carpmaestro

The enthusiasm is really nice, though I did feel bad for the carp when he fell on the stairs

Would you guys recommend daiwa sweepfire, crossfire or regal?

Thanks for the tip, I wasn't sure if all those corn is safe for carp to eat though, even with prep

Absolutely gorgeous fish! Really nice shape on that common, long and muscled.

Haha I just realized its 27 but most of that is corn. Truthfully Im also just looking for other big carp selling sites around, I always try to look for competitive pricing.

Hey I am about to drop about 270 (which a LOT for me,) on a cart at Big Carp. Mostly replacing broken stuff last year. My cart is mostly a 3 daiwa regals, baiting needle, dynamite source and mistral boilies, 10 kg of corn (I know you guys buy from tractor stores, but there is no way I can get over there so 10kg for about 8$ is a great deal for me,) some PVA, 2 nash banksticks and a set of buzzbars along with some front and back rod holders. I was wondering if there was any other sites you buy non specialty carts from, I'm not particular on brand, as long as it's sturdy, especially since I am not a big fan on the 22$ shipping on my order.s Not looking to flame anyone or company, just which store would you recommend for pricing? Thanks! Paolo

Great ideas, thanks. I know they give 10% off to CAG members which is really cool, and the guy did seem nice though and gave me a good shipping deal, though he neglected to return my email about a net breaking. But again if the mods take this down, I completetly understand.

I agree Tribal, that was kind of the thesis of my posts. Also that two decent rod/reels on good sticks will outfish four bad ones.

Also as through the year, one by one the reels (helios's I thiink) kept falling apart. Springs would jump out of them as I fished and would eventually become useless.

I am too hard on my gear, and I bought the cheapest versions, so I completely understand that a good part of the fault is my own.

First of all, I understand if this is removed. This is a review not a flame, and the owner is a CAG supporter, but since I do not think he is a sponsor, I believe I am in the right. Anyhoo Last year I ordered a cart from BFS which includes 2 tripods, bank sticks and alarms and a net along with 4 rods and reels. I was started off and I needed something cheap. The net looked flimsy to begin with and on the second day it broke in half. Being a beginner I was having one of the passerby net him for me. Well the net broke, and on a bank one foot high over the water, I have to lean down and "net" the 12lber with my bare hands, NOT and easy task. The tripods dont really stick to the ground and have to be balanced. When I set the hook the hook on a fish, it fell into the water with all my alarms on it. Took awhile to revive them. The tripod isn't bad just not sturdy enough. The bank sticks also aren't great and some of the parts broke, but a couple of them are still servicable. The alarms actually aren't half bad.They outpreformed some snake alarms I also got. They are oud, fairly sensitive, and are fairly sturdy. It took a lot of "alarm surgery" to repair the water damage, but it worked out. I took apart all the reels and soaked them in rice. They are far and away the best part of the kit. The rods I have no opinion on. They are heavy but they will catch a fish. I like the fight more then anything, so I still use my bass/cat rods a lot. Anyway I found the line between good for the price and cheap. BFS will last maybe a year at best. It's easy for guys with a lot of stuff to say, "it's worth the money" or "I spent the extra couple dollars." If you don't have the dollars, I recommend just using one or two good rods and a couple of banksticks. I am buying some Daiwa regals, because I trust the brand. Even for beginners, I don't recommend BFS, except for the alarms. Just my .02, I didn't enjoy writing this post but I thought it was important that beginners don't go down the wrong path.

Thanks

Thanks Ke, just winter blues. Am ordering today, getting 3 daiwa reels, that BFS stuff was chit and Ivelin never came up with the stuff ah well. Still looking forward to a great year od carp and bass fishing.

Thanks guys, I posted the minnow part later, when the bass guys were asking why they caught them on rapalas

