NotesonChumming

       Chumming is the art of attracting fish (in our case carp) to an
             area we can fish in ! It might also be the favoured way
of getting them to feed upon our hookbait.
We can educate the fish & bring them into our area in numbers
usually suffucient to create sufficient competition to bring down the
naturally cautious nature of the uncanny fish called carp. Without it you
can still catch carp ; but not in any such numbers as you can with chum or
groundbait. I would NOT say lesser is better, in some cases you cant put
enough in ! Generally though it's best to assess the situation as you fish.
I generally put out say 10-15 pouchloads of groundbait to start, if I get
action quickly (say within 20 mins or so), I will top up the swim with each
fish caught (2-5 pouches). But if I have had to wait 2 hrs or more I would
not add more untill 2-3 fish were caught & I was confident more were there
to be caught. There are a few different principles involved with
groundbaiting, with a hungry fish like carp the idea is to create a feeding
haven for the carp, somewhere they will stay for a while to feed & maybe
even return there again. There is generally not much chance of overfeeding
carp as 4-8 ozs of feed per fish would not be an excessive amount. So 20
fish can eat a small bucket load of food. However not all fish travel around
in big shoals. It is wise to try & discover the feeding method of the fish
in your water, if they feed singly or in seemingly random areas,then it
would be better to go with the high attraction but low food value (amount)
type of bait. Groundbaits made with cracked corn wheat & breadcrumb & most
packbaits would fall into this catagory. With this method the carp will clue
in on th area quickly but when they get there , not too much is on offer
except the attractive hookbait, the fish sees this & whops it back quickly.
The rig in this case is not so critical as the 'greed' factor has come into
effect with the fish. The carp has not had a chance to feed on this bait for
long so it does not know how the bait should react when it sucks at it. With
the groundbait which consists of identical particles to the hookbait the
fish can get very sceptical of the hookbait once they have been caught a
couple of times. They are aware of the differnt reaction of a tethered &
weighted bait! in this case your rig can be critical!

Hi Y'all,
>
>I'd like some opinions on chumming. I've got a lake near me that's about 2
>two miles long and about a half mile wide on average. I have no idea the
>acreage. We know it's got some nice Carp in it because our average size is
>about 20lb. The problem is it's virtually featureless and about 8ft deep
>all around. Also, there is only two places that it's legal to fish. There
>are two parks, one near the dam and one in the middle. My question to y'all
>is do you think that we can make fish "hang out" near the park by chumming.
>Also, if so, how much would you throw? When we decide to fish there, we
>will throw about five gallons of boiled/flavored maize over a five day
>period before we fish. On average we will get one or two during a 6 to 7
>hour period. Should we stay longer, throw more bait or look for a better
>lake?
>
>Thanks, Brent

Date: August 15, 2001 7:39 PM

Hi Brent,
             Your answer will depend on the density of fish in your lake &
whether they are shoal (schooling) fish. If they are shoal fish you will use
up more bait but you might tend to fish a while before getting action & when
it comes it could be fast & furious. To hold large shoaling carp takes a
LOT of bait. You should try to ascertain how your fish move around the lake.
If this proves difficult, start with say 3 lbs of bait & throw some where it
can be seen ( if there are ducks might be better to feed at dusk, although
sometimes ducks will attract carp) . Check this out in the morning , if it's
all gone put double this & then try again. When there is still some left
when you check for bait, that is the max amount ever needed. When it comes
to the fishing time, put a little less in, put a bait on one rod which will
stand out from the chum & is nicely visible . Sometimes darker baits will
pick out the bigger fish because small fish are always in a rush & they will
often overlook a darker bait ,since they seem to feed mainly by sight.
Bigger fish seem to feed mainly by smell which can lead them to your dark
flavoured bait, also put some of this in the chum but maybe only 5-10% .
Try to put your chum in a deeper section of the swim or at least near to a
good feature, logs & weedbeds are often good ,or next to a drop off to
deeper water. Other good places can be where there is shelter provided by
overhanging tree's a high bank, rocks or cliff or simply where there is
less disturbance on the water from boats etc. A good carper will take great
pain to find certain feeding areas, you then have no doubt that your bait
will be found especially in a big lake: this is important.
There are other groundbait tactics, the above is good for the application
of maize/corn where you have the whole day to sit it out. Sometimes you dont
have all day, no good putting 10 lbs of bait for 3 hrs fishing is it! you
then are better with a dissolving bait which put a feeding "cloud" in the
water. Baits with finely ground stale breadcrumb & chicken feed like Layena
or ground trout pellets are good for this , tons of smell & attraction but
not much to eat. When they get to your hookbait it's a more than even chance
it wont last long! You can put some feed in the bait like boiled wheat or
rice or hemp, but not too much ,remember you dont really want them to feed
hard on it. The pay lake guys have a similar method that they use which
looks a good bet for non-shoaling fish. They use packbaits which I'm sure
someone will elaborate on. Also meile bomb catches lots of fish. The S.A
lads pretty much have perfected this.
       The lake you are fishing sounds like the fish would move around a lot
& to get them to group up would likely need a lot of bait. 5 gallons in 5
days is not over the top, in the St Lawrence you could use up 5 gallons in a
day easily but it is very prolific area to fish. You can catch a dozen
fish in a day session here & that would be a very modest catch, some people
triple that ! also bear in mind if your water has a lot of carp it would
most times be difficult to overfeed them, but make sure they are eating the
stuff before you put 10 gallons in one go.
Good luck,
Steve in Kitchener, On, Canada
Visit Carpsava at ;-
www.oocities.org/carpsava/