Mister ugly himself the carp is making it's way to being considered a sought after fish in the US. In England carp fishing has always been popular, however here in the US we've kinda shunned these monster suckers. As a kid I've always enjoyed fishing for carp in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania that flows through the town that I live in currently and have grown up in.

Carp are powerful fish that grow to massive sizes and will give you a good fight and strip the line off a reel quite quickly. Catching carp however can often be tricky, but there are some tricks that will allow you to catch more carp and a lot of them.

Carp Fishing Tips, Tackle, & Bait

• Carp Chumming - Hands down the biggest trick to catching more carp is the chum for them. Carp love hard corn and will somehow they pick up the scent of corn and show up in less than half hours time from nowhere. Also groundbait such as cracked corn and molasses will bring them in really fast due to how it disperses into the water. Also a simple can of canned corn works well to and will attract carp to an area. Just remember to over chum an are due to this will make it more difficult to trick them into biting a bait with a hook.
  
  
  
  
• Carp Bait - Doughballs hands down is probably the best carp and most popular bait out there and it's easy to make. Just take some corn flakes and water and mix it and make doughballs. Don't be afraid to mix the ingredients such as adding soda pop or beer or add some oatmeal to the mix. Also if you're chumming with hard corn you can use canned corn and pick up some carp quickly.
• Carolina Rig - Use a Carolina Rig when fishing for carp this will allow the line to run freely through the sinker. Weights can very though if your fishing in a shallow river you don't want to use some monster sinker that will spook your chummed in carp. If fishing a deeper lake then you can use a heavier sinker like an egg sinker.
• Carp Hooks - Think small and not treble hooks to many carp anglers try to use a big old hook when fishing for carp, I generally use a smaller hook like a size 8 Owner SSG or if fishing single corn I'll use even smaller like a size 10 or size 12 hook.
• Line - I'm a firm believer in Fluorocarbon and keeping your line lighter and using your drag to battle fish. Carp are sensitive to line diameter I will never use more than 8 lb test and generally use 6 lb test. If I need to go heavier I'll use a heavier running line on the reel then use a lighter line on the line that connects from the swivel to the hook.
• Rod - I like using a lighter weight longer rod to fish for carp, I use a 7 foot medium light action rod which makes fighting a big carp a blast.

So the next time you're out fishing and looking to catch a big fish give carp fishing a try. The kids love to carp fish and it's awesome watching a kid reel in a carp that is over 10 pounds.