25 replies to this topic

[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]

kelly, on 13 June 2009 - 09:01 PM, said:

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 by Peterjay, 21 May 2010 - 09:40 AM.

[Bob La Londe]

Snagging is very hard work, and not legal at all in many places...

However where it is legal for some species there are some pretty specialized rigs for it.

Rod choice and line choice is a biggy. Long, heavy, fast, braid. A flipping stick would probably work ok.

A casual rig I've seen is to tie a sinker onto the end of the line with a treble hook tied on the side of the line several feet up. Long hard fast rips through the water as far as you can rip it and maintain speed. Then slam the rod back towards the direction of the line and reel up slack as fast as you can and do it again.

Now here is the thing. I've seen some rigged up with wings or deflectors on the line above stops. When they rip it through the water the deflectors force the line to whip back and forth through the water creating a larger pontential connection zone.

The few guys I have talked to who snag (legally) told me they actually don't do all that well with the big trebles with the lead core just tied to the end of the line. Those usually only work in very shallow water where they are ripping it off the bottom. They do better with a little smaller treble tied 2-3 feet above a sinker and those who are serious use two trebles tied so they stick out in opposite directions from the line about 2 feet apart.

Also, simpley possessing a snagging rig (a hook tied directly to main line above a sinker) on public water may be illegal in some states. It always pays to read your state's fishing regulations. I read Arizona's paper version cover to cover about every 2-3 years, and I check the electronic version every year for any changes in my home area and for the species I normally fish for.

[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.