Need help catching carp and suckers

[chuckd67]

I need bigger bait. What are the best ways to get these. Fishing with corn or dough balls, throw net, or trap. I've been using 6 and 7 in gills but the little ones want stay off. Hell, I put a nice slab 9" shell cracker on my girls pole and she caught a 7 lb Blue. Gotta get her a big flatty so I can start exploring for me a monster blue.

[Seanstone]

Heres what id try first...

If your in a pond or lake: take a loaf of bread and toss it out on the surface close to the bank and then wait for the carp and suckers to show up. Then toss a cast net out on them when they come to eat. Be careful because they will spook. Try to avoid casting shadows.

You may be able to chum corn/oats or even bird seed in a spot on moving water and then try to toss a cast net after a little while.

Only problem you will have is when you get a 20lber in the net. Good luck with that. ;D


Sent from my SCH-I545 using proboards

[Smoothkip]

I get all my suckers in the cast net. I throw in shallow rivers right in and directly behind the riffles.

[Skyline1506]

I caught the world record drum up here off the muskingum a few weeks ago on a crappie tube.

we get most of our bait that way. smallies, drum, sunfish, warmouth, large mouth. they all slam the crappie tubes

[chuckd67]

Thanks guys, In Alabama All bass species and crappie are not allowed. Gill must be caught on rod and reel. So I guess I will try anything to get some suckers or carp. We have lots of Gizzard shad but if I get some 12" and a 10lb flatty eat it like its nothing. I'll let y'all know how I do.

[Catfishrollo]

Good places to get small awesome carp also are in irrigation ponds close to waterways that flood into them. ESP. During late winter and early spring when the water is just warming. Them big breeder fish move up on warm shallows to feed, often finding a pathway to them. Then they spawn, resulting in an abundance of awesome sized baits easy to cast net! ... rollo

[rustyfish]

I have a hole that the river floods into about every 3 or for years. Its just a low spot in a field so it drys up by the end of july. But while it is there it is the best darn bait hole you ever saw. Big shad, buffalo, quilback and river carpsuckers, carp, bullhead, drum, and even crappie and sunfish. Everything in there is 4-12 inches long and easy pickings. Have not been that lucky the past couple years. Bring on the spring floods next year!

Always check any flood holes you can find. Sure there is usually just a few carp but you never know.