Carpin Southern Style

[MJL]

Finally had some time to read the tutorial Lorne. Well written It gave me a lot of memories of how I grew up carp fishing with similar tackle and rigs. As a kid, I spent a ton of time in the Kawarthas with an Abu C3 and an 8'6" or 10' med-med/heavy salmon/steelhead rod for my stalking sessions.

 

 

I think there would be a lot more people fishing today if they really knew how easy it can be to catch carp. You aren't limited to using 12ft specimen carp rods or baitrunners or method feeders or hair rigs...In many cases, unless you really understand why you're using them, they detract from the learning experience.

[mbosh1980]

Awesome! I just picked up a 8'6" uglistik to pair with the abu I was using towards the end of last season.

But to reiterate beans, how do you tie it with the curve in the hooklink?

[Live2fish85]

Hey thanks for the advice I will try that out this spring on Lake Erie when the waters rises a bit.

[splashhopper]

Excellent tutorial Hammercarp.....

 

thank you for taking the time and effort to put it all together for us.

[hammercarp]

Yes Michael you nailed it squarely on the head. As a chairman of a carp club here I am dedicated to the growth of carp angling. I reached the same conclusion as stated by you some while ago. That the european style 12 ft. rod with all it's attendant bells and whistles was probably a bigger hindrance to that goal than anything else. To quote someone whom we both know and whom I have gotten a lot of chuckles from. " It's easy to catch carp. It's a lot harder to catch them properly."

[cuzza]

But to reiterate beans, how do you tie it with the curve in the hooklink?

 

Without wishing to steal hammercarp's thunder, I use a "knotless knot" for this - don't ask me why it's called that Here's how it's tied....

 

 

If you don't want the hair, just trim the tag end off - I put a drop of know glue/crazy glue on it but you don't have to. It's a good rig, makes it very hard for the fish to eject the bait without getting hooked.

[mbosh1980]

This completely has me itching to go out carping

[mike rousseau]

Awesome! I just picked up a 8'6" uglistik to pair with the abu I was using towards the end of last season.

But to reiterate beans, how do you tie it with the curve in the hooklink?

 

 

to curve the rig you can wrap the rig around something like a pop can and hold it over a steaming kettle and the steam will curve the line without damaging the line...

[mbosh1980]

to curve the rig you can wrap the rig around something like a pop can and hold it over a steaming kettle and the steam will curve the line without damaging the line...

 

I would have never guessed that, thank you.

I wonder how well the puffed corn will hold up on a hair rig, but I suppose there is only one way to find out...

[hammercarp]

MM

Good idea. I never thought of it myself. I use the curve imparted to the line from the plastic spool it comes on.

[hammercarp]

Wrap the line 6 or 8 times around the hook shank

 

 

 

Then put the line back through the top of the eye

[hammercarp]

Finish with a figure 8 loop.

[mbosh1980]

Excellent, thanks.

Looked more complicated in your first pic as it looks like a double hooklink (two lengths running in parallel)< I didn't know if the curve was achieved by a slightly shorter one or not.

Again, thanks.

[hammercarp]

Bosh it is a double hooklink. Check out picture #4.

[mbosh1980]

Got it now, thanks!

[hammercarp]

Puffs

First I would like to start out by saying " PUFFS RULE! "

 

If you feel you want to you can add a little something extra to increase the attraction of this hookbait. You really don't need to flavour your puffs because they will pick up the flavour of the packbait used to encapsulate them.

 

I like to add attractants to my puffs. I feel they help.

Attractants are different from flavours.

My understanding is that flavours are mixtures of chemical compounds that we identify by their odor and their taste. We are all familiar with strawberry, vanilla, cherry and others that are used in candies, cakes, drinks and the like. You can flavour your packbait with these.

Attractants are mixtures of chemical compounds and substances that carp recognize or associate with food. Attractants can fool the carp into reacting as if there is food present. The attractants that I know of are; capsaisin, chitin, amino acids, sugar and salt.

 

Capsaisin is one of a family of chemical compounds that are produced by "pepper plants". The fruit of this plant is what we call a pepper but it is more correctly called a chili. These fruits can include sweet green peppers all the way up to the deadly hot ghost nhaga. Capsaisin is one of the chemical compounds that make chilis hot. It is the most potent of this family of compounds. Carp are attracted by this compound and can detect it in very small concentrations in the water. They can follow this chemical trail to it's source. As a side note the firey heat produced by these compounds is only felt by mammals. They do not burn fish, reptiles, amphibians or birds. You can buy chili's or a bottle of one of the many hot sauces out there.

