PUMP KNOWS said:
I hope this happens to me. I was hooked when I caught my first steelhead.
Today I went and bought a bunch of carp supplies. I invested too much on it to not give it a chance.
I'll take pics tomorrow but the main purchase that I really needed was a bite detector and a fold up chair.
Now, I need to learn how to tie my own hair rigs or find a source to buy them for cheap.
I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on this...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/36-X-CARP-Hair-Rigs-12lb-Braid-Barbless-Size-6-8-10-Rig-/271245331661?pt=UK_SportingGoods_FishingAcces_RL&hash=item3f277b4ccd
Thoughts?
Learn to tie hair rigs, you will lose a lot of them, cheaper to buy the hooklink material ( coated braids are the best ) and hooks and tie your own, its very very very simple tie. And always use a hair rig, bait directly on the hook can make you lose opportunities as the hook point wont have the very best chance of making contact with flesh when it blows the bait in and out of its mouth. All you need is a few essentail items to fish carp properly:
- a bait needle ( used to get the corns onto the hair) --> you can substitute a hook that is bent straight, using the barb to catch the loop of the hair
- hair stops --> youi can substitue a twig but you mighht as well just buy some hairstops, twigs break sometimes on the cast
- hooklink material , braid or flouro. VERY important, you wnat your hooklink to be 5lbs breaking strength weaker than your mainline. Snags happen and you dont want to lose all of your gear. I use 15lb hooklinks with 20lb mainline normally. you can get away with a lot less but the fish arent line shy so just use the strong stuff to avoid losing fish with rigs in their mouths/.
- good hooks, alot of guys talk about circle hooks, sure they work, but a much better hook would be a wide gape, curve shank type of hook with an in turned eye. these hooks are designed to roll over point down and strike the bottom lip of a carp when it lifts your bait from the bottom, a dull hook is not going to catch a carp, it needs be very sharp to catch the rubbery lips, the fish will set the hook on it self when it feels the pin prick
- very helpful to have lead clips, these plastic clips fit over the line and your swivel that connects your mainkline and hooklink fits into it. you can then attach a lead easily to the clip and if the lead snags the plastic clip will break allowing you to bring in your whole rig minus the lead(sinker)
- I recommend using a quick change clip as well, this is a small metal clip that allows you to quickly change your pretied hooklinks by detaching them from the mainline without retieing. these are not that important but makes things much smoother
- you need good bait. dont even bother with the sweet corn, its too darn small and soft. get yourself a 25kg bag of cattle corn from a feed supplier. you can soak and then cook this corn, the kernels are huge and firm, they stay on the hair much longer and small fish have a hard time eating it. Plus it is 100x times cheaper than buying cans all the time. I cook 5gallons worth at a time, keep it in a pale in the back yard. fill up a smaller bucket or bag for each outing.
- I also strongly recommend a large net, salmon net at the very least. carp nets are much larger than salmon nets, but a salmon net will do. Also I recommend that you bring some type of soft surface to lay the fish on to remove the hook if you are fishing somewhere with rocks or gravel. there is no need to hurt the fish by letting it flap around on dry pavement, rocks or gravel, lay it on some grass or bring something to lay it on, these things are big and powerful, they will flap on the rocks and smash their skull until they are dead. Ive seen it a million times with people who arent prepared and are afraid to un hook the fish they just caught, and for the love of god, dont hold them by theyre gill plate. it can break and kill the fish unnecessarily. If you plan to eat the fish, by all means, let it flap on the rocks, rip that gillplate open, but I dont think any of you will be eating them so treat them as nice as possible.
Theres alot to learn to be able to catch carp efficientlty, YES, it can be easy to catch one with a very simple setup, like a bass rod with a bottom bouce rig and corn on the hook instead of worm. but if you want to catch lots of carp, very large carp consistenctly and not miss opportunities you need to up your game. This is a wary prey, they are smart, powerful and careful, especially the bigger older ones.
a great resource for tieing various carp rigs can be found here :
http://www.korda.co.uk/rigz/how_to.php?id=10&rig=8 .
You should also invest in a carp reel if you havnt done so already. it helps to have a dual drag system so that you can set your rod down and when the fish takes the bait your running drag will be very loose so the fish can run, you then pick up the rod and engage your primary drag and the fight is on. if you are using a normal reel you will need to set your drag very loose and when you get a take you will need to tighten the drag before fighting the fish. otherwise, sit there and hold your rod for hours on end.
"YES it can takes hours on end for the bite to come, so patience is key. read a book or something wihile you wait. In fact, go get this book and read it, BEST RESOURCE PERIOD for our wild canadian carp is right here:
http://carpfishingincanada.com/
Most tackle shops have this in stock, pick up a copy. It covers EVERYTHING you need to know in depth.
I agree that there are many ways to catch carp, personally i prefer fly fishing for carp, it is THE MOST SIMPLE way to catch them, you need minimal equipment, just the rod and some flies and a pair of polarized glasses. But when bootom rigging for carp using bait, the more complex ways are the best. There is a billion dollar industry for carp fishing in europe. they have developed the most effective methods,technologies and equipment for catching carp. They do not bother with corn on a hook with a bass rod, its just not a good way to go about it. Learn from their many many years of carp fishing, carp in europe is more popular than bass and steelhead combined in canada.
