Big Catches this Week on Combo Baits

This has been one of the best weeks for big fish I have ever experienced in my years of carp fishing in the month of May.  The score for the week reads 2 fish in the thirties (31 and 33 lbs.), 9 carp from 20-28 lbs. and 15 carp from 10-19 lbs. About half the fish were taken in MA waters and half taken in RI waters.  But, the common thread here is that all the fish were taken caught on combo baits.

Combo baits are the combination of two or more different baits on the hook or hair.  Since I am using only hair rigs I am putting these baits with a baiting needle on the hair or string that comes off the back of the hook.  There was no one combo bait that caught all these fish.  I kept mixing it up.  Here are some of my favorite combos: one chick pea and one berry flavored kernel of maize (see pic at left), one kernel of berry maize and one kernel of pineapple whiskey, a pop-up boilie (6 mm or 10 mm) and one kernel of maize, one or two kernels of sweet corn and one kernel of maize, an artificial pop up and one kernel of maize.  It is endless on how you can stack these, but I think when you use combo baits, you increase your chances of giving the fish something they really want to hit.

The pic at right is a 28 lb. mirror I caught a couple of days ago.  It was taken on a kernel of sweet and salty pineapple whiskey maize and a kernel of sweet and salty wild berry maize.  Both are experimental flavors that I am testing.