Welcome to the Carp Ladder

We are spending an entire year catching carp on increasing more difficult baits.

We have rules, prizes and a leaderboard. This post will document the catches in a more in depth manner.

Sign up here, and submit catches here

Sweet Corn

Probably the most used carp bait these days. a quick easy start to the ladder

Bret B is first on the board. Caught at a pond in Carrolton, TX.

Dave S is on the board! A chunky carp on the float from a pond in Austin,TX.

Denise B is on the board, from a pond in Carrolton, TX

Justin W with a smallmouth buffalo from Grapevine, TX on sweet corn

Justin W with a *nice* smallmouth buffalo on sweet corn

Gary H gets on the board with a corn carp: “Slow morning but a good time nonetheless.”

Homemade Dough Ball

Before sweet corn took over, this was the way to go. there are hundreds of recipes out there, pick your favorite and catch a carp like its 1972

Accidental catch of a bluegill on the dough bait by Bret B

Bret B with a catch on dough bait (wheaties and big red soda)

Denise B reaches rung 2 with a small scrappy carp on the dough ball from TX

Dave S with a channel catfish in the dough ball

Dave S officially on rung 2 with a healthy carp.

Gary H with a channel catfish on dough ball

Gary H with another channel catfish on dough ball.

Gary makes rung 2 with a dough ball carp

Bread

Simple, smart and productive.

Bret B makes rung 3 with a micro carp from TX

Dave S with a black bullhead on bread

Dave S with a fat black bullhead on bread

Dave S makes rung 3 with a very nice common carp (the largest of the contest to date) and a channel catfish at the same time just for fun.

Gary H makes rung 3 (bread) with a chunky carp.

Chickpea

“Natures Boilies”. We’re going unflavored on this one, soak em yourself, or buy a can. they should be possible as a hook bait, but will certainly do well on a hair.

Another small carp on the ladder fro Bret B. the chickpea does the job in Carrolton, TX

Dave makes rung 4 with a nice sized carp on Garbanzo bean.

Hominy

Kinda like corn, it *was* corn, so should be an easy one

Bret B with a small carp on Hominy from Carrolton, TX

Dave caught a black bullhead on Hominy

Dave with another black bullhead on hominy

Dave S with a nice common on hominy

Cheese

Cheddar, swiss, that stuff in the back of that one drawer you bought for a specific recipe, but haven’t thrown out yet. Catfish will be problematic here, but we will get past this rung.

Bret B with a black bullhead on cheese

Bret B with the smallest channel catfish ever on cheese

Bret B with a channel catfish on cheese

Bret B with a better channel catfish on cheese

Bret B with yet another black bullhead on cheese

Bret B with a small Channel Catfish on cheese

Bret B with a longear Sunfish on Cheese

Bret B with another Longear Sunfish on Cheese

Bret B With another Channel Catfish on cheese

Another channel catfish on cheese for Bret

Finally. Bret passed the cheese rung with hard parmesan on the hair rig

Dave starts the cheese rung with a channel catfish

French Fry

even curly ones. It needs to be on this list, let’s see em

Bret stops by the drive through on the way to the pond and passes the drench fry rung

Corn Nut

Corn nut chip.  You know you buy em at truck stops sometimes.    They used to be so hard they would crack teeth.      Will a carp eat one?   Probably.    Let’s find out as a group.   This is the 1st bait on the ladder that will probably require a hair rig.      Try not to eat em all while fishing.

Bret B caught a common carp on the surface on a corn nut (they float)

Raisin

Regular or golden. lets see em.

Bret picked the raisins out of this bag of trail mix for a common carp

Cherry Tomato

Cherry tomato, grape tomato, whole or sliced (whole is funnier)

1/2 a cherry tomato was picked up by this common carp. – Bret

Red Twizzler

Try not to eat em all before you catch

Tastiest bait ever. Bret catches on Red Twizzlers

Potato

in any format. I think canned new potatoes ir teeny potatoes in the hair rig would be amusing.

Bret lands a carp on potato.

Hot Dog

Hot Dog, Vienna Sausage, little smokey sausages. Anything along those lines. More catfish, but we will endure

We warned about catfish, but didn’t think about turtles. bret finally gets a carp after several turtles/

Swedish Fish

Swedish fish or any other gummy candy.

Carp eat Swedish fish. Bret passes the rung.

Pineapple Chunk

simply a chunk of pineapple, fresh, canned, or even dried.

Dog Food Kibble

Easy one, I’m betting.

Black Twizzlers

we did the red, now we do the black

Cheerios

Or fruit loops, this one should be funny

Baby Corn

Straight from your Chinese food takeout

Takis

or other chip snack

Jellybean

any flavor you want….. someone try that weird buttered popcorn

Slim Jim

Or any other meat stick think. The podcast promises to yell ‘snap into a slimjim’ when someone reaches this rung

Edamame

In husk or out, whichever looks funnier

Grape

We did raisin, lets do a grape too