[fishin30]

Thinkin i want to do some carp fishing this year. I've fished for them before but no luck. Heard other aquaintances talk about 19 lb carp in hatzic lake also 8 lb bass. Anyway anybody know any tips for the first timer. I think that my 9 year old would enjoy it. He doesn't like to work for his fish like I do. 8)

 

[nates]

Burnaby lake is full of them. They can be pretty fun. You can catch them on corn pretty good. The only problem is that here in B.C. you can't chum them. In Ontario we just throw out a bunch of corn then cast into it, within 30 mins or so you usually have a carp on.

Good Luck, Nates

 

[buzzbomb]

If you can see any jumping or dimpling around the edges you'll be miles ahead, especially if you can't put out any groundbait to try to attract them. Canned corn on a#2 or#4 hook works, and if it's legal there a nightcrawler will work even better. I like to use hair rigs so they hook themselves while they're 'exhaling', but there's lots of different ways. If you can see some, you can try freelining a piece of bagel on the surface and see if they'll take that first.

 

[coho_killer]

Lets see! Deer lake in burnaby has carp! I always seem to catch alot of carp there while fishing for trout with worms! But seeilg that carp are an ailein species you just might want to throw the carp in the bushes after catching them! :wallbash:! Just kidding! That bass thread just got me going! Like nates said burnaby lake is really good as well! Those are the only 2 i can think of that are close by! The fraser valley has carp as well! Try Mill lake in abbotsford i'm sure there in there as well! Hatzic lake in mission is loaded with them as well! Thats all i can come up with at this moment But i'm sure theres a few more spots that members of this ite will post i'm sure! Good luck!

C.K.

 

[fishin30]

Thanks for the info guys.hopefully i'll go and catch a monster carp.I was talking to one guy that said to use just plain white styrofoam any comments? ???

 

[buzzbomb]

He's probably talking about using styro to imitate bread. If there's too much weed growth for your bait to be visible (when bottom fishing), you can always pop it up using styro or a foam earplug. I'll try to attach a pic of a hair rig. This setup uses a sliding sinker on the mainline side with maybe a rubber bead to protect the knot from getting damaged by the lead. The natural sucking and blowing actins of the carp feeding can make this rig a good choice for hook-ups.

 

[fishin30]

That's a mini sturgeon rig , i'll just use my slider tubes. what's that red ball? why is this called a hair rig? :thumbup:

 

[buzzbomb]

The red ball is a 'boilie', a bait made with various flours and eggs and boiled then air dried. The carp sense the protein and flavourings in it. The piece of line coming off the shank that it's attached to is called the hair. You can thread corn or boilies or whatever you want onto it and then secure it with a 'boilie stop' or twig or tie a piece of grass through the loop at the end. The hair rig is most often tied with the 'knotless knot'. When they feed, they like to suck stuff up off the bottom and then exhale to blow out muck and debris, the hair rig lets them hook themselves when they exhale if they're balanced correctly. The rig was invented in the 40's I think in England and that's what it took for them to start breaking their records. These fish learn quickly...... it's not like the fishing I grew up with. I like to keep my rigs a couple of pounds breaking strain lighter than my mainline so if anything breaks, my sinker just falls away and the fish isn't getting away with a bunch of line that could get him tethered. They know where the snags are and head for them as soon as they're hooked.

 

[geolog]

one trick we used back in ontario for carp fishing (also COHO) was to put a couple on mini marshmallows onto the hook with the bread, worm or corn. This allows bait to float off bottom. Those 15 to 20 lb spring carp used to fight like crazy. We also used them with worms and roe bags for lake huron coho, many many moons ago.

 

[Zpg]

It's been years since I have gone but when the trout slows to a near halt during the heat of summer I might try again.

Here's what we used: (fished Cootes Paradise in Dundas Ontario where during the peak there were over 700,000 carp in the bay)

7' light spinning rods spooled with 6lb line. ( I have caught hundreds of carp over 25lbs with this combo. Largest landed was 36lbs) Might as well make it at least a bit challenging

My "special bait" and here is how to make it.

Warning: do not attempt to cook this indoors or you will be forced to move!!!

Start with a bag of dry cornmeal
Follow the cooking instructions but reduce the water by 10%
Add a large amount of corn syrup at the 3/4 way mark - about 1 1/2 cup/pot
Add a decent quantity of Vanilla extract (artificial works just fine) 250ml/pot
When nearly done add 3-4 tablespoons of fish scent - any type seemed to work

It is critical to have a very strong stirring spoon expecially near the end when the blob gets super thick. This will burn very easily so near the end cook over low heat and stir non-stop.

You need to cook this so that the consistency is thick enough to make sticky balls that won't fall apart when dropped on the floor from 4' high. Let cool and wrap in plastic wrap then foil.

In Ontario we used treble hooks and balled the cornmeal bait around the hook but I think out here the bait will fall off a single hook so just ball it in a large roe mesh. The nice thing with this bait is when you get a nibble you know it is a carp as nothing else would go for it!

I don't know if this will be effective here but our best day we landed 87 fish in 7 hours between the 2 of us. If anyone decides to give this a go I would love to hear how it does.