Many people find fishing a fun and peaceful pastime, a place to get away from it all, and enjoy nature. For the more driven fisherman it is a high skill, high stress competitive sport. Most fishermen however are out having fun at the closest fishing body of water they can catch fish in.
As the range of people fishing ranges from one end of the spectrum to the other, so does fishing tackle. People fish with everything from a spool of fishing line with a weight and hook attached, to tens of thousands dollars of equipment including a boat, sonar, mapping equipment, and high dollar fishing rods and reels. Not to mention at least one hundred dollar plus net to get their fish from the water into the boat with a camera or two to record it all.
 20 year old Zebco rod and reel in action Carp fishing can be as simple and inexpensive, or as complex and expensive as a person chooses to make it. I prefer the simple and inexpensive end of the scale. I do not tie up a lot of money in any of my Carp fishing equipment. Though half the family thinks, one float tube, two kayaks, and a dozen rods and reels are a little excessive to catch fish I do not even eat. In my case the tube, kayaks, rods, and reels make fishing more fun, not more expensive and are shared by the family too.
Starting with rods and reels, Carp and fish in general do not care whether you have a ten dollar garage sale outfit, or a balanced rod and reel from a premiere rod maker. What matters is having a Carp put your bait in its mouth. A surprising number of very large fish are caught and landed by small children on their favorite cartoon character fishing rod selling for under twenty dollars. Big fish on cheap equipment is not the norm, but it happens more than expensive tackle makers want you to believe.
I have two main rods and reels I use most often. One is a Carp rod and reel, the second is a spinning rod and a spin cast reel which are not made for each other, but they work, and satisfy my requirement for inexpensive rods and reels.
My spinning rod is made for a reel that hangs down, but my spinning reel gave out. My twenty year old Zebco spincast reel, which is stil working as well as new, is made to sit on top of a rod, but the rod broke. A spincast rod has a horn, almost like a trigger, where you place your index finger. It gives you added control and helps you hang on to your rod when a big Carp is on the line. The correct rod for the reel was broken by a feisty Carp, or maybe old age and a big carp. The reel is now pushing twenty years old. This awkward system works for me, and is cheaper than buying another rod or reel.
For fishing line, how strong a line you need depends on where you are fishing. Fishing where there are no rocks, logs, or other debris on the bottom, an ultra light outfit, perhaps even four pound test if fine for most Carp fishing. Generally though you want a rod and reel with at least an eight pound test line. Your rod should list the proper line strength, and the reel may have a recommendation too. If you are fishing around rocks and brush, you may need a much stronger line and heavier duty rod and reel. Of course if heavy duty is all you have it is fine too.
When I use my spinning rod and spin cast reel, I tie a light cord to my fishing rod. Because most reels have an always on drag and once a Carp hooks itself and panics if the rod is not tied to something it is in the lake and out of sight and reach. Fortunately over the years, I have only lost two rods and reels. I have seen more disappear when people I was fishing with where not paying attention to their rod.
 Fishing a new lake is an experience in how to compete. Not competing with other fisherman, but competing with with the local food supply. I knew Catfish, Trout, and a hybrid fish named a Tiger Muskie were present, it seemed possible that Carp were around as food for the Tiger Muskie. I was wrong, there were no Carp to be found.
What there were in amazing numbers were Shad. These looked like thin silver and bronze Goldfish, but as I have never seen Shad before, I imagine they were a local variety. Thousands and thousands of minnows from an inch to perhaps three inches along the shallow shores of the lake.
Because I had some time to think about what to bring for bait to the lake, I took whole kernel corn, chicken liver, some hamburger meat mix, and a dough ball recipe I have made up that appeals to Carp here locally. I thought that even if there were no Carp, I was prepared for Trout, and Catfish. The Tiger Muskie were catch and release, and I did not want to spend money on the wire leaders, spoons, and lures to be able hook and land these toothy fish.
What I did not prepare for were the Shad. I knew when I saw bigger fish in the shallows, herding and charging the swarms of minnows that it was going to be a tough day fishing. It is very hard to entice fish to take your artificial bait when they have an endless supply of minnows to feed upon.
