seasonal fishing tactics

[Leegii]

How do you adjust your approach for carp fishing in different seasons?

[Higham1987]

I just did exactly same all year, but in winter, smaller Hooks, Smaller Hookbait and a PVA mesh bag around hook 👍🎣

[kevtaylor]

5 hours ago, Leegii said:

How do you adjust your approach for carp fishing in different seasons?

Massively: winter, small traps handful of bait plus washed out freebies, squashed.

Spring, single brights, zigs, maybe a few freebies scattered about like 10 per rod, maybe a little corn to up the visual attraction.

Summer: up the baiting, maybe fill it in if conditions look right.

Autumn, maybe fill it in but more likely start scaling back towards small traps.

[salokcinnodrog]

5 hours ago, Leegii said:

How do you adjust your approach for carp fishing in different seasons?

Bear in mind waters are different, and my session length tends to be 4 or 5 days/nights.

On my very weedy syndicate lake if we use after spawning as the summer, on arrival I flick out 3 rods with either stringers or bags depending on known clear or feeding spots. 

Around 4 hours before dark I tend to put in loads of bait, as during the day the carp normally refuse to come out of the weed and only show just before dusk.

One rod is normally a boilie rod, fished with a food source pop-up bait over around a kilo of boilies (a long term food source bait, not an attractor bait), one with a snowman bait fished over a 5kg bucket of sweetcorn, hemp, flaked maize and particles and one rod with a food source pop-up off, but near a baited area.

There is so much natural food that the carp might need loads of bait to attract their attention, sometimes I will need to top it up every day,  other days I leave it. Its down to feel and whether the carp or tench have cleaned up.

I carry on doing this through autumn until normally the start of the colder weather usually November.

All of the above have worked so confusion reigns!

In winter it gets harder, the fish don't need so much food, so I switch to a high attract pop-up on one rod, a single food source pop-up on another and stick with the food source bait fished snowman on the last. The last two are fished with micro-mix pellets and boilie crumb in PVA bags.  

I still look for fish, although on the syndicate, there is a Winter area where they seem to hold up, so the rods go in there.

Spring is probably the hardest time, knowing when the carp move out from the winter area and spreading up the whole lake.

The first April captures tend to come from a couple of known swims; fish anywhere else and you are likely to have a blank session, although the autumn/winter stocked** fish might come from anywhere.

It's also difficult knowing how much bait to put in, whether the carp or tench are cleaning it up, or tufties, coots and swans are on it, so for me any Spod/Spomb mix is mostly breadcrumb, small micro pellet and powder with crushed boilies, although I do start increasing the amount of loose, throwing sticked boilies in as I leave.

I'm still on the high attract pop-up, snowman and the food source pop-up.

[yonny]

For me it'll vary from water to water depending on numerous things, but as a very general rule I'll be on the zigs from xmas until late spring. Post spawning I'll be on the bait until xmas.

[greekskii]

On 14/05/2024 at 07:35, yonny said:

For me it'll vary from water to water depending on numerous things, but as a very general rule I'll be on the zigs from xmas until late spring. Post spawning I'll be on the bait until xmas.

If only you could land the fish on zigs though 😁

[elmoputney]

5 hours ago, greekskii said:

If only you could land the fish on zigs though 😁

 Do zig caught fish get altitude sickness or the bends? Maybe he needs to change his hook for a snorkel 😂