I'm an avid fisherman but I mostly catch/go for panfish, bass, and northern pike; although ironically the biggest fish I've ever caught was a 67 pound black carp on the Mississippi River using sweet corn. If you're fishing for the "common Midwest carp" that I'm used to seeing/occasionally catching; the stinkier whatever you can come up with the better. Last summer I was doing some catch and release carp fishing off of a culvert and used week old (dead) minnows and was very successful