I’ve caught carp with a fly rod using bead nymphs. I don’t know if the carp were attracted or if they just sucked them up from the bottom.
I catch big carp in the canal 5 minutes from here. I make a dough ball out of a slice of white bread and press it over a #6 hook on the end of the line, with a split shot and bobber a couple feet back. I cast into the center of the canal just upstream from where the street passes over the canal and leave the bale open so I can keep feeding out line until the bait is directly under the center of the bridge. Within ten minutes I have a big carp on the line. A big, slimy foul smelling carp that I reel in, land on the canal bank, hold under my shoe while I retrieve the hook, and kick back into the canal.