Hi yall!

I am a novice carp/buff angler. I fish them almost only in winter when bass are hard to come by and carp can still be had pretty easy from the bank. I like to get a few cans of corn, throw out some chum, string some corn on a hook with no weight or just a small split shot and do some work!

This seems to work pretty well most the time and kills some of the time. Its rare to not get at least a few fish.

Two questions;

What are other ideas for easy store bought baits? The corn works fine but wondering if there is anything I should try to spice it up or maybe get more hits.

I also would like to catch some bonus channel cats while doing this. Very seldom I will get one, but was wondering if there are anyways I might try to bring in more cats?

Open to ideas! I plan to go tomorrow and I will post if I have any luck!

Get a some cans of garbanzo beans. Drain and soak the beans overnight if you have the time in a very strong mixture of strawberry koolaid. This is my go to bait for carp and buffs. You can even drain and soak your corn the same way. Try the same with hominy for a larger profile bait.

Are you using a packbait at all? That will greatly increase your catch rate for both Carp and Catfish.

Other store-bought baits can be anything, really. My favorites are sweetcorn, bread, and chufa seeds (tigernuts). You can also use various candies (gummy bears, jolly ranchers, skittles, licorice, etc.) and any fruit/veggie.

Good suggestions!

I have not tried pack bait. Not sure I know what that is. Is that where you like take cornflakes and a little hook and make a softball sized bait with the little hook in the middle kind of deal?

Garbonza beans... good call! I have some in the pantry already! Will try those as well.

The first part of this video covers a basic packbait that works really well, loads more recipes out there!

That was super informative! I am going to try some of these tips tomorrow.

50/50 regular/quick oats, creamed corn, strawberry jello, Fanta strawberry, and those little strawberry dough balls from Walmart on a hair rig.

I caught 4 commons up to 28” and two grass carp up to 38” in the last 4 hours.

I tried a new spot yesterday and had zero luck. Looked good but no...

Went back to my tried and true spot today. Had many bites but only ended up catching one. An 11# buff.

I also lost a rod. Had it within arm's length. It was gone and into the lake within a second. Dammit! So lesson is definitely open the drag.

A lot of times the fish were just picking up the bait and then spitting it out. I could see the line tick, then go slack and the fish was gone. I only caught this one because I was holding the rod and when it ticked I set the hook.

I assume the ones that were picking up the bait and dropping it were buffalo. The one that stole my rod was likely a carp.

Nice buff!

I use the spring push in the ground rod holders and leave the drag real loose so they can run with it.

Here’s my two big ones from last night.




No idea what they weighed.

Nice Tom!

Anyone know if I'm catching big mouth Buffalo or Smallmouth Buffalo?

Lake Grapevine if that helps.

Smallmouth Buffalo 100%. Bigmouth Buffalo have a forward facing mouth, and are only found in the Red, Sabine, and Sulphur River systems here in Texas.

I never hear this bait mentioned anymore but in my younger days it was the gold standard. Get a handful of Wheaties cereal, pour some Big Red over it and squeeze it into a ball, bury your hook into it and carefully squeeze it into a ball over the hook. Back then we always used a medium sized treble hook but a regular hook works just fine.

That's definitely the old-fashioned way! But the European style smashes that in effectiveness.

I've definitely done the Wheaties/Big Red thing. There's a definite art to it, getting the right consistency so it won't fall off the hook. And only those brands work, don't bother trying it with some other soda!

Recently I've been having the most luck with bread. Colonial brand white bread seems the least water soluble.

I used to use Mrs. Bairds light thin white bread but now that that company has new owners none of their bread will make a decent dough ball.

I have in the past wore them out doing that, only real snivel is sticky hand. I have moved beyond that though. I am boiling some deer/feed corn and after the corn swells up I will pour off the water, add Big Red and Garbonzo beans to soak for a while..

Yes, I noticed that last week. It falls off the hook after about seven minutes. Might mean it's healthier for humans to eat tho?

Good suggestions, so fun.

I set the hook, well...maybe not quite setting...but engaging, the hook more when Buffalo fishing. I'm also much more focused watching my line indicators compared to Carp or Catfish. The Buffalo bite can be a bit delicate at times. You can still get "runs" but in my experience every decent sized Buffalo I've caught, I've manually * watched the indicators and engaged the hook just after a series of up and down movements, and then just when the indicator starts to go back up. (Line going out.)

* I learned alot years back when I went fishing and set up my 6 rods, yada..yada...yada. I see an older fellow with 1 rod, and he is sitting staring at his line, doesn't want to talk, etc, etc. He sets the hook and proceeds to battle a massive Buffalo to the shore. After he releases it he doesn't mind talking and shows me photo after photo of huge Buffalo. We're talking 30-40-50lb+ fish. Never used more than 1 rod. Used a small amount of pack-bait (grits, jello, creme corn) with a small j-hook tipped with a single Kelloggs Pops kernel. A perfect example of quality over quantity.

very true