carp snagging

[spoopa]

Hey guys,

Me and my dad were on the lake yesterday and we seen hundreds of carp so I tied on a snagging hook and thats what we "tried" for the rest of the day. Lol I thought it was going to be very easy and it was actually not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Well I was using mono at first and soon realized I was getting no where with it so I switched to some braid. After about two hours of trying I finally snagged one, well he got to the boat and once he seen the boat he just dove down and the hook came out and alls i had was just a few scales.. Same thing happened to may dad also.

So I was wondering if there is a certain way to do this or if its just a thing that you have to go out and do a few times to get the hang of it? Lol I thought this was actaully quite fun to!

Thanks, Jacob

[Richard Prager]

Look for overhanging trees in the area that has berries. You can catch Carp on those berries.

[diemai]

@ spoopa

What you have described is strictly illegal in Europe !

If you see them on surface , you can try some fresh white bread on a short shanked strong walleye hook(guess you don't have easy access to special carp hooks over there) , leave the outer crust on it , since it holds better on the hook . Also chum those bread crumbs to attract them .

As a casting weight use a bubble float , best is a transparent one not to spook the carp , the leader below the float should be minimum 5 feet long for the bread bait to float a bit away from the bubble .

Don't cast directly at the located fish , but a few yards further and carefully reel your bait in to approach the carp .

You need to observe your bread bait well to see some big lips engulfing it ,..... as it vanishes , set the hook instantly , before the carp feels the steel and possibly spits out again !

I do not recommend braid for carp fishing(unless for snagging 'em:lol:) , since they are very powerful , the hooks are easy to tear out of their mouths , if barely hooked ,....you really need to play them until they get tired , forcing them in often leads to loss .

Mono line is far more flexible for that purpose . For the small local springtime carp I use 8 pound test mono , but for the real big ones(up to 50 lbs caught in Germany) the local cracks take 14 to 16 lbs test , I suppose ,.... but also depends on local water conditions .

If interested in carp fishing ,try and google for some European sites , you'll be surprised and call these guys nuts:lol: , I guess ,....... they're making a big science out of it , would be hard to believe for American lure casters:lol:!

good luck , Dieter

[kelly]

Here a carp is a non game species(trash fish). You can snag them. I have tied two size 6 or 8 treble hooks on one continues line then at the bottom I Tie a weight. Like a drop shot rig with two trebles up the line. Above that use a bubble. The setup is two cast past the fish then real past them the hooks are weighted to sink and rap around the fish. That is fun helping out the heath of the lake. Throwing spears and bow hunting them is also a blast. Bow hunting them here is actually encouraged.

[diemai]

@ kelly

Once a Finnish friend told me , that in some remote places of the country people go hunt for surface pike with shotguns ,..........if you'd go there fishing for the pike , they'd also point their barrels at you to get you off their fishing grounds:( !

Not very friendly , I'd say ,...... both not to the pike nor the anglers:angry: !

greetz , diemai:yay:

[spoopa]

Hey guys, thanks for your replies..

Well I think I will try to go for carp with the bread method, I kinda feel bad for snagging the carp but they decimate the bass beds and just eat all kinds of the eggs of the other fish. I would not bother with the carp but no one at our lake does anything about them. I was walking along the docks the other day and it was quite sad seeing the carp chase the bass off their beds then just sucking in all the eggs:cry:.

Its a tough decision to make right now, I think ill just catch for game right now since nothing else is to hot at the lake, lol they are some good fighters to! Really strong and tough fish:lol:. I would start to kill the carp but the bass arent declining at our lake to bad, actaully this year has been the best year for them so they must be making a come back:).

@ Dieter

lol those Europeans sure do catch some monster carp, wouldnt mind hooking up with some of those beast. I just cant believe how technical they get sometimes:eek:. Well fishing is fishing haha.

Thanks, Jacob

[philB]

Hi Spoopa

I was interested in your posting and the replies. I would have thought there would be many more. It is interesting the different attitudes toward fish by anglers in different countries. Your comments if posted or aired here in the UK would have caused a firestorm of controversy. I cannot condone the 'snagging' of any fish be they, as you term it, verim or otherwise. I cannot condone killing for killings sake within angling per se.

