RE: What is the best rig setup for carp and what the best for channel cats
2009/05/16 08:51:07
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There is no best bait! Different baits at different times will work best! If you were given a steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches for a week, you'd probably grab real quick for a hot dog if it were offered at the same time as your next peanut butter sandwich, or if you just finished a great big dinner, you probably wouldn't be interested in more meat and potatoes but if a small tasty desert were offered you might go for it!
Catfish - chicken livers, worms - nightcrawler (whole or half) or a gob of garden worms with wiggely ends, live bait with the fins clipped to give erratic movement, cut bait, crawdads, shrimp, sometimes a combination (surf & turf) and the list goes on .............
Carp - generally small hooks and small baits, although I've caught them on jigs fishing for crappie and witnessed a big carp chase a big crawdad into shallow water one time! Corn, small worms, mix your own connoction for "doughballs" out of crushed cornflakes, wheaties, etc. chopped livers, cheese, flour, cooked rice, season with vanilla, anise, garlic, etc.! Fred Troast showed an Englishman one time who used long poles, rod holders (wouldn't touch pole or line), sat quietly, even had an alarm for when the line would go out! He would use a slingshot and chum the area with corn, ( but a favorite bait was a cashew nut attached with a small rubber band (like they use for teeth braces) to a small hook! You could chum the area with cooked rice and fish with corn ( we used to do this for whitefish in the Adirondaks)!
My most fun thing for carp is a bow and arrow, particularly this time of year when they spawn and roll to the surface or on a still night with a gas lantern - move slow and quiet!
Have fun - let us know what works for you!