NOW’S THE TIME TO EXPERIMENT!
ASOFTLY-SOFTLY approach can be the best tactic for spring carp. The water temperature has still not reached double figures, and although the lengthening days are starting to make the carp more active, they can still be lethargic and unwilling to get their heads down.
As such, introducing too much feed can be the kiss of death. If you’re getting lots of line bites, but few positive pulls, it’s a sure sign that you have too much bait in the swim. Far better to use a small amount of very attractive bait that will encourage the fish to feed without filling them up.
The Method feeder can work really well as a result, but my advice would be to scale the size of everything down. To begin, instead of using a large feeder, use a mini version. This immediately cuts the amount of bait you are introducing by three-quarters, but that doesn’t mean that you also have to cut the amount of attraction, which will still be enough to pull fish into the peg and hold them.
Later in the year, when recasting more regularly and introducing more feed, you can get away with using straight pellets with no added attraction. The sound of the feeder going in and the
Soft meat hookbaits work well in spring. spread of food on the bottom is enough to rouse the attention of hungry carp. But when the water temperature is low, more attraction can mean more bites, especially as we will be using a lot less bait. An easy way to boost pellets is to swap water for liquid additives when wetting pellets for the feeder.
You can either use a dedicated liquid, or make your own using natural additives such as liquid krill, corn steep liquor or – my personal favourite at this time of the year – tiger nut extract. Use a 50-50 mix of water to these additives and prepare your pellets as normal.
Another simple way to boost the attraction of a Method feeder is to use a mixture of pellets and groundbait. Not only does groundbait release attraction faster, it also creates more of a