Hey, I just joined anew bass fishing forum, that supports multi-species, and was looking through all the misguided info on their on carp, so I adapted a previous tutorial I made, that I hope should improve people's understanding. Please give me any questions or concerns. I am a proud member of CAG, (carp angler's group,) who are all about promoting carp as a true gamefish. No where else can such a powerful fish be relatively easily caught from most bodies of water. The only comparable fish is the striper, and those aren;t easily found or caught from shore.Anyway while trying to explain the beauty of carp fishing. One thing you have to understand is the different kinds of carp. The silver carp is that invasive jumping species that many agencies want to to NOT throw back. However Buffalo (big white ones rarely found around here, and common/mirror.koi carp are gentle fish and should be treated with the same respect as any bass. BTw mirrors are just scale-less common carps and are rarer. Koi are of the same family, and come in many colors but are smarter and harder to catch.) Here's a brief tutorial on catching carp. Things you'll need:2-3 Rods, most Carpers use 9-12 foot rods. However a good bass rod medium strength up+ will be good unless you go for lunkers (20 lb+)2-3 Strong Reels preferably spinning, with10+ pound line, depending on how good you are at fighting strong fish. There are some special reels, called baitrunner, which are best, however assuming you're a bass fisherman, you probably don't have those. I recommend a reel that has a noisy drag. Uninhibited, I am not lying, a carp could take 100 yards of line off of a lose drag and take off all of your line. It is best to keep your rods in a holder. I made some myself usinf a gardening stake which I put inside some pvcs. A trick I found is, in lieu of a baitrunner,your anti reverse should work well in letting the carp take line off safely.Landing Net: Most of my breakoffs are right at the bank, they're hard to get in the net and would be impossible to land without one. You can find a good one at Dicks for around 35.Other Tackle: Pliers, Scales, Scissors etc, just normal gear for fishingHooks: Pay close attention to pic #3, Carp are very large but have disproportionately small mouths. A size 6 hook is best, of course sharp is necessary, and wide gap is good, for reasons discussed later. Carp are gentle giants. There are not predatory. They stay suspended just off the bottom and suck up lost matter where its crushed up by their back teeth. If the don't like it, they blow it back out. They are best attracted to sweet and savory things, like pineapple icecream is a sweet bait flavor while spicy chili tuna fish is a savory flavor sold. Keeping this in mind: Your bait, I love sweet corn, it stays on the hook, is cheap and can be flavored. Another one is bread. Because bread turns into sugar in water and its great for additives, the problem is that you may have some trouble keeping sunnies off them if fishing shallow, corn doesn't attract much except for a few golden shiners I caught on it. Thing is recipes are to carp fishing as lure choices are to bass fishing if you get what I'm saying. They sell bait online and there are many ways to make them. However for a beginner, corn and bread are fine. Additives: Carp rely on smell and vision. Bread is bland and if you chum a lot of corn (more on chumming later) then you want YOUR hookbait to stand out over the bed of corn. Additives carp love (I'm ignoring savory flavors because corn is sweet) Maple Syrup (it';s very sweet and nice and sticky) Honey (Same reasons as syrup) Jello flavorings (Simplest easiest way to attain fruitiness, try some strawberry or the mixed fruit. Just enough til the corn turns red.) Chumming: Its pretty necessary. Stats say that chumming raises your catch percentage by 300%. From what you've said you might've have seen carp. However without chumming, they'll think your bait is suspicious. I chum with corn, because its easy to throw. Just take handfuls and thrown it out about 15 yards.It is BEST, if you can to chum the night before. If you can do that, in a place you know there are carp, I can almost guarantee you fish the following morning. Finding them: They relate to close to cover, like bass but won't put themselves in it purposefully. Since they feed along a wide are and don't just ambush prey, they have a wide area of traveling, that's why you have to chum, to congregate them onto your baits. Islands, inlets and weedbeds are good. I wouldn't recommend weedbeds because not matter what you do a carp is gonna run at least 25 feet, if it's of any size.so you'd probably lose the fish. Rigs: Ok here's the problem with carp. Lets say they suck in your hookbait of three kernels of corn on a hook (the bait thats on your hook,) well this wary carp feels your hook and immediately blows you hook out. You will never had a chance to trike because the carp move your bait five inches, and blew it out in the space of three seconds. your line probably didn't move and your rod tip definitely didn't dip. Here come's that hair rig. It's a European invention of which the closest bass equivalent would be the senko, except this one is even bigger. Instead of putting your corn on the hook, put your corn three inches down the shank of the hook on your line and leave the hook bare. Suddenly the carp sucks in your bait with the free hook trailing it. The hook has a lot more movement available so it might hook the carp on the way in. Or after the carp blows it back it will probably hook it on the way out right in the lip. How to tie the hair rig: Very hard to explain in words. Basically you snell a lot, take the excess and form a loop and tie a granny knot sort of thing. I'll linkhttp://pleasurefishing.com/html/hairrigs.htm This shows the hair rig. To bait them, take one of you bass hooks, like a gamakatsu offset shank, anyting with a big barb works. Run a few kernels of corn down the hook past the barb. Place the loop of the hair rig on the barb. Then run the corn up the barb onto the hair and your done! Rest of the rig: After about 18 inches tie it to a swivel. For line I recommend fluoro and if not that then low vis mono. After the swivel just put on a sliding sinker and you're good. In the event of a breakoff, which is always pretty likely, you should make your leader a lower strength then your mainline so the carp doesn't have drag around a swivel and a lot of line. Rod Holders. These fish will easily take you rod over the water's edge without hesitation once hooked. True carpers have special rod pods and bite alarms. However you will just need a strong hold and being quiet. Carp can hear so hammering in a holder is not good. A forked stick works fine or you can get more complicated, it's entirely your choice. Safety: Carp are very delicate creatures. I am in the process of buying unhooking mats, weigh slings and even, antiseptic for the carp's mouths. I am assuming you have none of those. When you net the carp, slowly lower it onto the grass making sure there are no stones. Quickly take out the hook. for all photographs, hold it close to the groud, with one hand under it's head, the other under it's tail like this http://www.google.com/imgres?q=carp+...t:429,r:17,s:0DO NOT HOLD BY GILLS! You will break its gill plate and it will die a slow death. Release it into deep water so it doesn't scrape its belly, something that I had neglected to do, as many other carpers pointed out.The wash your hands, rebait and repeat! In overview:Chum handfuls of corn (I recommend two cans of corn for a trip) and some bread before and during fishing about 15 yards away (the night before is best but not necessary) (multiple places is a good idea incase one isn't working)Put in rod holdersTake your 2-3 three rods and lay them on the holdersGet your landing gear readyRig the hair rigs (If your using three rods I recommend on with sweet corn, one with flavored sweetcorn another with bread)Cast out (put corn rig onto edge of chum pile. Put bread just beyond the chum pile. Put flavored corn right on the middle)Unhook your caught fish gently Variations: in colder months pop-ups are good. Pop-ups are baits that float. A common popup is a marshmallow. Rig one marshmallow under your corn and put a few split shot 3 inches below the hook. This way your corn will ris three inches above the ground, seperating itself from the rest. I hope this is helpful and I am free to answer any questions. Here are some links to tackle shops that I have or am in the process of buying fromhttps://www.resistancetackle.com/http://www.bigcarptackle.com/store/home.phphttp://www.bankfishingsystems.com/ I know this was lengthy but its an entire new species of fish. Feel free to contact me with any questions, but if you want expert answers I really recommend http://www.carpanglersgroup.com/ Thanks for reading!