Carp Fishing in Winter
WINTER FISHING IS often more of a battle against yourself rather than the fish. This time of year the long nights, rain, cold winds and Christmas parties all give you an excuse not to go! But the rewards can be there for you - not just the fish, but just being there!
Preparation is the key
Make sure your tackle is ready, so when you get there you spend as little time as possiblein the cold and rain getting sorted out. Don't forget lots of hot food and drink to keep yourself comfortable, and plenty of warm clothes. It's all been said before, but it amazes me how many people you see huddled under a brolly, cold and wet, that end up trying hard just to stay warm, and then packing up early because they are uncomfortable.
What follows is a brief diary of a day trip
I know roughly what tactics I'm going to fish, that most of the swims have similar features, and Ill be looking for similar bottom conditions, so I'm tying up the rigs ready.
Rigs
The rigs are going to be fairly simple, shortish (for me) Mantis or fluorocarbon hooklinks, largish hook and a heavy lead.
I've changed the way I approach winter rigs recently, aiming to hook anything that picks the bait up, rather than trying to get more takes with a less efficient rig, if you see what I mean. Time will tell if it makes any difference! If you haven't done before, it is also an idea to see how your PVA dissolves, especially if you've had it a while and it might've got damp. Just leave a bucket of water outside overnight and chuck a bag in. I use Kryston's 'Melt-Ex' bags as they do melt quickly in the winter, including the knots.
Baits
I'm going to be using a choice of chopped boilies, maggots, casters, corn and Peperami as hookbait and taking a kilo or so of pellet for extra free offerings. Both the pellet and boilies are Essential Baits 'Creamseed Mix' but the boilies have been rolled to a different recipe.
Bait selection
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As it will be totally dark when I get there, I'm going to start off with small bags or single baits to see if I can get a quick bite, casting to spots I've got marked down in my diary - or just dropped in the edge if I forget it! As it gets lighter I can maybe have a bit of mooch about to look for feeding fish, and also start to apply the bait properly if I think it warrants it. All I need to do now is load the car, go to bed and hope I can wake up in the morning!
At the lake
Well, after a great party last night, waking up was a bit harder than I thought (I'd had a lovely time with Stella), and the rain is hammering down, driven by the storm force winds. It was tempting to stay at home and watch the cricket but I forced myself out!
The drive to the lake took longer than normal, due to all the trees, branches and floodwater. Luckily though on arrival the rain stopped, and as I got up late I can have a decent look around because it's nearly light.
I jump into a swim that I've never seen anyone fish before, but its right on the end of the wind and I can see some bubbling right in close to the bank. The three rods are baited, two with boilies snowman style in a PVA bag of chops, pellet and caster, the other with popped-up corn with a PVA bag of maggots and caster. I didn't want to put any bait over the top of the hookbaits as there was obviously fish there.
As it got lighter, the bubbling slowly stopped, but there had been a fish crashing to my left so I moved a rod to cover it. I also started spraying maggots and pellets over the other two rods, half a pouchful every 20 minutes or so to see if I could induce a take, but no luck. I tried a zig-rig on the rod to the crashing fish - which was still showing - just in case the fish were holding mid-water, casting every 15 minutes or so with different colour/flavour pop-ups.
A fish that just likes a jump
I decided to move all three rods a swim to the left so I could put all three rods towards where the fish was showing so a quick dash between showers and I'm fishing again. The fish was still crashing after I cast out, right over the baits, so I put it down as one of those fish that just likes jumping!
The weather was all over the place, one minute calm with bright sunshine, next minute gale force winds and torrential rain as the squalls moved through. It was not exactly ideal as I don't think the fish can settle when its like that, they seem to want a constant during the winter, whether that's hot or cold, calm or windy doesn't seem to matter - they just don't like it changing all the time.
It's now midday and all the food and drink I brought with me has been finished, so to keep my mind off the hunger pangs I reel in to have a wander up the other end of the lake. I wanted to see if there was anything on the back of the wind, as the other three people who are fishing are fishing on the end of the wind, and no-one else had had a take.
A move
About two thirds of the way along it was calmer due to the wood behind the far bank sheltering the lake and there was a bit of bubbling under a tree, and some in open water, so I moved the gear along and got settled in. I was just about to cast to the open water spot when I noticed someone had appeared a couple of swims along which scuppered that plan. The bubbling was still going under the tree, so I took off the heavy lead and put on a 1¾oz inline lead, and tied up a 'mag-aligner' using Kryston Supernova and put it all in a large bag of maggots and under the tree on the left hand margin.
Mag-aligner rig
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The middle rod with the snowman presentation went straight out towards an island, but well short of it as it gets hammered, and the right hand rod with popped up corn down the margin to my right. Same tactics as before, spraying pellet and maggots over the two margin rods and frequently recasting the open water one, the only difference being adding 4 or 5 grains of corn over the right hand margin. Just as I finished the baiting, a buzzer indicated a take…..to the guy a couple of swims along. Doh! At least I had got the location right!
The owner did his rounds, and informed me it had been fishing quite hard lately, which was all I wanted to hear. I like a challenge but it would be nice just to get a bend in the rod. Another squall headed in, so he retreated back to his house and I retreated to the bedchair.
Dave and his winter-caught 21.8
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The wind changed direction slightly so it was no longer calm down this end so I couldn't see if there was still any bubbling. But there was still the occasional flat spot over the other guy's rods, so it looked like they were still in the vicinity. The late night and early start started to take its toll, and I nodded off.
The buzzers woke me a short while later as we were hit by a huge gust of wind, so I re-did the rods and sat back down again. Five minutes later the left hand rod was away, and after a short scrap I netted a 21.08 common. Lovely! As I recast the rod, the bag came off and the rig ended up in the tree. As I've said before, I hate leaving tackle in trees (looks horrible and I'm tight!), so after a five minute fight between me, a landing net pole and the tree, I was re-tying the hooklength as it had got a bit mangled! Rod back on the spot but it was now getting really windy and the rain had started again, so I decided to call it a day before it got dark and see if I could get home before I would have to re-heat my tea.
So there you go, typical day session. The only thing I did differently to others was to keep moving and trying different things. I may have caught if I had stayed in the first swim - and the others might have caught after I left - I'll never know, but at least if you keep looking and trying it'll eventually pay off.
mark webster
