any one else heading out to grapevine Sat. afternoon?

Donnie and I will be out there all day. Should have a few new people out there for the Toy Drive "guided" carp fishing. And AGfisher showed an interest in going back out too though not sure when.

Cool! My kid reads the carpers posts, and I'm sure fantasizes all day about pulling in buffalo. It's his birthday Sunday and he wants to go carping and catting and I promised him a trip to the cliffs, so, well be there at some point in the afternoon saturday.

I just bought him a new spincast rhino medium rig to go along with his low-end shimano spinner so I think he'll be equipped. He's got a thin 6lb mono on one and something a little heavier came stock on the rhino (i could put a 12lb BerkBigGame on it if recommended).

I've got some #6 hooks and some cans of corn with a few red pops, which I understand are the 'admission fee'. I hope one of you Carp Gurus can help us out, since we're brand spankin newbies to your ... um....universe.


;-)

you got it man. Alwys glad to help, especially for the kids. I think i'll bring mine too if they want to come. They haven't seen my new alarms in action so they should get a kick out of that. And I still need a picture of eith of them with a 20+

What type of alarm do you use? I should pick up a few, but have no knowledge of what to look out for. I have visions of being driven insane by some wind-sensitive p.o.s. that cries wolf until i scream bloody murder.

I found some deal called The Bite Buzzer which is about 10 bucks.

Also, any great recipes for boilies anywhere on the forum, and maybe more importantly, is it worth the time and effort, or do I just use corn?

One more dumb newb question. Are corn flakes the same as wheaties in carp-world?

I'm no expert,Tinfoil but I think the answer would be YES,I wanted to try to mix up some dough bait after seeing Mike Ryan's marshmellow surprise,all we had was rasin bran so I just picked all the rasins out and went from there but I've used corn flakes in the past and have had realitive success,part of the trick are the other ingredients,I often use pancake syrup,vanilla extract and oatmeal,if the fish aren't biting ...makes a good snack!

Rudy,

Lol ....your too kind . Tinfoil he is not kidding either that homemede marshmellow suprise I made on a lark has caught several very nice size buffalos and catfish too , buffalo up to almost twenty pounds in fact . Looking forward to meeting you and your son. I will make some extra bait for you to try if it is still working . See you on Saturday .

Wheaties always seem to work a lot better then corn flakes if you ask me, a much more attractive scent to the carp. Or so it seems, anyway. Wheaties always seemed to out perform any other cereal based dough bait I ever made.

Whole Kernal Sweet Corn will work just fine for beginners, I still swear by it!

Boilies will often tear the carp up, and will keep bluegill and other small fish from stealing your bait, but you must use a hair rig in order to use a boilie.

So if you're just using ordinary gear and hooks, stick with the corn for now. Nightcrawlers also make excellent carp bait, though everything in the lake will hit them of course.

OK...headed out to meet whoever is at the cliffs representing the carp brigade! wish us luck!!!

I fished Grapevine this weekend and had a great time catching a nice mixed bad of Carp, Buffalo and Catfish. The water seems to be way down, but this exposed alot of new bank areas to fish. All of the fish were caught in water less than 5ft deep.

Don't let the temptation to purchase commercial "boilies" fool you, (unless you can buy them dirt cheap...) stick with the basics like canned corn, wheaties/red soda, etc. You'll have better luck learning how to properly chum compared to worrying about purchasing fancy baits.

Upgrade to boiled (flavored) deer corn on a hair rig and you'll have gallons of bait available for less than $10.00.

It doesn't matter what bait flavor your using, stick with the basics like vanilla, maple, strawberry for consistant results.

Sure, what's "on" the hook is important, but for consistant hook ups, it's vital to learn how to call them in. Simply throwing out "gallons" of corn does not guarantee you will catch a fish.

Over/under chumming will both cause you to not catch a fish.

At Grapevine, if you are chumming out more than 2-3 cans of corn per 8 hour session you're probably throwing away money. I usually fish 4 or 8 hour sessions there and consistantly land anywhere from 2-6 fish per session, usually in the 10lb class for Carp, 20lb class for Buffalo.

Also, instead of actually fishing, spend a few hours sight fishing and chumming. There are times when I'll just chum an area and see how many fish I can hold in the area. Sometimes I'll see dozens of "feeding bubbles", jumping fish, rolling fish, etc. That's a blast! LOL...

Carp and Buffalo in less then 5 feet of water? Hmmm...interesting...how long have I been telling people they don't have to fish deep water for carp? All summer long?! Lol.

D, Of course I know you've been fishing and other rough fish many many years, so you know that...

...Carp don't fear the shallows! Especially in summer.

But I know some of the newer carp angers seem to think you have to be fishing like, 10-20 feet deep or more to catch carp in the summer, but that ain't so!

I remember people on here saying that they didn't catch any carp because they were fishing too shallow, 4-6 feet, and I kept saying that's not too shallow!

...But...they didn't listen lol. Oh well, their loss.

I checked out GV today, dared to venture into the heat and sunlight for a little bit despite the doctors lol, and found that my favorite carp spot from earlier in the year is now totally out of water.

The area were I had caught dozens and dozens of carp up to 12 pounds and dozens of buffalo up too and over 20 pounds...was no more then 5 feet deep, max. Now it's totaly dry.

Anyway, I seem to have ventured off on a rant...Sorry lol.

The point is, you don't need to find really deep water for find the fish!

I just found a new shallow area that looks killer for carp, just like the ones I fished up north in the heat of summer.

dmunsie, we need to get together and do a little carpin sometime. Let me know if there is an evening you might be available and I'll see what I can do. Are you fishing the tourney on the 15th?

Where do you do most of your fishing on the Vine anyway?

Donnie - The area that was all dried out that I went too today was the place we fished the very first time we went carping together. All the carp and buffalo we got came from no more then maybe 4-5 feet of water, if that. Pretty crazy.

Also I think we oughta try fishing one of the other spots I found today for carp. We've checked out the area before, but now that the water has dropped, I'm even more convinced it's gonna hold a lot of fish!

I am going to head out eaither tonight or Thurs. If anyone is interested drop me a line.

DH how did the all nighter last weekend go, I never saw any pics posted.

DHFisher - I don't fish GV as much as I used to. Probably only a few times a year now. But when I do, it's at night, usually within casting distance of a marina. Probably not going to fish the tournament coming up, not really into those.....yet. Thanks for the invite to do some fishing. Shoot me an email and perhaps we can hook up at some point.

I'm not quite sure I understand why everyone would think you need to fish in deeper waters for Carp/Buffalo. I do know alot of anglers like to "cast as far as possible" when fishing. But it's fairly common knowlage that at least in our Texas waters, most Carp/Buffalo can be caught in relatively shallow waters near the bank, especially if a good chumming campaign is in progress. At Grapevine I rarely have to cast out further than I can throw the bait out by hand.

wow...I just looked at the fish records for GV:

Grapevine Lake Buffalo Smallmouth 30.14lb 03/27/92 James Daulton Jr.

Grapevine Lake Carp Common 28lb 04/14/04 M. Chris Edwards

Interesting...