Carp love corn, and many anglers chum with it to get the fish into a feeding mood. Often, however, it’s easy to out-cast the distance you can fling your corn-chum by a longshot. If that’s a scenario you face, consider pack-baiting.

  • Get a can of creamed corn, and thoroughly mix it with regular dry oats at around a 1:4 ratio.
  • Let it sit for around 20 minutes.
  • While it’s percolating, open a can of sweet corn and thread several kernels onto your hook.
  • When the creamed corn and oats mix is ready, grab a handful and smoosh it more or less flat in your palm.
  • Place the hooked corn in the center, roll the edges up, and apply pressure to form it into a pack-bait slightly larger than a golf ball.
  • Cast it out and let it sit. You probably won’t get a bite right off the bat, but in five or 10 minutes the pack bait will fall apart (water conditions and how firm your pack is will have a big effect on just how long it takes), chumming the waters right where you’ve cast while also exposing your hook bait.
big carp on the line
Pack baiting can bring monster carp right up to your baits.

Looking to catch carp during the colder months of the year? See what our Freshwater Correspondant Jim Gronaw has to say ont he subject, in Catchng Carp in the Cold.