I have never had a problem with taking fish for the table but cannot get to grips with taking fish just to throw away. Man cannot effect the course of nature. Sure your Carp will find Bass eggs and fry a tasty morsel but rest assured so will most of the other fish in your lake, all fish regardless will not refuse spawn or tiny fry if they come across them. Carp are a real powerhouse of a fish and I would suggest you target them as a sporting quarry but hold on to your rod tight if you latch onto one of those big girls . You kind of answered your own concern with your last statement, nature has its own ways of balancing things out ecologically.

philB

Edited June 13, 2009 by philB
Typo

[Vodkaman]

I agree with Phil. It is just the way we were brought up in the UK. Next to salmon and trout, the common carp is probably the next most revered fish, pike comming in at No4. Snagging carp in the UK is a definate no no.

I tail hooked a 4Lb tench once. It took me the best part of an hour to get it in. I was totally distraught, partly from the embarrassment of foul hooking this descent sized fish, but mostly because I was convinced that I had a 7Lb specimen on my line.

If you fish for carp in a traditional manner, you will not be disappointed.

Dave

[spoopa]

Hey guys,

Just got done fishing today and nothing was biting so we went after the carp. Well they were on spawn so they were going crazy in the weeds, I tried using bread and they refused to bite it (its cause they are on spawn right?). So I tied on two trebles and put a weight at the bottom of the line:o. Well once agian it was pretty darn tough to get anything like that lol. Fished all day and we only hooked up a couple times. But finally got one in the tail and he took off:oooh:. He wreaked havoc for a couple minutes but my dad finally got the net on to him and boy was that a big fish. He was 28inches long and he was easily over 10lbs, my dad thinks about 15. Well we didnt kill him or anything, just threw him back and hopefully i can catch him again lol.

But I really dont think that the carp get anymore hurt from snagging veruses hooking them in the mouth. Thats just what i seen today though, I could image if someone was using a big ole 10/0 treble and some 60lb braid then i can see that messing up the fish. That was fun and all but I would really like to catch them without having to snag them....

So I was wondering what kind of setups work for you guys? Also is it possible to catch these fish with artifical lures? I have read in the fly book that you can use flies to catch these monsters but Im kinda confused on what to use:lolhuh:.

Thanks, Jacob

[kelly]

Related links

• Commission Plans to Make Improvements at Utah Lake Video
  

UTAH COUNTY, Utah - A public hearing was held Thursday regarding the Utah Lake Commission's plan to make the lake more accessible to fishers, boaters and others who use the lake for recreation. Other plans include restoring Utah Lake's beaches and adding hiking and bicycle trails along the shoreline. Most importantly, the plan allows for the removal of 5 million pounds of carp from Utah Lake every year for the next seven years. The carp removal is estimated to cost $1.5 million/year. Details on the costs for the other improvements are expected Thursday. Some in attendance at the hearing expressed concerns about investing too much money into Utah Lake.

"We have to realize that Utah Lake is not Lake Tahoe. It can only be so much; it can't be everything. So, we have to work within the parameters that nature has given us," said Dick Buehler of the Division of Forestry Fire.

FOX 13's Nineveh Dinha has more.

Copyright

[diemai]

@ spoopa

Some weeks ago there was a little disscussion about carp on the Australian site http://www.lureandmore.com , obviously the Aussies are having the same problem with carp like you in the US seem to have ,...............brought there as alien species and disturbing the local ones !

During that discussion one member there assured me , that the carp down under can be targeted with small crankbaits , which I could not believe ! Probably they got too plenty , so that the forage is not enough ????

In Europe , you hardly accidentally catch carp , tench , bream , etc. on (smallest) lures , highest chances are during the time of year , when freshly hatched fry is moving around , but nobody fishes for them with lures , its just accidental !

Carp are not native here in central Europe as well , they were brought here from the Far East centuries ago , at first bred in monastry hatcheries to act as a non-meat food source during the catholic feasting time .

OK , we do not have too many natural trout waters anymore , but nobody blames it on the carp but on human made problems like pollution or turning any wild creeks and rivers to canals .

And carp have never turned to a pest in our waters over here , probably because they usually do not spawn too often , since usually it doesn't get warm enough for it frequently here up north , second because many of them end up in kitchen .

Guess , that you don't wanna become an European style carp crack , fishing boilies on knotless hair rigs and/or helicopter rigs with backleads attached and utilizing electric wireless bite alarms , sleeping in a brolly camp at night:lol: !

I think , that you won't need it , anyway , as the carp seem to be so plenty !

When surface bait does not work (seldom on warm days over here , anyway) , carp are bottom located(not neccessarely the deepest spots , though) , so you need your bait on bottom , either by a sinker(with chumming baskets or without) or float set-up .

