BOILIES AND MORE IN THE WINTER

Q As the weather and water temperatures start to cool, do you change the boilie that you use? If so, when do you think about actually changing it?

A Ed Betteridge: As far as the boilies go, I don’t change! My current go-to bait is the Cell, a nut-based bait that is highly digestible in all water temperatures. If I were using a fishmeal-based boilie I would probably change it as soon as the water temperature dropped in October and I wouldn’t use it again in any quantity (single hookbaits are fine) until the end of April or start of May. A water temperature of 10°C is about the minimum that a fishmeal needs to leak out the oils and flavours properly.

Generally speaking, I use mainly boilies between April and October. Once winter sets in, I introduce other items into the mix to keep the fish grubbing and not fill them up. Corn is an awesome winter bait and hemp is another good one. The oil it gives off is one of the finest around and doesn’t coagulate like some fish oils do in cold water. The other bait that I love in the cold water is maggots. These add life to the lake when most of the carp’s natural larder has disappeared.

I use these highly digestible baits to varying extents in winter, depending on the lake, but my main approach is to use a spod mix of all three baits – maggots, corn and hemp – with some broken and whole boilies in the mix so the fish get used to picking up the larger food items.