I fished shallows, and deeper water. While moving about I watched what baits different fisherman were using. I felt more confident, that if I caught even one fish, I would be one fish ahead of them. Like many people who want to fish, but do not think about fishing, they had wares from local stores. In their arsenal were jars of Norman’s never fail catfish bait, Steve’s smells like manure but still catches fish, and Marvin’s dead pickled minnows.
Store bought fish bait is about the same as buying a car. The car you buy is unique until you drive it off the lot. Then you realize that every third car is exactly like yours. Store baits are the same way, even chicken liver to some extent. On lakes with heavy fishing pressure, whatever you buy off the shelf gives off a, “Danger Will Robinson” alert as soon as it hits the water.
My hamburger meat mix, and chicken livers were ignored by everything except the Crayfish. I knew Crayfish were present, but I had no idea they were so numerous. This indeed was making a Carp fishing trip hard, being there were no Carp, literally tons of minnows, and aggressive Crayfish.
All I had left was my dough bait. I knew it should be attractive to Trout because it is corn based, but probably so does almost every off the shelf Trout bait. I did not think crayfish would care for it, but I was not sure. That left me with using dough bait hoping to entice a Catfish or two.
Putting a dough ball on a bare hook was working but not too well. I was not sure if I was losing my dough ball to the flooded bushes and grasses or Crayfish, but I was losing dough quickly. One of the things people do in this situation is put something hard on their hook first and mold their other bait around it.
I tried putting corn on first, but the dough was firm and crushed the corn. Next were some corn pops I carried along just in case. They worked, but did not seem to provide any inspiration for the fish. Maybe corn was a danger signal too. I had some chocolate puffs too, and they were the magic I needed though I am not sure why. I caught the only two fish of the day, both catfish, one about four pounds and the second about eight pounds. Very healthy, fat and well fed.
In every lake or pond you fish there are certain flavors fish can not resist. I think it is more a nutrition thing than good taste, because I have found I catch less but bigger fish using tailored dough ball ingredients. If you think and experiment, I believe it is likely that you can easily develop you own killer bait for use where you fish. Throw what local fisherman tell you out the window, unless they have the fish to back up their statements. Every fish needs something they have to search out. When you provide that food, whether or not it is a natural bait, you are on your way to catching fish while others fail to get a bite.
I was searching for ingredients for making my own carp fishing bait over the last weeks as time and interest permitted. I was led indirectly to look up amino acids as the basic building blocks of life and health for any living animal. I found a web page listing ten amino acids as essential to health.
The amino acids determined by the web page to be essential to health are: Arginine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine. That is about all I know about them except I recognize a few of the names from whatever reading about health I have done in the past, or looking through the endless rows of little bottles at health food stores. Some of these items are very expensive, and none of them are cheap.
I decided I was making this too hard, and started looking at basic foods and the amino acids they contain. I hit pay dirt, and I was pretty surprised because companies selling these amino acids leave it open to the possibility that some required amino acids are hard to come by in our normal diet. One of the foods was interesting because it seemed from my understanding of the studies I read (totally a layman’s reading), one of the foods has more of these amino acids available cooked raw. It also happens we only eat it cooked when we have a choice.
I believe going by what I have read and understood, is we naturally do a great job of making sure we are getting everything we need in our diet to survive and thrive in general. I believe this is another case of savvy marketing and greed at work, making us think that in our normal diets we do not receive all the nutrition we need. What did surprise me was wheat grains are not among the basic foods supplying the most amino acids for us.
The four foods I found to provide most of the amino acids considered essential are contained in nothing more than foods I enjoy eating and are part of everyones diet that tries to eat properly. I did not venture too far into many other foods because my intent was looking for foods attractive to carp, not a study of my own diet.
 So what are these foods that supply our bodies with everything we need in the way of essential amino acids? I think you will be surprised as I was. The four foods I looked up first, and the four foods that together supply everything we need are: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn, Potato. Corn and potato are pretty much a staple food in the northern hemisphere, so it should not have been a surprise to me that they are essential foods for us.
