A Sweet Bait

[Bushbeater]

Wanted to catch some big fish without fighting the crazy lake boat traffic. We decided to try to catch some of the numerous large carp hanging around the shallows. We needed dough balls. After an inspection of the kitchen we found 4 year old graham crackers. For a binder we chose pancake syrup. After crushing and mixing to the shallows I went armed with a light spinning rig. Tossed it out, wedged it in a tree fork and went to rig another rod. I returned in about 5 minutes to find my rod gone. Wasn't able to drag it up so proceeded with another rig. Within minutes a bite and landed a nice 18" Channel cat, what I consider perfect size. Ended up with 6 channel cats all about 18". Finally my last fish on that batch of bait was the big carp. What a blast. Anyone have any dough bait recipes or other strange baits that produce?

[conorsixtakc]

Nothing too unusual. Small live green sunfish and large freshly cut bluegill heads are my baits of choice when pursuing cats. Artificials for everything else. Not a big fan of carp or the slimy mess they leave behind.

[rps]

One year I won a fishing tournament in which 200+ boats took underprivileged or ward of the state children fishing. I baited several holes then used Wheaties with strawberry soda to make dough balls. I do not remember the total weight (this was 30 plus years ago) but my live well was full and the bottom of my Lowe boat was ankle deep in carp.

[Old plug]

When the traffic is Heavy I am oit of luck this time of year. After post spawn all I so Lunker hunt. Most of my fishing them. will be over are down into water 30 ft deep. This year has been so wacky so far I do not know what to expect. Some folks are saying thet had bass on the beds at Easter. I have one right now hanging on a bed that has not been spawned yet in back of my dock. That bed is down around 6 foot or better.

[Jerry Rapp]

Wheaties and Karo Syrup. Sweet corn will catch carp also.

[Greasy B]

When I was a kid my go to Catfish bait was a Limburger Cheese/Hamburger mix.

[moguy1973]

Cornflakes and some sort of mystery sticky binder liquid, I'm assuming corn syrup, was always my grandpa's mixture when he made dough balls for cats and whatever else would eat it.

[WeekendWarrior]

Back in my younger years I fished for carp exclusively at Susan Park when it was a pay lake and some city parks. Used strawberry banana jello boiled in water, added vanilla extract and wheaties and firmed it up with wheat germ. Would have our limit at Susan park in no time and was asked several times if I could buy some of your bait. Just purchased a house at the lake at 28 mm cross cove from millers landing in pocket and the carp and buffaloes are thick, probably have at least 20 sunning in pocket right now

[Mitch f]

Yes, when I was a kid , mine was a wheat germ dough ball

[Old plug]

Carp are a thrill to catch that is for sure. When my son was small I taught him how to fight fish in a park lake by catching large carp on a crappie outfit and 6 lb test line. It works. I have never seen him panic and freeze up. I have picture some where of him when he was was about 6 or yrs old with 2 carp he caught that were a out 1/2 as big as he was down in Clearwater lake. I can still see that. He set the hook on the first one and it about jerked him out of the boat. But he did not panic.

A lot of those carp your seeing in the shallows are not carp they are buffalo. They can be a challenge to catch. I have seen some monster drum to the past few weeks also.