Martin Bowler’s Adventures
How to keep the carp coming in the cold - Martin unveils his winter approach...
Yes, we could have used four rods apiece, but trust me, more lines don’t always equate to more bites.
A week earlier we had begun to prebait a couple of small areas that would require accurate rig placement, so what price multiple hookbaits when weighed against double, treble or even quadruple the disturbance?
Our swims, with silty bottoms surrounded by low-lying weed, were 75 yards apart and no bigger than a table tennis table. We needed to draw the carp’s attention to them but, with bites having been rare for some time, this was easier said than done.
Earlier in the year we’d both enjoyed huge success on Sticky’s Krill boilies, but now we knew beds of round balls weren’t the way to go. The carp were certainly feeding, but in all probability on small natural food items, so we needed to follow suit.
Cue the food mixer – we blitzed 12mm Krill boilies into crumb, leaving the odd larger particle.
Next we added a sprinkling of neat Krill powder, a little hempseed and a large splosh each of Krill liquid and Hemp Oil. This would ensure every inch of the water column over the spots was oozing attraction.
We split five kilos of this mix between the two swims in two prebaiting sessions three days apart. Our spots, we felt certain,
“Now we knew beds of round balls weren’t the way to go. Cue the food mixer”
were now fully primed for the next act in the drama.
On our first trip a bite seemed highly likely, even given dour reports from fellow anglers. It was late afternoon, while I was speculating why the carp couldn’t be caught, when I was interrupted by Phil’s screaming alarm.
Straight away he reckoned it was a big fish, and he wasn’t wrong. The carp was intent on parting
company with him, but the size 4 Cryogen Curve Shanx hook held
firm in its bottom lip.
An epic carp rolled across the net cord and displayed a back and shoulders that could belong to only one fish – the king of the pond, all 54lb of it! I’d had my moment with this carp earlier in the year and now it was Phil’s turn to hold it up for the camera. Two more carp came to my colleague over the next 24 hours, including a cracking 37lb common.
A week later I returned on my own. Generously, Phil had not
only offered his spot but also slipped a little more crumb in to keep the carp visiting.
Getting a single rod out to a predetermined mark didn’t take long, and when the lead cracked down I knew that the bottom had been polished by feeding fish.
I started to wonder if the pop-up I was fishing was too blatant, now the silt had been swept aside. Mistakenly, I left it in place and
blanked on the first night. At daybreak I reeled in and
swapped over to my standard bottom rig with Tungsten Loaded and a size 5 E-S-P Gripper hook.
Perhaps it seems strange that both Phil and I would use a whole boilie as a hookbait when we were feeding crumb. In all honesty we hoped it would simply be sucked up in the feeding melee, avoiding nuisance fish and allowing us to use the stout tackle so crucial with such big fish near weed.
Switching over to a bottom bait brought instant success with five carp in 24 hours, including a 44lb 12oz mirror that fought with incredible ferocity, demolishing a series of weed beds but luckily not my tackle.
Effort, attention to detail and an understanding of the carp’s behaviour – these were the lessons of cold water carping that have continued to pay off since that memorable visit. Don’t leave your
fishing to luck this winter, as only a fool will trust in it!