I did look up a few other foods out of curiosity because they show in some carp bait recipes, but I am guessing they are there for other reasons than for their completeness in containing essential amino acids. The exception and most surprising food was egg white. Egg white contains all the essential amino acids needed for life. I have no doubt that the egg yolk also contains other essential items we need to live. After I read it, I thought how obvious, egg is the way almost all living things start their journey into this world.
Carp bait making aside, it appears to me that if we are doing the minimum to eat right, and eat as many different foods as we enjoy or can afford, we are receiving everything we need to be healthy and happy, and giving our bodies everything it needs to survive and thrive.
The human side of good health aside, some items come up frequently for carp bait that do not seem to have much to do with complete nutrition. I am guessing from knowing what I know about my own eating habits that we do not always eat foods that are the most complete nutritionally. Sometime we eat certain foods just because they taste good.
Occasionally foods or flavors such as sugar, vanilla or chili, are addicting, and we will pass by better food to eat foods containing certain flavors we love to taste. It has been suspected since I was a child that some pet foods contained flavorings or additives to trigger a eating response in our pets. I do not think the jump from pet food to our food is so great that some commercial foods do not intentionally contain flavors or ingredients for no other reason that we prefer to eat it over other foods without it.
It seems obvious to me that whether you are trying to eat well, or design a killer homemade carp bait, you know everything you need to know by default. Looking at your own diet, and using a variety of common foods is all you need to know, the rest is in the details. It is possible that I am all wet, in both basic nutrition and homemade carp bait, but I do not think so.
Most people who do not fish, think fishing is all about catching fish and having fun. For some people who fish that is true catching fish is the only reason they are fishing, but it is not true for all fisherman. Many fisherman I talk with either when I am fishing or making good conversation fish for reasons other than catching fish.
Fishing is like any other sport or pastime, somedays everything falls into place, and you catch a lot of fish. On other days, perhaps most days, not everything falls into place and not many fish are caught. When these days occur, and they do same as baseball or other statistical sports most days are not dream days for catching fish. I imagine if fishermen caught all the fish they wanted to, they would become bored with fishing.
Going to a new lake is always a new challenge, everything looks the same, there is water and there is shoreline. Where is the best fishing spot for this day? Everyone has their own best choice, and some people make better guesses than others. The best choices have the opportunity to catch the most fish.
 I enjoy what I observe most of the time. Fishing at a lake with interesting scenery or wildlife is satisfying. Some times I see things most people will never get to see, like the water train on the right left.
 Other times I enjoy am enjoying the view and am pleasantly surprised by something I did not expect would happen, such as these people on horseback, out enjoying a spring afternoon. They were a ways from where I was sitting pretending to be seriously fishing, and there appearance was a pleasant distraction.
 Of course then there is the scenery all by itself. In June when the monsoon season hits, starting about one in the afternoon the clouds start rolling in. That is a not so subtle signal that whatever you are doing, you may want to finish up pretty quickly. Usually by three o’clock, the storm breaks loose.
Every once in a while fishing actually happens, and life is really good. Those few hours are busy and little of my time is spent watching what is going on around me. Before you start thinking the was all fun and no work filling coolers with Carp, I want to define the purpose of fishing on its most basic level.
 While someone may think I had a blast catching all these fish; okay I did, it was fun! There also was a second more serious reason to my fishing. The reason the Carp are in two coolers is because of where they are going. One cooler of fish went to the south end of town to be used to feed, a few Dogs, Ducks, a Goose, and a few Cats. The second cooler of fish went to the far north end of town to a Dog rescue center to become, ‘Doggy Stew’.
So when you see someone out being lazy snoozing by the waters edge with fishing pole close by, remember they may there on serious business and not just to relax and enjoy the day away from it all! Yeah right, I almost believe that sentence, and I wrote it.
If you find yourself wondering how to do something for others, look at what you love to do. For myself, I am happy to have found service in something I love to do. Perhaps there is something in what you love to do that serves others too?
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