Winter carp fishing

Winter carp fishing can be the hardest time of the year to fish. The problem being carp are a cold blooded animal and the colder the water the slower their metabolism is which means less consumption of food and less movement.

When Carp fishing in the winter I tend to fish with just boilies, Particle baits such as peanuts , tiger nuts and maples tend to lose their effectiveness possibly due the viscosity of the attractive oils these nuts contain and as the temperature decreases they thicken considerably ( this also applies to high oil pellets ) The type of boilie I would use would be a fruit or spice flavor  in a bright color. When carp fishing in the winter it is best to use little or no free offerings. The only time I would use lots of free offering would be when fishing with maggots. Maggots are a great winter bait on the right water ( with no or very little number of silver fish ) and I would fish over one or two spods of maggots topping up every few hours or after every fish. Black foam fished on a Zig rig has been very successful in recent years over the winter, the reason for this is not quite clear, one reason being that it is just different and Carp being inquisitive they just have to have a look.

When winter carp fishing it is very important to locate the fish, more so than any other time of the year as they are not moving as much so you cant just cast out and hope a cursing fish will pass by and take a fancy to your bait as you can sometimes get away with in the warmer months.

Here are a few tips for locating fish in the winter:

1: Always watch the water for jumping or rolling fish. If you see any movement fish in that area.

2: We are told Carp follow the wind but in the winter you should fish on the back of the wind  especially a Northern or Eastern wind as they can be bitterly cold and in situations like this look for sheltered areas of the lake.

3: On a sunny day try fishing in the part of the lake that gets the sun for most of the day especially shallow areas that get  the sun, theses areas can warm the quickest but also cool the quickest so it is important to get the timing right.

4: Try keeping one rod as an exploratory rod, casting somewhere different every 30 mins. Keep the rod tip high and don’t use a backlead, this will increase the amount of line bites you get and should give you some idea of where the fish are.

One of the most important things to do while winter carp fishing is to keep warm. If you are not warm you will not perform as well as you could.

Here is a list of essential items you will need to keep warm:

1: Take at least two sets of clothes for every 24hrs on the bank.

2: Get yourself a good 4 seasons sleeping bag.

3: A bed-chair is a must, sleeping on the floor in the winter is not very pleasant as the ground will stay at a constant temperature all night.

4: A good shelter that can be transformed into a sealed dome

Last but not least plenty of Tea, nothing can worm you like a good cup of tea.



Many people don’t even try in the winter and this give you the opportunity to have the water all to yourself. Winter fishing can produce some great results especially at the end of winter when you will get some days when it seems all the fish want to do is feed, The last week in February and the first weeks of March have seen some big fish and many carp angler have had their PB at this time of year.

So to bring this to a conclusion the most important things you can do to catch more winter Carp are:

1: Keep warm

2: Locate the fish

3: Dont over bait.

Tight Lines