 

Chitin, the substance that the outer skin or exoskeleton of insects and arthroppods is made of. Crayfish combine it with calcium carbonate to make thier hard exoskeleton . It is also used by fungi to create their cell walls. Carp can detect this stuff and are attracted and stimulated by it. A good source for this stuff is yeast which is a fungus.

 

Sugar is sweet and carp do seem to like the sweet stuff. The sugar I like to use is glucose. Not only is it sweet but it is the building block of chitin, the substance mentioned above.

 

Amino acids are the chemical compounds that proteins are made of. Proteins are part of all living organisms. Carp can detect these compounds as well. Some amino acids are more effective than others at attracting and stimulating carp. You best bet is to buy some from a carp tackle shop. It will come as a liquid and will have the right amino acids in it.

 

Salt is attractive to carp because it is part of the body chemistry of most animals and carp will actually crave salt at certain times of the year in order to maintain their bodily functions.

 

You can apply any of these or a combination of these substances to your puffs by disolving them in water and spraying them onto the puffs. I don't think chitin will disolve but you can grind it up very fine using a cheap electric coffee grinder.

 

 

Here is how I do it.I use a large shallow baking tray. In order to stop the puffs from rolling around I use a piece of crinkled up foil to line the bottom of the tray. Just tear off a piece slightly larger than the tray. Roll it into a ball then carefully pull it back out into a sheet again.

Put as many puffs into the tray as you like but be carefull not to overcrowd them.

 

 

You will need some space between them to allow the spray to cover the sides of the puff . Apply a light mist of your attractants. Allow the puffs to dry. Over night is plenty of time.

 

 

Turn them all over and mist the other side.

 

 

Allow them to dry and put them in a zip lock bag or a tight sealing palstic container. You are now ready to fish puffs.

 

It is my understanding that the real Paylake fishermen who developed this technique , whenever this is possible or practicle fix their puffs and flavour their packbait on the bank just before fishing. They use their knowledge to determine what bait, flavours and attractants to use based on conditions at the time. Such things as the time of year ( season ), water temperature, water clarity, wind and current direction amonst other things are factored in. Their knowledge is based on years of fishing, some have up to five generations experience behind them fishing for carp.This style of fishing is used to fish competitively for carp. These paylakes basically have a tournament every weekend from March til November. Anglers line the banks of these ponds and compete for cash prizes. Some of the lakes have payouts of $250 every 15 minutes for biggest fish. There are weight prizes as well. When I learned of this I felt that the highly competitive nature of this type of fishing would produce very effective ways to catch carp. But the anglers involved in this pass time would be very tight lipped about what they do. It turns out they are very open about the basics of their craft. I am able to pass this on to you, do to the generousity of a mister Tom Brooks from Kings Mountain N. Carolina.

[mike rousseau]

Great info ... Thanks HC

Edited March 28, 2011 by Musky Mike

[hammercarp]

It's been almost a year but I thought I would continue this thread with some catches from the past month. All fish were caught on puffs with a simple bread pack bait from Dec. 10 to Jan. 10.

[Beans]

It's been almost a year but I thought I would continue this thread with some catches from the past month. All fish were caught on puffs with a simple bread pack bait from Dec. 10 to Jan. 10.

 

 

Thanks for sharing Lorne...

 

Almost makes one wish they lived closer to your end of the world (Hammytown ???)

 

Note I said "Almost"...

 

 

[sleepjigging]

Hammer, were you fishing near Hamilton? I didn't see much "winter" in your pictures.

 

Awesome haul. Are you sure you were not catching the same fish 10x.

 

Jiggy

[hammercarp]

Hammer, were you fishing near Hamilton? I didn't see much "winter" in your pictures.

 

Awesome haul. Are you sure you were not catching the same fish 10x.

 

Jiggy

We did not have much of a winter so far. I far as I could tell there were no "re-captures".

[bigugli]

Making me very envious at the moment, Lorne. Those are some mighty nice late season fish.

[hammercarp]

Thanks guys.

[dsn]

Oh Your starting up my itch for carpin again!

 

Thx

[Mike Pike]

That's a really nice tutorial you laid out for us Lorne, thank you! That's a nice simple yet effective way of getting into the sport and catching some of those bruisers.