They always say that the three most important things is real estate are Location, Location and Location. For fishing, the pattern is similar but not identical. The three most important things are Location, Location and Bait. Once you have found a body of water that contains fish, you must find the most promising spot on that body of water (your swim) and institute an intelligent baiting strategy. A successful strategy will involve three categories of baits; the Attractors, the Feeds and the Hook Baits.
The function of the Attractors is to bring fish into your swim, into the range of your hooks, without feeding them to any significant degree. They can do this by appealing to either the fish's sense of smell, its vision or both. The use of visual attractors is based on the observation that carp are very curious animals, a disturbance which raises a cloud of silt in the water will almost always attract fish. We presume the fish associate the cloud with either feeding activity of other carp or some other disturbance of the silt which may expose natural foods such as bloodworms, clams or snails. Obviously, the effective range of cloud-producing attractants depends on the clarity of the water. The range can be increased by adding an attractive odor to the cloud. The attractants would include Maize Bombs and the Pescaviva Creams and, to a lesser degree, the bait dips and the fish pellets.
The dips are viscous, highly flavored liquids which are effective over relatively short range. They are applied directly to the hook bait and function primarily to make your hook bait more attractive to the fish than any other potential food in the area.
The Fish Pellets can be used as attractants if they are first pulverized. The powder can then be mixed with a little water, formed into a ball and tossed into the swim. This can be a very successful method.
The Mielie Boms are imported from South Africa where they are a standard in the fishing arsenal of that country's top carp anglers. They are a specially processed corn-based product that is mixed with a small amount of water or other liquid (try Pescaviva Cream) to make a solid ball. This ball disintegrates quickly in the water allowing the corn particles to float free and generating a visible cloud. In addition to the highly visible cloud, this product spreads the irresistible odor of corn throughout the water. The balls may either be tossed directly into the water in the area of the hook bait or, better, the may be used with on of the rigs shown below.
The rig can be sized to your needs. The one shown is made from a rather stiff fused line (to reduce tangles), a 3/4 oz weight, two #10 swivels, two #6 Tiemco TMC 2457 hooks and the spring-like device which holds the Mielie Bomb. This holder is made from a 1-1.5" piece of 3/32" diameter plastic tubing from a hobby shop and a length of 16g stainless steel wire from the hardware store. Mold the ball on the holder and it will stay on through the cast to disintegrate in the water immediately next to your hooks. In South Africa, this rig is typically used with a single grain of corn on each hook and a bit of paste bait on the shank of the hook. The paste is made from a pinch of sugar in about a 0.25 cup of water with enough cake flour to make a soft dough. The dough is wrapped around the hook and the whole package, corn and dough, is coated with one of the Bait Dips.
The Pescaviva Creams, available in Vanilla, Scopex, Trout Pellet, Natural, Strawberry and Tutti Frutti, are extraordinary attractors over an extended range. They have visual appeal in that they generate a cloud in the water which causes the fish to suspect that other fish are feeding, thereby attracting them in. They also have the odor of the highly attractive corn base coupled with the added flavors. All-in-all, a brilliant combination. The Creams can be used neat, simply poured into the water, but this works only at short range. To use them at a distance, try mixing with dry bread crumb, corn meal or some of the smaller, cooked seed particles (dari, rape seed, buckwheat, groats, wheat). Mix the wet and dry ingredients together in proportions that will give a very firm, solid ball. This may be tossed considerable distance but will still break up very quickly in the water, generating a cloud of flavor.
While the attractors discussed above will get the fish into your swim, they have a limited ability to hold the fish in the area. This is the responsibility of the Feed Baits. Ideally, they are attractive and nutritious, capable of inducing and maintaining intense feeding activity in the fish without filling them up. The small seeds/particles serve this purpose very well. Carp are attracted to them and do recognize them as foodstuffs but their small size means that they will not quickly sate the fish's appetite.
One of the most common ways to fish for carp in North America is to toss a good quantity of either sweet corn or soaked and cooked field corn (seed corn, feed corn, maize) into the water and to use the same bait on the hook. There is no question but that this is an effective and very cheap way to catch carp but it may not be the best in all situations. Obviously, if you toss in 10,000 kernels of corn and have a hook in only one of them, the odds are not in your favor unless there are a large number of voracious carp in the area. You do run the risk of the fish filling up and swimming off before you catch them.
The smaller baits, especially something like hempseed, induces confident and prolonged feeding. The fish are able to safely eat hundreds of tiny bait particles. This causes them to let down their guard and greatly increases the chance of a hook up. Mixing in a small number of hook baits with the small particles can also be beneficial.
The hook baits are the key, the ultimate point of interaction between you and your quarry. Probably no other aspect of angling is more contentious than hook bait choice. Almost everyone believes they have the best bait but, on the other hand, almost everyone is constantly searching for a better bait. A good bait must attract the fish's attention and get it to realize that the bait is a potential food item but not a potential hazard.
Sweet corn is one of the truly great baits of all time. If it has a liability, it is that its vivid color and distinctive character might become danger signals to fish in heavily pressured waters. The Pescaviva sweet corn obviates these potential difficulties. While it retains the essential character and amino acid profile of corn, it has some very significant improvements. It is available in a wide range of flavors and a good variety of colors. These colors and flavors are added to the corn early in the processing and, consequently, penetrate to the core and are fixed to the grains by the sterilization process. The colors and flavors are not only attractive in their own right but they can also mask the familiar characteristics of corn which might warn off fish that have been caught before. The black, natural flavor Competition Style Corn is an outstanding example of using color to great effect. Black is the only color which carp will not learn to associate with danger and to avoid. The black corn is also thought to mimic the look of insects to fish.