ASK THE EXPERTS
Dear Panel
I have heard that fruit baits work better during the colder months. Is this true in your experience, and do you change your hookbait and baiting strategy for your winter fishing?
Mr. M Wassell
Fareham,Hants.
Hi Mr. Wassell
The quick answer on both counts is yes. Over the years, my experience is that fruit-flavoured baits generally seem to score well during the colder months, Pineapple being one example, and Mainline’s Essential Opal another. Mixed fruit flavours seem to appeal to the carp’s taste buds as well, and there have been a number of bait companies in the past that have supplied various blends. Mainline supply a large range of tried and tested fruit flavours, but my first choice would be their Pineapple. Having said that, I’ve had a nod and a wink that Fruitella is the one to use in the colder months. I personally stuck with the Pineapple during my short winter effort and surrounded the hookbait with very low-oil-content pellets soaked in the Mainline Pineapple Syrup. The good thing about the complete range of syrups is you can’t overdo them no matter how much you add, especially with pellets. As far as hookbait presentation and baiting strategy are concerned, yes I do change both in the colder months, and I can’t think of a better way to draw the carp’s attention to the presence of my fluoro Pineapple pop-up, than with a PVA bag dropped next to it filled with pellets soaked in Pineapple Syrup!
Just some of the brilliant syrups in the Mainline range
Generally speaking, these days there are few waters that are kept regularly baited throughout the cold months, simply because there seem to be fewer and fewer carp anglers each year who are prepared to sit it out for little reward, which in effect creates a vicious circle because the fewer anglers on the bank, the less bait there is going in, which ultimately equates to fewer carp interested in feeding. Baiting regularly, especially in winter, is the key to encouraging carp to feed and to getting caught.
My problem at the moment isn’t lack of determination, it’s lack of time, hence my instant approach to bait presentation. If you choose a water that isn’t regularly fished and you have the time to give it a go, you will first have to locate a carp-holding area and then drip-feed bait into it until you get a reaction.
My bait choice during the winter, Pineapple pop-ups over a bed of very low-oil-content, fast-dissolving pellets, laced with Mainline’s Pineapple Syrup
My approach in previous years was influenced greatly by a Kent carp angler who is sadly no longer with us. Alan Smith was an expert at location and bait application, as proved on the Tip Lake at Darenth in Kent in the mid-’80s and at other waters after that. If you were to speak to anyone who fished the Tip in winter during that period, they’ll confirm that catching a carp was no easy task!
I don’t for one minute claim to have come anywhere near Alan’s expertise or
consistent results either then or since, but the methodology he used is one I personally will continue to follow when I’m able to and it’s one I would recommend to you. There was no master plan, he just applied common sense and logic; he worked out where the main holding area was when the weather turned and regularly trickled a distinctive-smelling bait into it, which the carp just couldn’t ignore. He started putting his chosen bait into the area in the autumn then he fished with a different bait, so the carp had time to get a taste for the chosen bait without getting caught. When winter arrived Alan used the unfished bait and, within a very short space of time, started to catch consistently where others failed, simply because his approach was consistent and logical. In fact the carp became so addicted to his bait and its timely application, it appeared on occasions that they were just waiting for him to feed them!
At last, a lovely February carp taken on a single Mainline Pineapple pop-up, sometimes just one boilie is enough!
If you have the time and the same determination, there’s nothing to stop you from following that same basic principle Mr. Wassell. Let’s hope it leads to the carp in your water waiting for you and the twang of your catapult!
Good luck!
Mike Kavanagh
