For the most part, I've been neglecting carp fishing for most of the season, Chasing predators like pike, bass, and walleye, have taken up most of my spring and summer fishing efforts. The few times that I did try to target carp, I had less success than usual. Numbers and sizes were much lower than previous years, and much like last season, other "nuisance" species like suckers, tench, and channel cats, seemed to move in on the boilies and range cubes I was using to prebait for carp.
As September rolled in, I decided to try switching things up. For starters, I ran out of the base mix I use to produce my boilies. Having produced hundreds of pounds of boilies over the past decade or so was getting "old", and my source of cheap manual labor, aka, my once willing younger kids, have now grown up, and aren't interested in working for the minimal wages I used to pay them as young kids.
In the past, I've had limited success chumming with prepared corn, so I was looking for an alternative. My initial criteria were low cost, easy production, and endless supply. I gave myself up until the winter to stick with the new system, and would determine whether or not it was a feasible plan, based on results.
I picked up a few kilograms of food grade dried chick peas, to see what I could achieve. For starters, chick peas contain a high nutritional value. Soaking them for 24 hours gets them soft enough to use as bait, without having to worry about them harming the carp's digestive system. As well, they seem to take on flavors pretty well. Soaking them in warm water with a mix of spices, works wonders. Way easier than boilie production, and very cost effective for bulk production of chum. Dry chick peas yield about double the weight once soaked, so I end up spending under $2.00 CAD per KG , once I've added my spices and flavors.
For the initial tests, I decided to chum 2 kg of soaked/flavored boilies, for 3 days before fishing, for a total of 6 KG. For hook-bait, I tested the soaked chickpeas with extra measures of the same spices used during soaking, vs fried chick peas, seasoned with the same spices. While the soaked chick peas sink, the fired version float as popups, at least until the get water logged and end up sinking within 1/2 hour or so.
With both versions, the spices diffuse once they hit water, and with slight current, my assumption was that they drift downstream to attract carp, similar to bloody bait attracting catfish, or sharks in saltwater. The added oil in the fried version, likely gets up higher in the water column as it diffuses, giving more coverage. In contrast to boilies, whose core ingredients area mix of flours and flavors, I had a hunch that the downstream lines may have a better chance of getting hit first, due the the diffusion.
For my first attempt at catching carp on chick peas, I brought along my son Eli, and his girlfriend Audrey, for a short evening outing, to a spot I had pre-baited not far from home. My goal for these sorts of outings, is to fish 3-4 hours, with at least 2 rods, each baited with one style versus another.
Sure enough, during this outing, we had 2 runs, both on the downstream lines, baited with the fried / popup version of the chick peas I prepared. We landed both fish, with the first being the smallest I have ever seen caught at that spot, maybe in the 6-7 lbs range, The second carp was much bigger, but still on the lower end of the average carp I typically get into there, weighing just over 21 lbs, her new PB.
The following morning, I took my youngest son Zev, to the same spot. He landed another carp on the same setup, again, with the downstream rod producing on fried/spiced chick peas. Picture got a bit messed up, as the carp splashed my camera lens, no big deal, it was a smaller one at 16.5 lbs.
A few days later, I invited my older son Levi to join, along with his wife, Lindsey. After a false run within the first 15-20 minutes, things were quite. Sure enough, just as we started packing up to leave a few hours later, the downstream line baited with soaked/spiced chick peas went off, and after a crazy fight during which this carp even jumped, Lindsey landed her new PB at 20.5 lbs.
At this point, I new I was onto to something good. Not only had my new baiting system caught some decent sized carp, but I had also managed to avoid "nuisance species", all while saving a lot of time, effort, and money, to purchase and/or produce bait.
The final question was whether or not using chick peas would be efficient at bringing in some of the trophy sized fish that the given spot I was fishing, had produced in the past. My gut feeling was that it would, but I wouldn't know for sure unless my plans came to fruition.
A couple weeks later, with water temps starting to cool as fall kicked in, I took my son Zev out for a short morning outing, after having pre-baited with spiced chick peas for a few days prior to fishing. Within a few minutes of getting our lines in, a saw a very nice carp surface, and a moments later, the upstream rod right next to where I saw the fish, went off at high speed.
Zev did a great job fighting the big carp, despite it's best efforts to run ashore a couple times. When I finally saw the big carp, I had a feeling it was his biggest yet, and sure enough, after I netted and weighed it, the carp turned out to be bigger than any of my other kids have ever caught, at 31.5 lbs!
Another monster landed, and new PB for Zev. Again, the fried chick peas out performed the soaked version, but this time, it was the upstream line that got hit for the first time. Whatever the case, I'd say the relatively random idea of using chickpeas, had far exceed my expectations so far.
With all the Jewish high holidays falling in October, I knew my fishing time would be more limited than usual, being that we don't fish during those periods.
My first October outing yielded another smaller carp after 2 days of prebaiting, but nowhere near the sizes I've landed there during October in previous years. With some cold fronts moving in, bigger carp usually go on the feed. I figured the spot could produce some nicer carp once water temps dropped. By mid October, the temps were about right, but two back to back baiting campaigns failed to produce any bites, despite a couple outings fished with multiple rods along with one of my older sons. Sort of a bit frustrating, as I know that prebaiting the spot with boilies this time of year can have good results. However, I had committed to giving the chick peas there fair chance, so the trophy carp at this given spot are going to have to wait until next season, as the carp bite at this given spot dies down completely. once water temps hit 55F or below.
For my last October outing, and likely the last carp fishing of my 2024 season, I headed to carp wintering spot where I have had some varied success over the past dozen years. Water temp was in the low 50's, and water level much lower than normal. so the spot likely warmed up nicely during our 7 hour outing. Unfortunately, not a bite all day, though I only ran one of our two rods with chick peas, and the other with a mix of corn or popup boilies.
That does if for this years testing of fishing for carp using chickpeas as bait. As you see, the results were wonderful as long as the water remained warm, and then seemed to taper off very quickly as it cooled.
Hoping to get some more testing of chick peas versus boilies done next year.
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