If you’ve ever fancied making your own homemade carp bait, carp dough balls are a great place to start because they are fairly easy to make and cheap to produce.
You never know, you may even stumble across a winning formula!
To begin with, let’s list the tools and ingredients you need to get going with.
- Wooden spoon (or a metallic one will do)
- Medium-sized deep pan
- Fairly Large Mixing Bowl
- A Sieve
- Baking/Parchment paper
- Cloth sack
Basic Ingredients
The basic ingredients for our carp dough ball recipes will include…
- Water
- Eggs
- Cornmeal (yellow is ok)
- Quick-cooking Oatmeal
- Plain White Flour
- Sugar
Other additional ingredients you can try adding are as follows…
Bran Flakes, Cheese, Honey (substitute for the sugar), Vanilla Extract, Molasses, Aniseed, Chilli Flakes, Fine Pellet, Chopped Boilies, Bird Seed…the list goes on!
#1. Carp Dough Ball Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal (don’t worry if you can’t find yellow!)
- 2 heaping tablespoons of quick-cooking oatmeal
- 1 level tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup cold water
Step 1
Stir together the water, sugar, oatmeal and one cup of cornmeal.
Step 2
Place the mixture you just created into a deep pan over a medium heat on the hob.
Step 3
You should stir constantly for five to seven minutes until the dough works up into a stiff ball.
Step 4
Remove from heat and sift in (using the sieve) the remaining cornmeal, working it into the mixture well.
Step 5
Now place the dry dough on some paper or dry surface and thoroughly knead it for around 1-2 minutes.
Step 6
Allow the dough to cool or it could sweat and soften which is not good!
Check how the dough feels – if it feels too sticky, then too much sugar has been added (make a note for next time!), if it feels ‘rubbery’ then there’s not enough sugar!
Step 7
If you’re happy with the mixture once its cooled down – you can proceed to make your dough balls!
Let us know in the comments below how you got on!
(You could experiment by adding some of the ingredients we mentioned such as finely chopped pellet, honey or vanilla extract!)
#2. Carp Dough Ball Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3 cups white cornmeal
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 small box anise seed
Tools required
- 2 x Mixing Bowls
- Cloth Sack + String
- Wooden Spoon
- Deep Pan
- Sieve
- Cooling rack or paper will do
Step 1
Sift the flour, cornmeal and sugar together into a bowl.
Step 2
Crack both eggs, and seperate the egg white from the yolk.
Then (separately) beat the egg whites into another mixing bowl along with the cold water until you obtain a silky smooth mixture.
Step 3
Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the flour, cornmeal and sugar and stir until an even consistency is reached.
Step 4
Add a bit of flour and cornmeal or a few drops of water to stiffen up the dough.
Step 5
Now flatten this mixture to around 1- 1 and a half inches think and place into a cloth sack (tying the end off with string)
Step 6
Heat a pan of water and then slowly drop the cloth sack containing the dough into the boiling water.
After around 3 minutes, turn the sack over and ‘cook’ for a further 3 minutes.
Step 7
Now turn the hob down to a low-medium heat and let is simmer for 15 minutes.
Step 8
Remove the sack from the pan, and allow it to cool down on a rack or the parchment paper.
Once cooled, remove the dough from the sack and work it thoroughly with your hands and then place back into the sack.
Step 8
You can either go ahead and create your dough balls as you wish or….
….you can place the dough into the fridge and leave it to mature – the older it gets, the better!
If it does feel a little dry when you come to using it – moisten your hands with some water and work the dough back to a nice consistency!
Job done – and a fantastic carp dough ball recipe!
There are some great alternatives or twists on both these classic recipes.
You could use the dough mixture to place around a carp feeder, or turn into a paste for adding directly to your hook bait.
There are many possibilites you could try!
Carp Dough Ball Recipe Video #1
Carp Dough Ball Recipe Video #2
Carp Dough Ball Recipe Video #3
Summary
There you have two fantastic recipes – both made slightly differently, but the fact you’ve made them yourself only adds to the anticipation of catching with a homemade carp bait!
Don’t forget to add some of the other interesting ingredients mentioned such as bird seed, cereals, honey and molasses – you could even add food flavourings or colourings to really give your dough balls a boost!
You could also try changing the shape to make them more effective?
Thanks for reading our fabulous carp dough ball recipes – we welcome your support!
Until next time – stay lucky!
