THESE AREN'T CATFISH MORON,THEY DONT EAT STINK BAIT

Hi All,
First of all, this looks like a great site. I'm anxious to join the fold.
I have a river not far from my house that is dammed off at each end with about a 2 mile stretch in between. It has a number of deep pockets as well as shallow inner and outter bends, and it is loaded with carp. My guess would be an average weight of 4 to 8 lbs, if not larger.
I go out in my boat and watch them every weekend. Have tried until I'm blue is the face to catch them, but with no luck. I've tried every trick I can find; live bait, stincky bait; stuff that any self-respecting carp should not pass up... NOTHING!! They just swim by thumbing their noses at me. What can I do to get these things to wake and smell the coffee? Thanks. - Have a great day.

Hi carpie, welcome to the forums.
First off, I'm sure what driftercarp meant to say is, "thank you for asking a valid question...and would love to help"
We like to think of this site as friendly and helpful and do not bash people for asking questions. After all thats why we're here...
Now back to your original question...
When first learning to catch carp, a simple rig consisting of a single hook size 4-8 is a good starting point(Never use treble hooks!) on either a sliding or fixed weight setup.
Some baits to try would be canned whole kernal corn or bread kneaded into ball.
I would suggest you introduce them to the bait for several days prior to fishing for them. This gets the carp used to eating this foriegn food source and builds their trust as they consume these free offerings. I think I would try the corn first. Baiting the area with a generous amount of food(approx 2 cans per spot/per day.
After baiting for several days, and its time to fish, put enough corn on hook to completely cover and disguise the hook.
Be as stealthy as possible when approching a spot to fish. If from boat, anchor or tie up to shore and cast to the fish. This keeps from startling them.
Catching carp this way, takes can be as light as small twitches and taps on the line, to screaming runs. The inconsistantsy means you have to be quick on the draw! Timing is everything...
Once you catch a few carp and miss about 100 carp you will then want to switch to a "hair rig" which gives much better hooking and less misses.
The hair rig is the prefered method of the modern carp angler, but this simple method will introduce you to carp fishing and when you get bit by the carpbug, and you will!...we have plenty of pics and video to teach you how to tie hair rig. Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

Firstly i am a little surprised that such a unfriendly reply was given to what is a perfectly good question and whats more saying the carp do not go for stink bait(not sure what that refers to)but if it means really smelly bait then i would say with out any problems they DO go for such baits.

Here in the uk carp are caught all to regularly on baits like chili,garlic,spices of all nature even cheese so to say they do not go for such baits is wrong but as i say i don't know what is meant by stink baits.

Garlic Luncheon meat is what i find catches carp or garlic sausage meat,this can be put direct on to the hook with a baiting needle,sweet corn is another good bait(as mentioned)lose feed the corn and even liquidise it so you have a good cloud bait that will attract but not feed then with corn on the hook you should get some takes.

carp take off the surface so if you watch the feeding habits of these carp you will see what method is best,try some bread flake and see if they go for that on the surface or dog feeder biscuits as carp love these.

The methods i have stated catch here in the uk but not sure if they would in the states but i can see no reason why not so give them a go and best of luck;)