingredients:
Flour or cheap pancake mix
Corn Meal
Sugar
Cheap Pancake Syrup not the real thing – it’s for the maple smell
Water
Blackstrap Molasses

Take an old coffee can, I don’t why, just superstition, as I have always done it this way, and start with a couple of cups of flour, heave in some good shakes of the corn meal. Don’t worry as you can’t screw this up and you can always add stuff later. Shake sugar in, add maple syrup and molasses. Then add water as need be. You need a good wooden spoon to stir this mess up. Add ingredients as you go to make it like a thick cookie dough and not watery. When you are done you should be able to handle this thing like a big brown stinky softball but not syrupy, if that makes sense. Make sure you use the molasses as the stuff is like tar and will hold the dough ball together in the water. Resist the urge to taste it, because it tastes like crap. Now refrigerate this dough over night.

Now here’s the part nobody tells you about and it has always worked for me when cultivating a new carp hole. You need to go there everyday for a week and just chum the hole. Take balls of the dough and throw them out into the water. Throw 20 of them around and leave. Do this around the same time everyday. I never carp fish in the morning. I always fish in the middle of the day when nothing else is hitting except for these big dumb bastards. After a while you will see them swirling around in the water waiting like idiots for your chum.

When you can’t stand it any longer bring your poles. It’s better with 2 or 3 of your buddies as you have more bait in the water and there is somebody there to back up your incredible carp stories. Always run 2 poles per person stretched out down the shore. You need to always chum the hole with dough. Use a smaller hook then you think like a size 6 and run 8 to 10 pound test maximum. A bigger hook the carp will feel and drop the bait and a heavy line doesn’t cast. It’s all about the tensile strength anyway. I once caught a 27lb carp on an ultra lite with 4lb test so it can be done. I couldn’t lift my arms to scratch my nose for a month but that’s another story altogether.

Remember, chum the hole then form the dough ball around your hook to the size of a Titelist or Maxfli or whatever the hell it is you use on the course. I have no endorsements so I make my dough balls the size of an X out or a water ball that I have pulled out of what ever crappy course I’m on.

Now casting is an art with this or else the dough flies off the hook and becomes more chum. Don’t muscleman cast as much as you kinda of lob it out there. You don’t need to be real far out cause when these bastards get hooked they will handle that for you. I always prop my rods up with sticks or a rod holder so the tip is high and the line snug but not taut. When they start to gum the bait you’ll get some preliminary tugs but wait until a couple of good tugs and then pick up the rod and set the hook. Yell, “FISH ON” so your buddies can pull all their lines in. Make sure your drag is set so they can run or your line will break. Then you have to start working them back to shore like guys on fishing boats by walking backwards or pulling the rod back and reeling in the slack.

What ever you do, don’t pull a Kevin Ashman, or as it’s known by us a KDA. Kevin was a room mate of mine and a fishing buddy who always lowered his rod tip straight at the fish while John Bills yelled, “GET YOUR POLE UP, GET YOUR POLE UP”, ker-snap went his line every time. I haven’t seen Kevin in 20 years and all I can say if your reading this is.... sorry but it’s true.

Make sure you bring a long pole net because you can’t beach big carp, they will just roll over and break the line. Hopefully you will have John Bills there ‘cause he will go diving in after the son of a bitch. It didn’t matter if John had a brand new pair of hundred dollar sneakers on, he was going in and wrestling the rat bastard to shore. I’ve seen him with that look in his eye and I don’t mean the carp. Just don’t get between Bills and a fish or you will get hurt.

When you get him in, lay him on the bank, then you and your buddies can jump up and down yelling, “WILL YA LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BASTARD” then throw him back and start all over again.

So that’s my trick. Hope it works for you. Let me know how you make out.

For some good info go here http://www.carp.com/