crusian

So you each your pie(s) with  Jack Daniels ? , a Northern Lad with airs and graces ! .
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I bet your Kids won't be allowed to open their Christmas presents until after the Queens' Speech , Elmo .
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Ha they wouldn't be able to cope with that and neither would I,
I do love Christmas I've nearly done all my shopping already 😁
 

It's not winter till December 22nd this year, so anyone caught catching a winter carp before then is still catching an autumn carp 😁
 

I know the tv show has attracted criticism for not giving enough technical detail , but IMO it's so much more than a fishing program - like for me the original Top Gear wasn't really about cars , but about friendship and growing old and still having fun like a bunch of kids .
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Whilst this isn't aimed at the original poster, it is definitely worth choosing the venue most carefully for winter.  The only water I've happily fished right through and caught from regularly was a shallow pit 6ft max.  Like snowmanstevo has said 11:00 - 15:00 was bite time bang on, so I'd fish days only arriving mid morning, back home by 4pm.
It was a 25+ acre lake and the fish grouped in the central couple of acres in amongst the flocks of wildfowl, careful observation and you'd see head and shouldering just behind or in the flock itself.
I had 3 in 20 mins whilst trying to tell a guy that it was usually difficult, he must have thought I was trying to put him off.  Winter felt like the best time to be there tbh.
The deeper gravel pits where you've got good depth to say 20ft the fish are much harder to catch and the fishing starts a good month later in spring than other shallower pits, that's just my observation anyway.
IMO you want to be focusing on the West bank initially as it gets the first sun, also reed beds as said previously.
This shallow water advice relates directly to the zigs advice for deeper water I guess.

Agree with Yonny but one thing I would add is watch the weather like a hawk. Even the smallest spikes can be a window of opportunity and on my winter water between 11:00-15:00 is always good when the winter weather is a bit milder. I’d also add that at least one of my rods would be on a zig,if allowed on your water. Good luck work hard at it and hopefully you’ll have a few. 😬😎🎣

You need to be looking now mate - they'll be starting to visit the winter areas already and those early signs can make or break a winter campaign. If you can, I'd be baiting those areas too (and keep that going all through winter). There is no point starting baiting in winter as you've already missed the boat and their metabolism will have slowed. If you keep it going in from autumn, they'll keep feeding.
Regards fishing in winter itself, be ready for long periods of inactivity. They will show you where you need to be, but the levels of activity are very low, and it often comes in the dead of night (1 - 3 AM). When it gets dark at 4 or 5 PM that can seem like a very, very long wait (by 8 PM it feels like midnight!).
Every pit is different but I've found areas of consistent depth near (not in) the deepest water can often serve as winter holding areas. Keep your eyes on shallower water when the sun comes out, especially if there are reed beds about.
It's worth trying to find out about past winter captures as the holding areas usually stay the same year-on-year in my experience.
Don't expect too much. Sometimes you can be bang on them but at the end of the day their metabolism slows so they simply don't need to eat much. That said, imo they will feed for a short period every day so if you can find where that is, you can sometimes set you watch by the takes.
The hardest thing about winter is staying focused as the hours pass by with no signs whatsoever. Just one single sighting can make the difference between a great campaign and a whole winters blanking, so you absolutely need to keep those eyes open and just keep going.
Good luck.

You've just reminded me I wanted to research a monocular , like something from Stargate , Kev.
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Did a very cold,wet and blustery day session with a mate Saturday and managed this lovely 9lb fish........ coldest day we’ve had for a long time. Had a few mates send me a t shirt so had to strip off for the pics...... it was blooming freezing 😂😂😂

Yea mate,always. 

I'm no expert, from personal experience it can be hard to relate, explain or burden, loved ones with your inner feelings.
Yet a perfect stranger, that has no misgivings is a different matter & can be the desired tonic.
I'm sure it wasn't personal stevo. 
Good for you ouchthathurt! Top man. 

If anyone wants to get behind a military charity, can I suggest SSAFA? After the breakdown of my marriage due to PTSD, and having approached a GP for help and being told that I would have to go on a 6-12 month waiting list for initial assessment (a timeframe doubled by the GP then "forgetting" to do the referral - 6 months waiting for an appt that was not gonna arrive) I was found by my parents and brought back to Sussex. They asked H4H for help twice but I was never seen by them. In desperation, (as I was a total mess, been hospitalised twice with pancreatitis due to self medicating with Stella and vodka - been tee total since 2016 - and having had my father find me removing my tow rope form the boot of my car - ideal noose after all) they contacted SSAFA or the soldiers sailors air force association. They spoke to a SSAFA rep who interviewed me the following day, (he was ex parachute regt) he immediately realised I was a danger to myself and referred me to a clinical psychologist privately of which they paid the fees, the day after the referral was sent, (a sunday) the rep collected me from my parents house and drove me to see the psychologist at her own home. I was formally diagnosed with severe untreated PTSD and referred for immediate treatment. I started counselling on the Tuesday. 
It took a while, but I got there. I even returned to the ambulance service, something I couldn't have done prior to SSAFA's intervention. On the last day of my treatment, the counsellor told me that it was "the first day of the new life" I left, drove to Wales to collect my boys, returned to Sussex and took my boys to a local holiday park 15mins from my house (nothing too taxing - got an awesome carp lake!!) walked into the restaurant and got chatting to a very attractive blonde girl, (terrified she would tell me to get lost - but as a test of confidence it was pretty scary!) 
After 3yrs and 3 months together the same blonde and I will be getting married next year... There is light at the end of the tunnel. Seeing my son catch his first fish, teaching my other son how to ride a bike, my youngest son catching a PB 28lb+ mirror... A thousand little things that I could have missed had SSAFA not stepped in, along with family friends children and my partner, I thought I was pretty strong, being a blood splattered war fighting medic, but my reluctance to ask for help nearly cost me everything. The fight in getting better was tough, but screw it, don't let the bad uns win! 
 
