catch rate

I have had a pretty damming winter no fish since october i use pva sticks and halibut pellet on the hair tried several boile flavours to no avail help me please blanking is becoming a habit

Winter is tough Ade. I had 4 fish out between the start of Nov and the end of March.
I'd stick with what you've been doing over the winter months, especially if its been the same water you've been tackling and you've been putting your bait in on a regular basis.
The new season will kick off soon although from personal experience things havnt switched on as quick as i'd expected. Next couple of weekends if you stick at it you should break that duck and get a result!

Hi Ade.
Winter is a difficult time to catch,and blanking over and over knocks your confidence down.
You start to think is it the rig or line or bait,or am i doing something wrong.

My winter fishing was awful too but i know it will pick up now.



Just keep plugging away.

unless you are fishing a really easy water, i wouldnt worry too much - the mags can give an incredibly false impression of how waters fish over winter.

try and stick with one boilie (but dont ignore "alternatives"), you'll benefit in the end - and the best is yet to come!

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Hi guys, I'm new here but sure I can help out here and there....Hopefully!

Ade, 2 years ago I had a total blank in winter. Then last year it become better as soon as I started to intensify my carp location...! I've learnt that in winter most carp move less, allthough it seems the bigger carp do still move around and have small feeds. But they tend to stay in safe places, like structure, deep areas...but also in the thermocline where the temp are more constant and comfortable. I started off fishing each rod at a different depth... when I picked up a fish i changed the other rods to the same depth areas (used a marker to find the right depths..)and I managed a few more fish...nt many but alot better than my past winter.... winter is a hard one though, and I dont know what your target water is like. but good luck and hope your luck changes soon!

hi ade - i know how frustrating it is mate. i went from October until january before i caught, despite going once or twice a week to a local venue - even now i have only had five out, the biggest being 18.2lb.
i was trying similar tactics to you, then tried a total change - maize. it is clearly the key for me water, but it may work for you. i would suggest firing a few cattys worth out over a 5 m squared area or so, alonside some cooked hemp, before you have even set up your rods. also, make up a groundbait using 1 x loaf of white with crusts off (stick in the food processor) and add 500kg of crushed hemp and a 1kg bag of the new fennzied hemp groundbait, stick in some maize and a keep it fairly dry, you cen then ball a few out, plus put a small amount in pva for your cast.
the best results i have had have been on 1 large single grain of maize, alongside a small plastic grain (to balance it up), and a size 10 wide gape. i use a fairly long hooklength of about 8 inches, using 10lb korda iq xtra soft.
if you give it a try, let me know how you go
like you, i had tried everything, snowmen, pop ups, large boilie, small boilie, chopped boilie, trimmed boilie, pellet, maggot (did get a tench), worm (got 2 bream)
keep it simple, small and as light as possible
hope it works for you

Thanks for your advice i,ll stick with it and give it a whirl i have been fishing some pretty tough club waters and as i am sure you are aware it gets pretty soul destroying but hey thats fishing i shall break that blank thankss to your help

The winter is always the hardest time to fish because the temperature of the water is very low slowing down the carps metabolism meaning they won't want to eat large quantities of bait.
The best baiting method this time of year is to fish with PVA stick filled with high oil or high attractant baits because large amounts of bait will overfeed the carp which potentially could make the carp ignore the hook bait
Hook baits are also important to have high attractant but visibilty is equily important as the scent if the bait in colder water insn't as strong. So a high vis boilie could just well be the clincher!
Another way to go about hook baits is to fish with maggots. Maggots are my all time favorite winter bait and with the korda maggot rigs what better way to do it!
This time of year fish can hold themselves up in the water so if you fish a zig-rig towards rising fish you could well muster up a fish out of nothing!

hope this imporves your catch rate

www.carperskingdom.co.nr
a link to my site were you will find the korda maggot rig.

hi ade , is that you my friend [from fife]?....chalky.