Winter Wonder - Fishing In Winter

As winter approaches, the carp start to change their habits from actively looking for food and gorging on it. They will start to slow down, looking for that last bit of warmth before heading for deeper water as the surface gets colder with the drop in temperature. Once this starts, you normally find they will start to shoal up for warmth, and their metabolism slows right down. Once this happens, it can be very hard to entice them to feed, but they are still catchable with the right tactics and a bit of thought.

Many years ago, I had a garden pond, and I’d see all the fish in the dead of winter grouped up right next to the pipe of the pump as the moving water in the pipe was slightly warmer than sitting water, and they would react to that. On sunny days, they would be higher up in the water as the sun's rays would start to warm a column of water but not at the surface as it was still too cold in the air, and it would keep the surface chilly.

I would take this knowledge with me when fishing and if it was a sunny day I’d try and fish where you could feel the sun the most. I would look for dead reed beds or if there was any running water going into the lake as the sun would warm these and the fish would respond to it seeking out the warmth. 

In one session, I was fishing a swim I’d had a lot of success in, but it was dead, and we had had a lot of cold rain, which I think had affected the fish. There was a small brook that ran down one side of the lake, which was full from the heavy rain, and after my first night, it was quite cold, so I reeled in and went for a walk at about 10 am. About 100 yards down to my left I could start to hear trickling water. I'd noticed the brook had broken its bank and was running across the path into the lake. 

Due to the time of the year, the lake was gin clear, but this part was slightly murky due to the water coming in. I stood there as the sun had come out and it was lovely to be out of the tree’s and feeling the warmth on me. As I stood quietly, I thought I noticed a shadow in the murky water, so I stood and watched for a while, and there they were, about 20-30 carp slowly moving around in the murky water, coming right up to where the water was running into the lake. I quietly stepped back out of sight and went and got a rod. I put two pieces of our maize on the hair, which I took out of our Hemp & Maize mix we cooked, which I was using to bait up with, and gently lowered my baited rig in by where the water ran into the lake. I stood back with my rod resting on the reeds, and I watched the carp for about half an hour swimming about 2 feet over my hookbait, but not one of them was interested as if they hadn’t noticed it. When I saw them push out a little, I introduced some of our Apex Oily Hemp and Maize.

In this mix, we don’t add a lot of maize like other companies, as in my years of carp fishing, I’ve seen the power of the hemp liquid/oil work so well. I see it as the signal that works the water columns attracting the fish down. We only put about 20% of maize in because I think the maize works as a good visual when carp are down on the spot grubbing around. It gives them something to hold in on once the hemp liquid has done its job of drawing them down to the spot. 

I went for a sinking bait as I thought a pop-up would be wafting around too much and spook them. In the years I’ve been fishing, I have noticed how weary carp can push back from a Pop-Up hook bait if it's moving around.

About 10 minutes after introducing the Hemp & Maize, I noticed the carp change; some fish pushed out further while others became more active and moving quickly. I also noticed they were swimming lower and searching for something. I could only assume it was the hemp liquid that was doing this. Then I saw one fish start feeding right on the edge of the baited area of the hemp and maize. Then more carp came in, and I think this is due to the effect of the carp crunching on the hemp seed using their pharyngeal teeth, which are located deep at the back of their throat. They say that the hemp seed itself replicates carp feeding on water snails , crushing the shells. This sound travels through the water and within another 5 or 6 minutes 3 carp were feeding and the line from my rod was twitching. As I stood silently watching, something caught my eye, and a robin had landed on the reeds close to me. with my head turned, I heard a rustle, and the tip of my rod was pulling around, and I was into a carp. After a few minutes I had a lovely 20lb plus carp in the landing net and it made my trip as this fish was my only fish of the trip. 

This is the thing with fishing at this time of year, you can catch fish but you really need to try and find them to maximise your chances of catching because once the cold hits the carp will slow down and your chances are very slim but you do sometimes have a chance.