I mean, miss this? No way! 

Time and fishing is a great healer,mate.

Lost my parents years ago... my Dad in 2011 & my Mum went a few years back on 31st Nov so we are coming up to the anniversary of her passing... its always a hard time, doesn't matter how tough you think you are, but the passing of a loved one is a hard thing to face up to.... especially Fathers.... as young lads we always think our Dads are tough, invincible, superheroes, who can shrug off anything and come back for more... it kinda stays with us, he fought cancer bravely and with dignity, until that fateful day.... 
When I lost my parents I was lucky, with a loving, supportive wife and family and a hobby I could immerse myself into, things were hard, but I got on with it and got through it relatively well... some don't fare so well...
 
 Yonny and Emmcee and Snowmanstevo, my deepest condolences... take care lads, if you need to talk just drop me a PM 

Yes, poor choice of terminology on my part, fish don't have a stomach but they do have a long digestion tube that is concertinaed in their body. This makes it easier for food to get trapped and especially if it were to swell. Peanuts are banned on many fisheries because of the problem as well as tiger nuts (which aren't technically a nut!)
The time it takes for a food item to pass through a carp is dependent on the water temperature and probably it's solubility in the digestion tract juices. Things like maggots and worms are probably easily broken down whereas harder baits will take longer. A well known angler told me once how he watched chub taking sweetcorn like there was no tomorrow, they passed it and swam in a circle to savour it again! Having had 3 kids, I can confirm that if you feed them sweetcorn one day, the next you have a yellow speckled nappy!
All I would say if that we have a responsibility towards the fish we are trying to catch and should tempt them on food that is attractive and beneficial to them. Deliberately feeding them food items that could cause discomfort of even death should be avoided at all costs. 

Thanks , Yonny .
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This time of year I'd happily use either tbh buddy.

So for this time of year a PJPU Scopex & Strawberry in Red , or would you want a more blatant White , Yonny ? .
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I'm afraid it's a little of both... A worm omelette was once knocked up by an oppo on an escape and evasion course... I can't be sure where the eggs came from (to this day I pray from a duck...) It was pretty minging just muddy eggy mush. I decided against finishing that particular delicacy! when this dude sharpened a stick to try spear a frog I thought he had gone a bit native, it was almost a relief getting captured by the infantry lads, even if I got to wear a fetching sandbag and be ridiculed about the size of my manhood (to be fair it was freezing!) and stand spread eagled up against a wall for a while. 
Come to think about it, I'm not sure if the Hunter force were infantry or the local BDSM club!! They seem to have similar practices (so ive, ahem, heard!) 

I shouldn't really but
https://twitter.com/SlenderSherbet/status/1191974896114569216?s=20

My big worry is obvious.
 
On a serious note with molasses, it is very attractive, high in sugar, carp and other species love it, but without checking I wouldn't know what pH level molasses is?
It would probably mix very well with molehill soil and chopped worm

Rock salt (any salt) is a good attractor as all fish need to replace salts lost through osmosis. Carp are always losing vital salts required for metabolism and isotonic balance (like humans that require approx 1.2-3g of salt a day to replace what we lose) as the salt is absorbed into the carps surrounding environment. If you have two fluids, like in the case of a carp, the surrounding water and their blood stream the two fluids will always try to balance out (trying to simplify this!) So a fluid with higher salt concentration like the carps blood will lose salt to the surrounding water. This is why saltwater eels change and look different to freshwater eels, they are the same fish, but when entering salt water, their skin thickens, the slime thickens and other changes happen to minimise this osmosis - balancing - otherwise the high concentration of salt in the sea would travel over into the bloodstream and cause excessive salt build up in the eels bloodstream leading to organ failure and death. The carp will find salt attractive as it's an essential ingredient in their basic mineral needs for health yet it's a tricky element to find in their natural environment for the most part. 
amino acids are an essential ingredient required to break down protein chains to make them digestible. Worms are said to be high in amino acids. Carp are thought to be able to detect these acids in tiny concentrations, it's a fascinating subject, but only the carp really know, and not one carp will talk - even under torture! They enjoy waterboarding for some reason...
The use of compost or soil as a groundbait has potential, after all soil is a recognised groundbait for perch - one handful of soil holds a high number of organisms etc than the population of the UK - soil is a living entity. Even the clouding or darkening of the water (if clear) will act as an attraction as carp may believe it's caused by other feeding fish and investigate. It's a new smell, something different, the curiosity factor may be of bigger benefit than any Ph change. I'm not sure you would be able to affect a noticeable difference in PH as it would soon be absorbed into the water column. It might need a large amount of soil to make a difference? I don't know, whether the acid and alkali would just mix so the difference is negligible... Yet carp can supposedly detect minute changes and particles so the negligent change of PH in an area may be all you need... 

Did a 3hr session and had a jack and this better fish at 17,4 last knockings it did it’s best to throw the hooks it gave me a belting scrap 😬😎🎣🐊

Cant be compared bud. The proper jobs aren't cork balls. Cork balls are always better imo, but there are occasions when you need a standard pop up, that's where the proper jobs come in for me.