Fourth of July Weekend Carp Fishing

I had Friday off from work and decided to head out early and spend the day carp fishing.

I took about 2 hours for the first one landed on my homemade habanero boilie and 2 more hours for the next one caught on two pieces of Trilogy Baits maize tipped with a piece of fluorescent pink plastic corn from Enterprise.

Got there early and set up in a spot that has produced commons, small mouth buffalo,
 mirror carp and s smattering of catfish

This one was a single digit fish

A little bit bigger

The biggest of the day in the mid teens

Second fish caught on the maize, my first caught on maize for several weeks

World Classic Baits Order Arrived Today

My order arrived today via USPS. Some don't use dip, but I am a believer in it. Even if it only improves catch rates by 10%, I think it's worth it. If you catch 100 fish; 10 percent is an extra 10 fish. Using that analogy, my 140 fish last year would have been 126 fish without using the dips. That may or may not be true, but I'm not willing to take the risk!

Quantity vs. Quality

It's an age old problem.

Quantity

Do you buy something inexpensive that will get the job done, but has to be replaced quite often, or buy something significantly more expensive that will last much, much longer? A comparison might be buying a Fiat vs. a BMW or a Hyundai vs. a Mercedes.

Do you buy something of good quality like a Seiko or Citizen watch that is moderately expensive, or do you buy something of very, very good quality like a Rolex or Tag Heuer?

For me those comparisons align well with some of my theories of fishing for carp.

Do you use an inexpensive, but effective bait for catching carp like Panko and corn, or do you fish with boilies and a concoction of particles? Both catch fish, but some feel it's a matter of more fish vs. bigger fish.

Quality

There's another variable  for carp fishing that makes this scenario a little more interesting - are you fishing in a habitat that has big fish? If the answer is yes, then fishing with inexpensive corn will still catch big fish.


Another way of looking at it -

Would you rather catch 10 or 15 fish with the chance of one or two big fish or catch 4 or 5 fish with one or two big fish?

I know which option I prefer! More is always better in my book.

Big Carp Tackle and Carp Bait Order

Yesterday I put together an order of carp fishing supplies from BigCarpTackle.com. Hooks, a landing mat, some new alarms, and a Korda Rig Safe Storage Box are headed my way. Next on my list I need to put together a bait order.

Last year I fished pineapple flavors exclusively. I used pineapple maize, pineapple dip, pineapple in my ground bait, pineapple boilies and pineapple booster. This year I am thinking about changing it up a little bit.

I am thinking about trying to switch up my flavors based on the time of year. For example:

• Crayfish in spring
• 4 Season and Scopex in summer
• Pineapple in fall

I don't know how much flavor really matters, but I know that pineapple works fairly well through out the year. It will always be my fall back plan, because I have a lot of confidence in it. Now I need to gain some confidence in some other flavor strategies.

For my ground bait I am going to switch over to a butternut flavor, which I think will pair fairly well with the Scopex.

I have fished boilies on a limited basis up to now and I don't know if I'll change how often I fish with boilies. It's a confidence thing. I have confidence in flavored maize, but for me the boilies are still a work in progress.

World Classic Baits pineapple flavored maize