they dont bite

Welcome to the BOC,
We were @ Calaveras camping since Wed and only caught about 12 kitties but only kept 10 (I felt bad for taking so many since only those 12 hit):wink:

The folks next to us kindda foul hooked a fish btwn the mouth and eye w/ #2 treble w/shrimp. Must have weighed btwn 4.5-5'#s, good fight at first then he just gave up and went limp. (the fish NOT the guy LOL)

Rubes

 

Mikey,
Have you tried spam? It's a great carp bait and it's cheap and easy to use. A 1/2" or 3/4" cube on a size 4 or 6 hook will do it.
For the surface feeders try dry dog or cat food. Throw some into the eddies and slack water areas (so it doesn't float away)and keep watch. When they come around it won't take long for them to find it. Let them eat a some before putting you bait out.
A couple of pieces on a size 4 or 6 hook again will do it. If you can't get a hook into it without it breaking you can put a very small amount of warm water on it before you leave the house and it will soften it up but it will still float. Believe it or not you can also super glue the dry stuff to your hook. Attach a small float 3 or 4 feet from the hook to give you some casting weight...W

 

Welcome to the BOC Mike, Try using some cheese and corn .:wink:

 

From what i heard when they in the "cruising mode" its hard to get them to bite. I tried also when i see them surface to chase them down. However last summer i saw one just like that and try to "chase" him by putting the bait in front of him. It was a no go however I stopped that and just threw my bait out and moments later go a bit and a carp. It was impossible to say if it was that same carp that i was earlier chasing though.... Don't give up keep trying though... I tried the Spam but can't get the thing to stay on the hook myself... I will try that warm water trick metalman suggested...... WELCOME TO BOC by the way..... If you look in the carp forum you might find a few recipes that where just posted a few days ago.... Good luck.... Let us know how it turns out......

 

try this to get em feeding.Take a large cup kinda like you get a convienent stores.Fill it about half full of oats then add a few drops of anise oil or vanilla extract finish filing with water. Shake well and just sling the contents into the water.

The you can fish with wheaties cereal it cheap for the amount of bait you will get.Its like 3 dollars a box and you can make 2-3 good doughballs with 1 handful.Just grab a handful and dip your hand into the water then smash it all up if its to soggy just add some more cereal.

Take the vanilla or anise oil put a dab on your finger or something and rub it on the wheatie ball.

This method will produce fish it may take 10-20 minutes after you chum with the oats but they will start to feed.

 

Everyone has given good advice so far but let me chime in. I started carp fishing years ago targeting the cruising surface carp. That is my favorite way to fish when the oppurtunity presents itself but it can sometimes be tricky, since carp are used to bottom feeding they are real cautious on the surface. Their mouth angles down so to surface feed they must angle up and their vision decreases making them easy to spook. The trick is bread. The cheapest bread you can find, but fresh matter because you need it to stick and yet still float. When I bottom fish I use a hook that is a size 8, real small, but for surface you want a size 2, that has been ideal. Line size matters on top because they are more line shy. 6lb to 12lb is good, any bigger and it gets tougher. One piece of bread can bait the hook once, maybe twice but no more. On a good day I can burn through 4lbs of bread and bring in over 10 carp sometimes totaling 60lbs and up. Tear off the crust and keep it for chum. Tear out the bread into a circle shape and place the bend of the hook in the center. Squeeze and ball the bread above the eye of the hook but make sure the bend and point does not have bread balled around it. You want the bread around the point to be natural and uncompressed, this allows it to float. It should look almost like a lightbulb when you are done. The weight of the bread aids in casting so no float is needed. Now chum out the crust and watch for the fish feeding, throw your baited bread out around 3 feet from the fish and let it drift to them, do not reel it, they can tell it is unnatural and moveing faster than the chum. The fish will mouth the bait and in many cases swim away first then come back. Don't set the hook at first, wait for the line to make a V across the water as it is going away then set the hook. Tight lines and I will try to get a picture of the different ways I do my bread on topwater. Some fish became wary of the standard presentation so I mixed things up.

 

I use the cheap 2lb loaves from food city, you will sometimes find out that certain types work better than others, if ducks are fed where you fish at this is a sure fire method. Even if they aren't it still works. Speaking of more fish food that your food I have 2 gatorade bottles soaking tiger nuts to boil and hemp seed in a 3rd bottle and my trunk looks like a feed store right now, but when the oppurtunity comes up I take my 10ft crappie rod and a loaf of bread and go catch some fish. You could end up like me and end up focusing on the carp and enjoying the occasional catfish.

 

I also see you are from wisconsin, I feel it is safe to assume it is still real cold up there. In the cold weather bread outfishes fruity baits in almost all cases. It is good year round and exceptional in cold weather/water situations.

 

dough balls work great for carp

 

Very good points made by McWrestler. The most important is to not set that hook on the first nibble (strike).

 

I have used spam for channel cats and have caught lots of them.Just wanted to give a tip for those having trouble keeping spam on a hook.Cut into squares as stated before.Then run your hook through the square.The square will be on the shank of the hook.Turn your hook 180 degrees and push the hook back into the spam.Place a small piece of match stick or a small twig in between the bend of the hook and the spam then pull the hook and twig tight against the spam.By looking at the under side of the spam your hook and small piece of stick will form a + supporting the spam on the hook.With this method you can cast your spam as far as you please and it is also harder for the fish to knock it off of your hook.If you haven't tried this before give it a shot works great! Hope this helps someone. Good Luck everyone. Jim

 

Wheaties cereal, cream corn and honey mixed into a dough will work very well. I have caught numerous carp on this recipe.

 

DO YOU HAVE DAY OLD BREAD STORE CLOSE BY ?
U CAN BY A LOT OF BREAD AT ONE OF THESE STORES CHEAP.
ALSO TRY POTATEO BREAD ON THE HOOK LIKE HE SAID TO DO

MOOSE

 

Popcorn on a fly rod.you can have your bone fishing... try carp'n on corn with a fly rod... action ,line strpping ,drag singing FUN.

 

Try using dry dog bisciuts feed the fish get them confident thats the secret to surface fishing if you can get them competing with each other they'll take anything we us chum mixers about 12mm diameter feed to the fish slowley feed less and less then either freeline a mixer or use a float cast beyond the fish and slowly draw it back over the feeding carp and wait it won't take long
to fix the mixer on to the hook simply cut a groove in the mixer with a small hacksaw blade and superglue the back of the hook into the groove

Mcw add chilli flakes and salt to your hemp before cooking and add chilli powder after it makes all the difference:wink:

 

try microwaving the spam a little first, toughens it up, but dont cook it

 

around here everybody swears by wheaties and strawberry pop.