I grew up fishing for carp with big catfish hooks and straight-up corn meal boiled to perfection. When it was time to make the bait, the disfunction set in. Eventually my mom figured it out. So while she was bass fishing, we were reeling in the carp and gar.

Said that to say this. I ordered my first set of official carp hooks and, as suggested, went for the size 6s. Got them today. WOW! Those things are TINY. This ain't my father's fishing method.

All those years we were doing everything wrong. But guess what? We caught a lot of carp. Looking forward to figuring it out on my own and reliving some of my youth. Appreciate all the guidance and experience here.

Good Carping!

Wrong is subjective, there's actually an American style of carp fishing that predates even the European method. Paylaking started over here, and they use larger hooks (typically 1/0-ish) with the bait (usually flavored puffed corn) threaded directly onto the hook. It's interesting to note that we actually developed very similar means of targeting these fish as the Brits did. We both use smaller particles that are meant to break down to draw in fish. Over here it's known as packbait, and is typically fished using a paylake rig with 2 hooklinks and little to no weight. The packbait is molded around one of the hooks while the other one is attached to the outside. Across the pond they came up with "the method," or method mix. This is molded around a caged feeder or grooved weight with the smaller hooks and the bait threaded onto a hair rather than onto the hook, then the hook is pushed into the outside of the method ball and cast into the water. Seeing as how we both separately invented these almost identical styles of fishing, you can imagine how effective they are, and you can see for yourself when you deploy either of them!

Caugtmy share on white bread ,bisquit dough anr rolls. Lake cliff.Kidd springs,gravel pits and Trinty river from
Irving to combine.