Got one ! new bait combo worked .

Just caught my first 2011 carp yesterday on a two hour session it's the first fish out of the lake since the ice thawed on wednessday only 4 :8 but still a welcome fish ,makes a nice change from all the chub and roach .
The bait used was bait tech shellfish 10mm pop ups ,they come in lots of colours and it was a yellow poped up 6" on a helicopter type rig to a size 12 QM1 that did the business.
I was using a green one at 4" at the end of the rig with a pva web bag full of ewe nuts diped in maple and tigernut dip as well ,but since the yellow one was taken at that height i don't think the dip had much to do with it .

I think if I had stayed longer I would have been experimenting with different height pop ups as i know the fish holding areas of this lake from lots of winter fishing last year but it is nice to know the new pop ups do catch so far though it was proberbly colour not flavour that did it.

last year it was bright pink maple that out caught anything else I still have to find out what is the best colour this year.

Also I still don't know if the ewe nuts are a waste of money they don't smell very strong or look very tasty though the fish in my tank do eat them and can smell them through the water so there is hope yet.

dayglow glad to see some stillwaters are ice free,just looked at my local water and its still solid,
i am not sure but i think that i read somewhere that ewe nuts are the same thing that bait firms sell as corn steep pellets at vastly inflated prices.

Yes that what i read so I bought soime £7.99 for 15k bag but they don't look or smell anything like I expected mine are dodson and horrell light coloured bag with green writing.
The ones I have just look like big versions of layers pellets for chickens very light coloured and about 1cm long don't smell of CSL at all , don't smell much of anything .

I supose i was expecting something dark brown and sweet smelling.

But the non predatoy fish in my fish tank deffinatley smelled them from the other side of the tank and came over to eat them .

I use normal chicken food mixed with other things for my method mixes and ground bait in the summer .

PS I have a very large fish tank with lots of predators and big catfish.

i wouldnt worry to much about what you can smell on the ewe nuts its whether fish can detect them and from what you say about the fish in your tank they can,i dont like overly flavoured baits unless its something like cheese paste,when fred wilton came up with the boilie he said they if you can smell something above everything else in the bait there is to much in it,my lad fishes for carp a lot and always uses "unflavoured" baits,he has had fish to over 40lbs this season so must be doing something right,i doubt very much that if we were to smell any natural baits that fish eat that we would be able to smell much at all.