# Muskingum River 4-29-2012



## Vince™ (Sep 20, 2011)

My brother and I tried the Muskingum out this morning. We managed 4 fish within an hour, but it slowed down considerably the rest of the day. I would say we managed a combined 10 fish with the biggest be 14lbs 9oz.
























































My brother catching the smallest fish of the day.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Congrats. Sounds like a good day of fishing with 10 carp. We used to catch the numbers but something happened to our spots and now were lucky to catch 4 carp between 3 people in 8-10 hours.

We only fish lakes, any tips on river fishing? Or fishing in current? I imagine it would be hard to chum, but I have never tried it yet.


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## carpslayer (Mar 25, 2012)

i love to fish the rivers for carp!! found a nice spot on the black river up here in elyria ohio and catch about 4-6 in a cpl hrs. i use oats and circle hook.. love those circle hooks


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## Vince™ (Sep 20, 2011)

Sean, I try to river fish when the current isn't that strong. We were only using 2oz finned feeders and they were holding the bottom with no problem. We chum with boiled field corn and use a spod or catapult/slingshot w/pouch depending on the distance. Try to chum up river so when it sinks hopefully it will land over your hook bait. Chumming a large area is always helpful too. If you chum, they will come!  We also use "chum balls" on the finned feeders. I was using meilie bom (boiled field corn ran through a meat grinder) and my brother was using oats and grits with a butternut flavoring.

The water is still pretty cool for carp to be feeding heavily. Look for the lakes to heat up this week with the warmer temperatures and rain moving in. I would imagine the carp will be on by next weekend. 

Feel free to post more questions or shoot me a PM. I'll try be as helpful as I can.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

You think using chum balls on your finned feeders would be sufficient method for chumming? I just imagine all other chum washing down the current. 

Whats your opinion on pvc bags? They look practical but I don't think they are necessary under most circumstances....maybe if I was chumming tiger nuts or something. Just curios to see if anyone uses them, if so why and why not?


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## Vince™ (Sep 20, 2011)

You could probably get by with using just the chum ball on the feeder. I like to put a fair amount of bait over a wide area to get the attention of any passerby's. I have fished just chum balls on the feeder when I'm looking for a quick bite or if the water is very cold. If I know I will be at a location for 8-10 hours or longer, I will chum pretty heavily in the beginning and play the waiting game.

Field corn is pretty inexpensive compared to most chum so I don't mind if some of it is getting washed down the river. Now you have a trail of bait to your location.  I can't say for certain but I think the size of the kernels will allow it to sink to the bottom in a slow moving river. People fish the St Lawrence River and have to use 6+ ounce leads to hold bottom. They chum a lot with field corn due to it being readily accessible and inexpensive. 

I have some PVA mesh, but have never gotten around to using it. You would probably benefit in using PVA if you wanted to chum pellets or cast a very long distance. Some "method" or "pack" bait can't hold up to a very hard cast so encasing it in PVA will help. 

I've watched a Korda video about using tiger nuts in PVA. The tiger nuts will melt the PVA if you don't put them in salt water for a short period of time.

Hope this helps.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Thanks, I'm going to get out and fish a few times for carp this weekend. Its raining pretty hard now, so I don't know if rivers are going to be fishable for a couple days, but I will give them a shot soon. I know a spot on a local river that has some huge carp in it. I see them everytime I go smallmouth fishing. With the new insight, I'll head out and see if I can bank one. LOL. 

Thanks.


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## Vince™ (Sep 20, 2011)

Good luck Sean! Not sure where I'll be this weekend, but it will be sitting behind a couple rods, rain or shine.


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## cwcarper (Apr 5, 2004)

Before I switched to method feeders, I used a lot of PVA bags. I would mix up something similar to the same stuff you can use on a method feeder, but bind it with syrups or other liquids that contained little or no water to prevent melting the PVA. One of my favorites was an oat mix with corn syrup, molasses and a few other additives. I'd pack this down in my PVA along with my hookbait and caught lots of fish this way. Dry pellets are also good to fish this way, mixed in with some boilies or something similar. 

However - eventually it just got to be cheaper and easier to go with method feeders. It can take some time to properly pack a PVA bag, and when the fish are feeding heavily it's a lot easier to keep your bait in the water if you're using method or packbait. I still have a bunch of PVA bags, but I haven't used one in a couple years and they're probably stuck together now.


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## BottomBouncer (Jan 20, 2005)

SeanStone said:


> You think using chum balls on your finned feeders would be sufficient method for cumming? I just imagine all other cum washing down the current.



What? I'm confused...


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Looks as if the h key was having a bad day. I edited it and its fixed. 
Spellcheck didnt pick that one up. LOL. 

It was in reference to using a ball of pack bait around his sinker as a sufficient method of chumming rather than throwing bait out. If the wording was what was confusing..............


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## BottomBouncer (Jan 20, 2005)

i thought there was some new method or bait recipe i had not heard of...


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## TimJC (Apr 6, 2004)

I'm sure it will be 'all the rage' overseas next season.


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## BottomBouncer (Jan 20, 2005)

I'm sure some places over there they could get by with poundin' one out on the bank and slingin' their spuds in the water. Hey Vince, give it a try next time you're at Griggs. I wonder what kind of reaction you would get?


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## Vince™ (Sep 20, 2011)

LOL! I would love to fish Griggs if there wasn't a damn regatta every weekend. I have been moving around though and checking out other locations. Some are more "private" than others so it may be worth a shot.


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