INSIDE THE MIND | A Preference Of Taste

As carp anglers we really are a funny old breed. Time and time again we blindly accept as proven truth things that are little more than urban myths, often perpetuated by would-be local legends. Many examples instantly come to mind from the old “They don’t take floaters here mate,” through to classics like “This is no-carp corner – they never come in here.”

I love a lot of these simply because it often means that in reality the truth is very different indeed; invariably it makes carp fishing easier because anglers have blindly followed the old ‘rules’ and ignored floater fishing opportunities, or perhaps put their rods out in the fashionable swims because the carp never get in that back channel. I could pretty much guarantee that in most if not all of these situations, you’d be able to make a pretty big dent in the stock by floater fishing, in the back channel!

I have fallen victim to this mentality myself; only recently in cold weather, I have been catching some fish using a bait that we all consider a firm summer option. In fact I’d never heard of people using it in the winter and when I asked around it seemed everyone was of a similar mind-set; nobody bothered with it but nobody really knew why, we all just assumed it wasn’t much of a cold-water bait! Well it’s been a very interesting learning curve for me, proving things for myself and adding another string to my ‘bait bow’ – maybe I will tell you all about that next winter but for now, let’s study another case of what I call “mistaken assumption”.

I think the essence of this particular myth goes back to the 1980s when the boilie fishing boom exploded on to the scene. Through the writings of various luminaries at the time, we were all taught that once the winter arrived and the water got cold, we were best advised to retire the ever-effective fishmeal baits and switch instead to a birdfood or in more modern times, a nut-based bait. The ‘rule’ seemed to be fishy and oily for the summer and sweet, creamy and fruity for the winter.

While it is true that a rich fishmeal may be harder to digest quickly in really cold water, is it really true that the fish have less of a preference for such baits in the winter in terms of taste and attraction? Surely if a fish likes the taste of something then that wouldn’t just change according to the calendar?

When I started hearing about specimen anglers catching carp on small dead baits intended for perch and chub, in very cold water conditions, I started to wonder if perhaps we had got it a little wrong. If carp didn’t like fishy things in the winter then how come they got caught on actual fish – you can’t get any more fishy than that!

The other thing that triggered my curiosity was thinking back to the baits we used to use in cold water. Luncheon meat was one of the best – again far from the sweet and fruity type of bait we had been told is better and yet meat used to be brilliant. Anyone remember the old Dynamite Meaty Marine Mix? Through the latter part of the 1990s and into the turn of the century, none of us would dream of going winter carp fishing without it.

We used to fish it in small bags or sticks with something like a bit of Peperami as the hook bait. It worked so well that it was a bit of a leveller for the time and yet the smell signal and profile was extremely meaty, fishy and very, very oily. In fact, we always got a slick on the surface immediately before the bite occurred, even in really cold weather.

So these thoughts combined to keep me entertained on those dark winter evenings as I mulled over what would be a bait approach to use on tricky, pressured waters that had seen it all. I wondered if I could to some extent mimic the Marine Mix by knocking up a really pungent, oily offering of my own and the more I thought about it, the more I was sure it was going to work.

My main motivation was, as always, to try and be different and hopefully separate myself from the crowd. Everywhere I looked and everyone I spoke to was angling down the ever-predictable route of sweet/creamy/fruity. Sometimes maggots would be utilised but if it was boilie or boilie crumb then the usual ‘rules’ would be followed – fishy, pellety, oily baits were relegated until May and everyone was, to an extent, angling within a fairly predictable set of goalposts.

As far as something fishy was concerned, the obvious choice was right in front of me. Being a long-term Sticky user, I already had what I deem to be the best fishmeal available anywhere, sitting in my freezer. I’d heard of a couple of lads using it in very cold weather and catching fish, but it was so rare to hear of anyone bucking the trend that I’m pretty sure they were the only ones brave enough to try it.

I was mindful of one important thing; the Krill is a very rich, potent bait and people who know a lot more about bait than me had advised that it would take longer to pass through the fish in really cold weather. With this in mind, I would keep the quantities lean but that suited me perfectly as my approach was going to be geared around bag fishing.