Make sure to activate freespool function , leave some slack in the line of a float set-up or just be on alert all of the time , if you don't wanna lose your rod , sometimes they are very enthusiastic !

But most likely they are quite cautious in taking the bait , so you often need to set the hook fast , they won't give a second chance !

Probably different in your place , as they don't seem to be as pressured as over here ?

This is why , the guys over here use self-hooksetting rigs , so the can even sleep in their tents at night ,... the carp hooks itself and the strike alarm wakes the angler up to play the fish to land it .

Also swingtip , -quivertip , and feeder rods are a dead sure weapon for successful bottom fishing(doesn't work from a boat) , but require permanent attention , setting the hook with these has something of a revolver quick draw !

Greetz , Dieter:yay:

Edited June 13, 2009 by diemai

[spoopa]

@ Dieter,

Yes the waters here have little to no carp fishermen, most the times you can see small groups of carp just cruising the surface. They are very spooky fish though, if they sense that anything is near them that doesnt belong there they bolt away and it takes a good while for them to come back.

Lol one time we caught a carp with a small rapala shad rap one time, he was just a small guy. Then one time me and my friends were just fishing the docks and i had my spoon sitting in the water hanging off the dock and a carp came up for a look and took off with it! Luckily I had my pole in my hand so I got to have a little fun with the fish8O.

Well next question arises, what kind of bait? I have heard of bread balls and also corn, then some of my friends just used some meat off there hotdogs:lolhuh:. So is there anything specific to use? I also take it that the fish will like to have a small amount veruses a large amount of the bait? The reason I say this is so you can get a hookset with smaller hooks.

Thanks, Jacob

[Vodkaman]

In the UK, not all the waters contain carp. Usually you have to pay $20 a day for the privilage to fish a carp water. All the good fishing holes are private and member only, with waiting lists years long. I did not catch my first carp until I was in my 20's when I could afford the day ticket.

Carp do not fare well in clear or moving waters, preferring muddy holes.

I am not including crucian carp in the above statements, as they are a very different animal, rarely growing much more than 6ozs, the record is 4Lb 9oz. The biggest I ever caught was 15ozs, at Blenheim palace (my uncle worked there).

If the carp senses or feels the hook or line, it will eject the offering. For this reason, carp anglers use hair rigs. This involves tying a short piece of spagetti (uncooked!) to 1/2Lb mono. Thread the line through the compacted bait with a needle. Then insert the spagetti into the bait to hold. Tie the leader to the hook, such that the bait trails the hook by about 2". The carp mouths the bait and once happy, sucks the bait in, along with the hook.

Anglers either buy preformed baits, called boilies or make their own concoctions. A few web searches should reveal lots of recipes.

Dave

[kelly]

Cant use corn to fish with here in Utah. The trout cant digest it plugging them up and killing them slow. Hot dogs and bread dose work but for bait there is two things we use if we are fishing for catfish and carp. Old fashioned worms and a mix of whatever crap you can find for free. Like a liver, oatmeal and shrimp mixed together. heck if you have a bug problem mix them in. The trick is to tie any kind of mesh (plastic or cloth) to the hook making a bait ball. Using a small string tyeing a knot on bottom inside out, smash the bait on then pulling the bag over the bait then tyeing a not on top. Make Shir it will fit in the fishes mouth. Put on a bubble and cast it out. It lets out particles like your chumming. Let it sit a bit then jerk the like letting it bleed out a little more out. All that sent in the water makes them go nuts. Just remember use what ever you can find for free. Crackers, any thing bloody, other fish, crawdad, last nights meatloaf, fish eggs, cooked eggs, peanut butter, cheese be creative. I would not recommend you using the blender you eat from but a wooden spoon to smash and break up everything.

Edited June 14, 2009 by kelly

[diemai]

@ spoopa

You can use homemade dough of old bread and flour to stick , scent it with curry , sugar , Asian fish sauce , crunched catfood , etc. (anything might work , as long as it makes up for a firm , lasting dough) ....... , before the Boilie craze came up , the people over here used nightcrawler worms ,and half boiled smaller potatoes , soft enough for the hook to break through , when hauling back for hookset(rig these with a baiting needle) .

Also a dough of ground trout pellets might work(the kind they use in hatcheries to feed them).

