lure conditions?

[Guest MTP IN VA]

I have caught carp on small jigs while fishing for other species. Most often on small "sassy shad" and "beetle spin" plastic bodies or tied with feathers. I hear you do have crayfish but can't use them as bait...I suspect a small cray imitation might be great for carp.

[Guest jackmaster]

Just confirming the carp (10.4) on a 9inch bulldawg. Hooked fair and square in the mouth with the tail down the throat. I've tried various other small plastic grubs to deliberatly catch carp with no joy but have had them follow plugs and spinnerbaits to the bank. Steve Crowther has had a fair few on artificials and when I last spoke to him he was outfishing bait anglers barbel fishing with small soft plastics.

[Guest Newt]

John - If I had to pick only one brand of soft-plastics I'd have to go with the Gary Yamamoto baits - especially their Senko line.

 

You can't buy directly from them as they only sell in the US & Canada but some of the retail stores who carry their line will sell to the UK. At least one bbs regular has gotten some and seemed to think highly of them.

[Guest phonebush]

Newt,

NO, NO - Berkley Power Baits!!

Phone

[Guest Newt]

Right Phone. No, no Berkley Power Baits.

[Guest Nightwing]

OK, another yank chiming in here! Soft plastics, especialy smaller ones are extremely versatile, and will catch just about everything that swims. I take carp on a very regular basis on flies that mimic crayfish, and I have used the small soft plastic crayfish mimics also, to great success. Berkley makes some small power bait grubs and crays that are devestating on carp, perch, bass, trout, you name it. I don't really think that any one brand stands out above the others. I have used Berkly, Yamamoto, and a host of others, and the only difference I see is that the fish have a tendency to hold onto the Berkley products(powerbait), as well as the salt impregnated products such as Yamamoto, to a better degree than those with not flavoring or addatives. This give the angler an edge as far as the hooking of the fish goes. Soft plastics are more lifelike than hardbaits, but less durable, so there are trade-offs.

As far as colors go, there is an endless supply and variation of colors, and everyone over here seems to have our favorite(somewhat like flavoring over there). But I find that natural colors such as black, brown, green, "punpkinseed(my favorite, perfect crayfish imitation), are steady producers. White, chartreuse, or yellow can work wonders in stained water, and the old favorite purple(often with a fire-red tail) can be almost unbeatable at times. Other colors to consider are motor oil, blue flake, salt&pepper(clear with black and white speckles), dandruff(clear with large white flakes), monkey puke(a swirled green, pink, brown, semi-translucent-nasty looking but deadly at times), Dr. Kevorkian(another interesting name eh'?, it is clear with diffuse white and pink and/or red blotches-looks a bit like bloody flem, but the fish seem to think highly of it), and ghost(just pure, clear with now color at all, very interesting looking under water). In minnow imitations(silverfish to you guys), I like a two-toned black and silver color, it is natural and works well everywhere.

I could go on and on. Perch, goby, sculpin, pink(yep, bright pink), all are good.

Once you start down this long road, it is difficult not to get the newest colors and try them out.