Winter

pelican5 · Oct 31, 2009

OK i know this is one of those questions that is by opinion!!

ive fished my local lake a couple of times over the last 3 weeks and another lake last week but only had 1 carp, normally these lakes are quite easy!!
is this due to winter? i know people have said its not winter yet but do carp stop feeding during winter or during the run up to winter.
i want to fish this winter and will be doing this friday night but am not sure how to go about it.
what baits are "winter" baits, is it even winter, would you change rigs or just fish as you normally would??
any advice would be appreciated
thank you
slatts

p.s; im trying to teach my 13 year old brother in law so any advice is passed on to him aswell.

maver man · Oct 31, 2009

What do you fish with mate pole or rod and what methods?

So far that i know is that fishes metabolisms slow down in the winter and they dont feed as mush as they do this in the summer/warmer months and they dont digest fishmeal based bait properly (Please correct me if i am wrong). Also when fishing dont allow a huge amount of bait to enter the water in fact i only use 1 boilie with a small pva bag the size of a ping pong ball for my rigs but if i was pole fishing i would simply fill a small pole pot up with bait and top it up every now and then.

I found that the fish started going off the feed and stopped coming up in the water around 3 weeks into September.

Lower diameter line can help a lot a long with smaller hooks and smaller hook baits.

Tee-Cee · Oct 31, 2009

Funny you should raise this subject because I've been thinking about my recent carp fishing and how it has suddenly dropped off....
I am not talking about big carp and most are of a wild strain(with some mirrors up to 18lb)but this last 10 days has seen a major drop off in fish or even bites!!

The weather has remained fairly mild and the water temperature has not dropped significantly so although I don't expect catches to be of summer or even autumn levels I am amazed how quickly the bites have fallen away......

Boilies of any flavour produce nothing and what bites I do get have been on meat of various types.I have tried minimal freebies and none at all(just some minimal hemp feed which normally works well)but to no avail....

I fished three 6 hour sessions during last week on successive mornings from dawn(when its very quiet)but only produced two runs-both of which I lost!!
I shall go again for similar sessions from Monday onward and try even harder......!!

I intend staying with this until the weather changes dramatically but it is still very odd for the bites to stop one week to the next.....??

It will be interesting to see what responses 'Slatts' receives..........

maver man · Nov 1, 2009

Tee-Cee said:
Boilies of any flavour produce nothing and what bites I do get have been on meat of various types.

I fished three 6 hour sessions during last week on successive mornings from dawn(when its very quiet)but only produced two runs-both of which I lost!!

Thats rather strange as i am scoring well with pineapple and spicy sausage boilies with little pva bags with 8mm marine halibut, 6mm high oil trout pellet and 4mm carp pellet.

Also i was waiting all morning for a run then as soon as the bailiff took my money eeeeeeeeeeeee the alarms sounds and just as i got it to the net the hook pulled i didnt see the fish tho but it did feel like a reasonable sized fish.

Alan Tyler · Nov 1, 2009

Are your lakes tree-lined? Newly-fallen leaves can turn the water to a sort of cold herb tea which the fish don't necessarily like; beech leaves, in particular, are loaded with phenols as a defence against competition from other trees, and a walk through a beech-woood soon shows how effective it is.
That I learned in 1973; what the state of awareness of plant chemical warfare is now I don't know - any updates gratefully received.

pelican5 · Nov 1, 2009

maver man
im using rod,lead weight and braid hook link about 4inches with a size 8 hook, nash amber strawberry boilies which have been catching us fish for the last few months with about 5 or 6 on pva string. i have just brought some mainline pineapple juice pop ups just to have something different in my bag.
tee cee
it was the same at my local lake, was pulling out 12 carp in a 8 hour session between 2 of us and then within a week totally different,although temperatures have not really dropped much does a slight change make a bigger change with fishing.
alan tyler
yes the lake i fish does have a lot of trees around it but not alot hanging over apart from 2 big willows at different points at the lake,there is a couple of different trees(small) on the bank but i have no idea what they are. to be honest i never thought about the trees but like i said im still learning and will take everything on board.
thank you for the replies so far

maver man · Nov 1, 2009

if i was you then slatts i would have a few strawberry on the stringer then have a snow man rig with the strawberry and pop up pineapple on with a small pva bag of pellet (size of a ping pong ball).

Or use a spicy boilie or a pineapple one with a pva bag of goodies works for me

Even try 2 grains of enterprise corn rising slightly of the ground with again pva bag of goodies.

Most devastating of all is putting a handful of tigers around a large area around your hook bait (throwing stick would need to be used here or i use a catty)

Hope this helps mate.