Also fine is dogfood , the kind ringed like a donut , you can make a hair-rig and tie them onto the hook with some thread . Some do float , try finding sinking one (might require some days of chumming the spot prior to fishing). Or grind it to powder and make a dough out of it .

To let dough last longer on the hook , take a small coil spring from a ballpen and stick it over hookbend and shank .

greetz , Dieter:yay:

Edited June 14, 2009 by diemai

[Vodkaman]

If you do a video google of 'carp bait' you'll find a bunch of easy to follow vids.

I viewed one recently which used fluffed up cotton wool in the mix. This helped hold the soft mixture onto the hook. Nothing worse than wondering if the bait is still attached.

Dave

[diemai]

@ Vodkaman

Made such cotton wool-reinforced dough as well , it really works !

But it is a nasty problem about having the dough eaten off the hook by small fish without noticing it !

To overcome this , I'd utilize subtle float set-ups with slender , sensitive floats , balance these with lead shot on mainline and leader in a way , that the float's longer antennas would just stick out a bit more than it is supposed to .

With a dough ball of approx. 1" dia. on the hook the float should either sink or hang visibly deeper .

It is essential to determine the exact depth , so that the float's antenna would still be sufficiently visible.... this method assures the bait to always lay at bottom and enables the angler to figure out about whether it is still sticking on the hook , .....since if it gets eaten away by small fish or softens to fall off , the set-up releases the weight of the dough bait and the float would rise up a little .

If a carp picks up the bait , the float would either vanish in a split second or pop up to lay flat on the surface , ........be fast to set the hook now;) !

Needless to say , that dough-baiting is only for shorter distances and "lazy" casts , powerful casts would let it fall off instantly .

greetz:yay: , Dieter

[philB]

Spoopa

If your carp are cruising on the surface try a floating dog biscuit or cat crunchie these can be fixed to the hook with a silicone band cos they are rock hard. Great fun taking fish off the surface with this method and if they are not fished for they should not have become too spooky.

[wetflyguy]

Spoopa

check out he CAG site.

Lots of carp fishing information there!

Phil and the others are right if fished for with the right rigs carp

are a great game fish.

Here in Pa. they are shot in some waters with bow and arrows

but there are lots of carp anglers that look out for them.

wet

[pirkfan]

I have fished for and caught carp....and haven't found them particularly challenging to catch....usually just a glob of worm and a couple of split shot to hold the bait on the bottom. They make strong runs, but never jump, some have called them "fresh water bonefish". Still, I really dislike them. I surely wish the US Government would have NOT been so diligent about spreading them around the country. Here in the Pacific Northwest, they have to be one of the most reviled fish in our waters (second only to the northern pikeminnow, which is actually a native fish)....fished for by few, eaten by less, and overpopulating waters in which they live. And they are able to survive and thrive in remarkably diverse places, nearly always to the detriment of water quality. Perhaps some of the European carp specialists on here would like to come to our state and fish for "wild" strain carp on a pristine carp stream such as the one running through our family farm...the only prerequisite...each carp must be retained.

[diemai]

@ pirkfan

As I hear , many Americans and also Australians complaining about their exploding carp populations , I don't understand , why not utilizing these as a food source , even for export only ,....... this is the purpose , that they were originally bred for in central Europe , about 700 years ago .

I watched on TV , that farm fisheries are an increasing business worldwide , as our oceans are more and more emptied by industrial fishing .

What people complain about in terms of carp spreading all around ,...... fast growth , good reproduction and capability to survive in many different habitats , is surely their advantage if used as a human food source .

I can imagine , that it is very easy to catch carp over there in the US or also Australia , .....since they are just not as pressured by far as they are over here .

The "real" carp anglers around here fish for trophies(CPR only)and carp are smart and shy , once caught and released ,.... you really need to think about some special methods and baits to fool them again .

Some easily recognizeable trophy fish in certain waters have been given names by the anglers , as they were caught frequently , most likely having gained some weight again each time .

But you'd be familiar to this from your local LM and SM bass in America as well , I guess .

Due to the big carp's "cleverness" you could almost never catch a big carp on common baits like nightcrawler worms , maggots , sweetcorn and dough in local waters over here ,.... it's always the smaller , unexperienced fish ocassionally falling for such .

Don't think , that you could get European carp cracks to minor the stock of your unwanted carp over there ,..........they dislike harming the fish and would never kill their catches , since they wanna catch'em still bigger next season again !

