Winter carp fishing

[rebel squire]

Hi guys

I'm very much a novice when it comes to carp fishing and I'm looking for some advice on carp fishing in the autumn and winter. I'm hoping to head on to my favorite day ticket lake in the next week and will hopefully be fishing through out the winter months also. My approach so far has been to fish solid PVA bags with an inline lead and a short hook link usually fishing with a mix of pellets in the bag a 14mm black crab and squid bollie. I usually fish to the lake features such as islands or trees by the margins. Just wondering how you guys would approach winter fishing what bait and rigs would you guys use and how and what do you use as feed and how much is appropriate in winter times. Also what time of year would you start looking for deeper water and what's the best approach for fishing in deeper waters? 

[framey]

In deeper waters you need to find where the water heats up first and target them spots.

don’t waste time getting there too early as bites tend to be short spells at the warmer part of the day.

keep going as you are 

[emmcee]

4 hours ago, rebel squire said:

Hi guys

I'm very much a novice when it comes to carp fishing and I'm looking for some advice on carp fishing in the autumn and winter. I'm hoping to head on to my favorite day ticket lake in the next week and will hopefully be fishing through out the winter months also. My approach so far has been to fish solid PVA bags with an inline lead and a short hook link usually fishing with a mix of pellets in the bag a 14mm black crab and squid bollie. I usually fish to the lake features such as islands or trees by the margins. Just wondering how you guys would approach winter fishing what bait and rigs would you guys use and how and what do you use as feed and how much is appropriate in winter times. Also what time of year would you start looking for deeper water and what's the best approach for fishing in deeper waters? 

Is your current approach working, if it  Is then I wouldn't change anything. 

Amount of feed is individual to every lake (number of fish, pest fish, birdlife etc) and to every angler. Some anglers will use high attract singles or just stringers, bags and some might apply plenty of prebait and to try and trigger a feeding response. 

Try and find out about previous wintrers on your chosen lake, what was caught and from where etc. Might be a certain swim or area that do the fish etc. 

[salokcinnodrog]

On 04/11/2023 at 13:45, rebel squire said:

Hi guys

I'm very much a novice when it comes to carp fishing and I'm looking for some advice on carp fishing in the autumn and winter. I'm hoping to head on to my favorite day ticket lake in the next week and will hopefully be fishing through out the winter months also. My approach so far has been to fish solid PVA bags with an inline lead and a short hook link usually fishing with a mix of pellets in the bag a 14mm black crab and squid bollie. I usually fish to the lake features such as islands or trees by the margins. Just wondering how you guys would approach winter fishing what bait and rigs would you guys use and how and what do you use as feed and how much is appropriate in winter times. Also what time of year would you start looking for deeper water and what's the best approach for fishing in deeper waters? 

If what you are doing is still working, keep on doing it.

My gradual changes would be to fish slightly further away from the islands, basically until takes stop.

Increase the 'dissolvable' or soluble items in the bag, so faster breakdown pellets, or even powdered groundbait.

When bites stop start fishing different areas, to find the fish. There are often specific features that the carp hole up in year after year. It could be snags, near drop-offs, dead weed, even by the rushes.

Carp don't always stay or even live over the winter in the deepest water. I've seen carp holed up in the rushes in 3feet of water where the maximum depth of the lake is 6 or 7 feet deep. They didn't want to be in the clear silty bottom. The lakebed around the rushes was absolutely filled with bloodworm. 

Nazeing Meads has depths down to 20feet, my winter catches were nearly all in 6feet of water.

My approach changes depending on whether I am fishing a water as a 'campaign' or as a one-off.

I don't change my rigs, or my bait. I use less bait, I don't normally feed as much, although I  still bait up when i leave. I don't tend to use many particles in winter, my exception is sweetcorn; carp love sweetcorn, it's rich in Lysine, and can provoke a take when boilies just aren't working.

 

If it is a campaign then it is the same bait I've been using and feeding all the year so far, although one rod (out of 3) is often fished with a high attract bait, usually my Garlic Spice pink pop-up.

If it is a one-off trip I do tend to recast around regularly with various high attract baits until I've found the fish. For further trips, I start where I left off or caught.