Alan Tyler · Nov 1, 2009

Slatts,
to be honest, it only just occurred to me; it was what Tee-Cee said about the suddenness of the switch-off that got me suspicious.
Hm... 2009 minus 1973 = 36 years for a penny to drop - guess I'll finally have to face it: clever, I'm not.

maver man · Nov 1, 2009

i was rather shocked as well when i fished broad acres in september one week it was fishing brill getting them up in the water then the week later know matter how much bait you kept chucking over they wouldnt surface and it was really warm very strange. i was like there were know fish in there literary.

pelican5 · Nov 1, 2009

maver man
im going to try your idea's friday night,if i get the swim i like then i only fish 2 rod lengths out so its easy to chuck out some bait by hand. there is a lot of bream in the lake and other small fish so corn is usually snapped up by those fish. what pellets,i normally use trout and halibut pellets 8mm,should i mix up the sizes and maybe add a few boilies whole and chopped??
dont mean to nick all your ideas but it'll be good to show my brother in law something new!!! i have not even used the snowman rig myself yet.
thank you for your help,i'll let you know how my night goes!

maver man · Nov 1, 2009

No problem at all smate just glad i can help.

I would still use pva bags as it is nice to have a neat pile of goodies around your hook bait and i would put in 2 chopped boilies and 2 whole, yes i would mix the 2 pellets together as it is a good idea to have 2 different sized pellets; creates variation.

If you need any more help or advice just ask and i will deliver

Regards,
Ada.

pelican5 · Nov 1, 2009

maver man or is it adam??
your a star thank you.
will let you know how it goes,ive got a good stock of pva so will use it.
hope i can return the favour some day
thank you

maver man · Nov 1, 2009

Its Adam.

Thanks mate like i said just glad i can help.
I look forward to hearing how it goes.

Where you from any way bud?

pelican5 · Nov 1, 2009

hi Adam
im from welwyn garden city in hertfordshire just north of london.plenty of lakes around here but as ive just started up again and my brother in laws (3 of them) have taken up fishing ive been taking them to the lake i know quite well just to catch and get the confidence up and for them to learn to play a fish and get it back safely without having to wait days for a bite.
where abouts in england is droitwich??

Alan Tyler · Nov 2, 2009

If the lake is H.H. then my mate and I have struggled there a couple of times in the last two weeks! Even the bream don't seem to want to play ball... but each time, someone else has had several bream, which suggests that they're shoaled up a bit tighter than usual and not moving much.
Rum critters, fish.

maver man · Nov 2, 2009

Oh right, what are they big carp lakes or general course and carp?
I see you have your hands full then lol.
Droitwich is in Worcestershire south of Birmingham mate.

Tee-Cee · Nov 2, 2009

Alan Tyler.......just picked up your message about leaves in the water.

Yes,my lake is absolutely surrounded by trees and yes the lake has been covered by them in increasing amounts as the wind has increased.Last Friday it was so bad I had to sink the rod top to stop them fouling the line....

This morning I went back for another 5 hour session only to find the water TOTALLY free of leaves(apart from a few in the margins)so obviously most have sunk!
If you're correct about the chemical in the leaves then it was proved correct as I failed to get a run of any sort............still,it was a lovely day and I enjoyed the time in the warm sunshine....
In addition it was cold this morning(compared to the last couple of weeks)so that didn't help either......

ps I will try some of the baits Maver Man has found successful recently and see what response I get but I shan't be holding my breath...!!

pelican5 · Nov 2, 2009

alan tyler
yes thats my local lake,i dont fish for bream but there is quite a few in there and when carp fishing one of us usually end up with 1 or 2 bream.
so does that mean the carp would be doing the same if that is the case of the bream being shoaled up tighter,would they still be feeding??
still doing the night friday though so will let you know the results.
maver man
the lake is not massive and holds most fish including a couple of cats,one being caught a few weeks ago at 31lb. does get busy at the weekends and in summer can be hard to get a swim after 8am

Alan Tyler · Nov 2, 2009

The carp are still feeding a bit, and the people who catch at all tend to get several; whether they're shoaled up or just all finding the few spots where they're comfortable is anyone's guess!
If you see two old geezers with hats and centre-pins, I'm the one who only swears when things go wrong.
(My mate seems to turn the air blue even when he's catching... if it upsets him that much, why does he bother going?)
We've not done well the last two trips, though, so probably off to the Lea to blank for pike, chub, perch and roach for the next session or two...

pelican5 · Nov 3, 2009

hahaha ive probably seen/heard you there, i usually fish the furthest wooden point up in the corner,hope to get there friday night so if your fishing saturday i'll be there till lunch time,pop up for a brew!! i might have a spare cup,last time my brother in law forgot his so he used his empty potnoodle pot,chicken and mushroom flavoured coffee,nice!!
i'll have a few empty original curry potnoodle pots going!!!!

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