I guess , that your only chance to minor your carp stocks just a little bit , is to get certain groups of immigrants over there in the US , that are used to carp as a food source from their countries of origin , to fish them out ,...... but this would probably only be possible in highly populated areas , if at all ?

greetz , diemai:yay:

[BobP]

It's interesting to Google carp in the U.S. and find they were widely introduced by the federal and state governments in the late 1800's as a food source. Almost no river or lake of any size here in the SE is carp-free. But you won't find many carp fishermen here in the U.S., nor are they now cultivated for food. Here in North Carolina, there are a few carp fishermen who use rod and reel. Unlike Europe, they are often "stalked" and casted to like bonefish. The other method you see is carp hunting with bow and arrow from flats boats with raised platforms that allow the "hunters" see the fish in shallow water. Carp are long lived and grow very large here. It's typical to see schools of rarely molested 20-30 pounders cruising the shallows. When bass fishermen here in the U.S. have "educated" the last bass to avoid artificial lures, or have decimated the population through poor handling in the thousands of small tournaments held each year, carp fishing may catch on. 'Til then, it will be carp paradise for visiting fishermen from Europe.

[jack tibbens]

Cant use corn to fish with here in Utah. The trout cant digest it plugging them up and killing them slow. Hot dogs and bread dose work but for bait there is two things we use if we are fishing for catfish and carp. Old fashioned worms and a mix of whatever crap you can find for free. Like a liver, oatmeal and shrimp mixed together. heck if you have a bug problem mix them in. The trick is to tie any kind of mesh (plastic or cloth) to the hook making a bait ball. Using a small string tyeing a knot on bottom inside out, smash the bait on then pulling the bag over the bait then tyeing a not on top. Make Shir it will fit in the fishes mouth. Put on a bubble and cast it out. It lets out particles like your chumming. Let it sit a bit then jerk the like letting it bleed out a little more out. All that sent in the water makes them go nuts. Just remember use what ever you can find for free. Crackers, any thing bloody, other fish, crawdad, last nights meatloaf, fish eggs, cooked eggs, peanut butter, cheese be creative. I would not recommend you using the blender you eat from but a wooden spoon to smash and break up everything.

I also thought this to be true about corn but come to find out its not...i have spoke with many dep personal they have herd about it but have not found a true law about using corn for bait...That wouldd also be in CT so it might be alittle different

[Peterjay]

IMHO, snagging fish of any kind is no more sport fishing than is using hand grenades or a seine. In a lot of areas, including my part of the world, it isn't legal. As far as carp being non-native, rainbow trout and largemouth and smallmouth bass also aren't native to most of the waters in the U.S. where they're presently found. Brown trout aren't native to North America, period. Northern pike are another species that have been widely transplanted, and a lot of fishermen hate them worse than they do carp. When I lived in upstate N.Y., trout fishermen in the upper Delaware were squawking about the striped bass (native fish) that were eating the trout. (non-native fish) Guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

In some parts of the U.S., carp have a fairly wide following among flyrodders who sight-fish for them - it's very similar to bonefishing, and just as difficult. When I lived in Idaho, a friend of mine used to chum for carp with popcorn and catch them on white fly rod poppers. He claims it was very effective. As was mentioned above, chumming or bait fishing with corn is also illegal in a lot of areas. (including Rhode Island trout waters, which is where I fish) I don't know if popcorn would fall under that category or not, (LOL) but as long as we have tuna and striped bass around here, I'm never gonna have to worry about it.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Peterjay

[Crickrat]

i live on a stretch of river that has a completely untouched carp population. its a very popular smallmouth bass fishery but the carp are only caught accidentally. i've tried a few doughballs with no success, next year i'm going to order some boilies and hair rigs from the uk to see if that helps me catch them. we see extremely large carp all the time, and when we catfish on the river at night you can hear them splashing all night. it's unnerving too because it sounds like a large person doing a cannonball. for the longest time we'd just write it off as sasquatches messing around then somebody told me carp jump alot at night. All that being said, i've caught a few with just regular worms, and three with a rebel tiny wee craw. further downriver in the sticks the rednecks have a really weird method of finding carp. when they catch a carp they tie an inflated balloon around it with some thread then follow the balloon around and cast towards it, they claim it works like a charm but it could also just be some good old boys pulling my leg. either way it made me laugh.

does anyone know if you can fish for carp at night? during the summer i do a ton of smallie/catfishing at night, i'd set up a carp rig if i thought they would eat it.