Had I been targeting a very prolific water where there were lots of fish and there was a possibility of getting through lots of bait, then I would probably have aimed for something much more digestible like Manilla. However, on both Bayeswater and Sandhurst (two of the waters I fancied having a look at), the fishing could be tricky and I felt single-bite tactics with oily, fishy bags could be a big edge.

I collected my old Kenwood multi-chef from the shed and set about milling a couple of kilos of Krill into fine crumb. When that was done, I added two handfuls of Krill 2.3mm pellets and then a handful of the Bloodworm pellets in the same size. These were thoroughly mixed to fully disperse them through the crumb and all that was left was to add the oil.

I don’t know too much about oils but I did think that pure Hemp Oil might be the best to easily disperse into the water column in really cold weather. I added a small amount of this and mixed it in thoroughly, ensuring all the tiny crumb particles were coated. I left this for an hour to soak in and then found that the mix would take a little more, so I topped it up and left it overnight to seep into the pellets and larger pieces of crumb. I wanted it so that the crumb was damp enough with oil that it would hold together if I gave it a gentle squeeze but not so saturated that it looked black with oil.

I used this mix in small mesh bags that I hooked on to the rig and occasionally inside a solid bag too. The hook bait varied between a trimmed little piece of Krill wafter and a sliver of the old classic, Peperami. If you have never used this then you need it in your locker! Get the super-hot, ultra spicy one – I carry it everywhere and French carp in particular seem addicted to it. I would often trim up a few sticks with the braid blades and drop all the little oily bits into the bags too – it all helps!

The initial outing with the mix was during brutally cold weather. I made up a little mesh test bag and dropped it into the margins to check it was melting and breaking down as I wanted it to. The water temperature was an exceptionally frigid 3.8ºC and yet, straightaway, tiny little blue ‘blooms’ hit the surface, telling me that I needn’t have worried at all about the oil working properly.

The first time I used the bags, at Sandhurst, I had a really nice mid-twenty which, reassuringly was the only fish out of the whole lake, despite it being busy. It had only been a short session so the result was more than enough to convince me that the tactic had some mileage.

It’s worth just mentioning the hook baits again. As you will have noticed, they are very subtle and innocuous in both instances and again the reverse of the trend that winter hook baits seem to take. I’ve gone over this many times before so I won’t labour it here but briefly, with practically every single carper in the country doing something to make their hook bait different from the rest of the feed, how long will it take the carp to work out that everything bright is attached to something sharp?

The starkest observation I had of this last winter involved the birds. Years ago, when the tufties came over the spot you’d get a few bleeps and knocks and then usually hook one of them. Nowadays this rarely happens as the birds seem to cleverly manoeuvre themselves across the baited area and avoid the traps that we anglers have been so kind as to make really visually obvious! Everyone I have spoken to used to hook more birds than they do now and so if the birds have learnt, do you not think it is just slightly possible that the carp have too?

On no less than three consecutive trips last winter, I caught a tuftie and then two coots. The most interesting part of this was that I didn’t see anyone else catch a bird and when I thought about it, I realised I hadn’t seen anyone else catch a bird for ages! On each of those trips I also caught the only carp from the lake so it does seem that by most of us fishing bright pinks on the oh-so-predictable Ronnie, we have given both the carp and the birds a much easier route to not getting caught. Make it subtle and look less like a trap and it won’t be regarded with suspicion!

This winter I intend to expand not only on the fishy bags but I am going to have a play with actual fish too. I have a hunch that lots of whitebait or even anchovies could be deadly. Imagine having a spod mix of Krill crumb, mixed with a kilo of chopped whitebait with a 2in whole one hair rigged – I just know that would slay a few carp that have got bored of the usual offerings and fancy something a little bit different.

I went on to use the oily, fishy, pellety bags throughout January and February at Bayeswater with plenty of good carp falling to them. On a couple of occasions I’d get a little slick of hemp oil prior to a bite; although some of it would come off as the bag melted and the crumb broke down there was clearly still enough there to prove attractive even after a long January night.

The results proved to me that, as always, ignoring urban myths and working things out for yourself is not only very effective but it’s hugely satisfying too!

 

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