Carp Bait Recipes
Lefty’s Carp Balls
More exotic formulas have been devised to catch carp and catfish than any other fish. One of the best carp doughball recipes comes from Lefty Kreh, the latter-20th-century’s "Godfather of Flyfishing," who got it from a local carpmeister. The key is Jell-O, preferably strawberry. The quick recipe is as follows:
Bring a pint of water to a boil, reduce the heat to low and stir in half a pack of strawberry Jell-O. Add two tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, dry-mix two cups of cornmeal and one cup of flour. Now sprinkle some of the dry-mix over the setting Jell-O. When a bubble appears, add more dry-mix. Keep doing that until all the dry-mix is used, stir for half a minute and then dump the goo on a sheet of aluminum foil. When it cools, knead it into a ball. Wrap the ball in foil or a big Ziploc bag and store it in the refrigerator, where it’ll keep for a week or so. On the water, simply break off bait-size pieces, knead into little balls and thread them onto the hook.
This was copied from Jerry Gibbs’ Fishing column in the February 2000 issue of
A variation of this that I have encountered is even simpler.
When going to the water, bring along the following:
Empty plastic butter bowl
Box or two of strawberry or cherry Jell-O
Cheap corn flakes
When needing bait, pour the flakes into the bowl and mash them into small pieces. Mix in a little Jell-O and a little water, trying for a firm mixture that can be baited onto the hook. It may take some practice.
I got this mixture from a carp fisherman who was bringing in 30-inch and larger carp quite regularly with it as I watched and chatted with him. That size of a fish will put up a heck of a fight.