Doughballs When Sweet Corn Fails

I'm on a roll this week landing good numbers of carp in open water. My best bait (as it always seems to be) had been pineapple flavored sweet corn. But, not today!

I started off with sweet corn. I had just a few taps here and there and got one fish after an hour of fishing. I brought some bread with me because in previous years when the corn failed the bread often produced in the early going. They really jumped on the doughballs as I landed one fish after another. Twice I even had double headers with two fish on at the same time. Talk about a Chinese fire drill!

Carp fishermen are often confused by the word "doughball". It is actually a bread ball. Today I was using sliced Italian bread. Take the white part and roll it into a marble sized ball really compacting it as you go. Then, let it sit in the sun for some time until the outer skin is hard. Roll the leftovers and toss in as chum. One your dougball is hard, it is ready to fish on the hair rig. These doughballs are especially effective at this time of year when pests such as bluegills, horned pout and turtles are dormant. Use the same doughball in warm weather and these pests will pick you apart.

Lesson from today. When the best winter bait, sweetcorn, fails, go to the number two bait of winter, doughballs.