Winter Bait Carp?

Hi. Are Carp fussy about type of bait in winter?

For example, would they sooned eat easily digestible maggots, over a harder
digesting food like trout pellet or boillies?

Brian wrote:
Hi. Are Carp fussy about type of bait in winter?

For example, would they sooned eat easily digestible maggots, over a
harder digesting food like trout pellet or boillies?

Basically yes - they cannot digest food well in very cold conditions, which
means they may carry it around in their gut for a long time before it's
digested and while their bellies full trying to digest that, they cannot eat
anything else.
If on the other hand they take bread or maggots, it breaks down and goes
through a lot quicker and leaves them empty sooner, but with them hardly
moving so much they dont need to feed more than once a week or so.
In summer there's no problems at all because their metabolism is much higher
and they eat almost continuously.
A feeder rod and a pint of maggots is the best tactic for winter carp IMHO.

Sounds logical.


"Phil L" wrote in message
...
Brian wrote:
Hi. Are Carp fussy about type of bait in winter?

For example, would they sooned eat easily digestible maggots, over a
harder digesting food like trout pellet or boillies?

Basically yes - they cannot digest food well in very cold conditions,
which
means they may carry it around in their gut for a long time before it's
digested and while their bellies full trying to digest that, they cannot
eat
anything else.
If on the other hand they take bread or maggots, it breaks down and goes
through a lot quicker and leaves them empty sooner, but with them hardly
moving so much they dont need to feed more than once a week or so.
In summer there's no problems at all because their metabolism is much
higher
and they eat almost continuously.
A feeder rod and a pint of maggots is the best tactic for winter carp
IMHO.

Is it not true that a fish has a continuous gut and if you were to feed it
food which I can not digest then it would pass through quicker?
This is probably why baits like tigernuts hemp and corn are so good
in winter.
The problem is that if a carp does not eat very often then its gut
will use the oils stored in the fishes body as a source of nutrition, in
doing so the carp will almost hibernate. It is not possible for a carp to
digest food and the stored oils at the same time and the time it takes to
swap from one to the other is dependent on water temp.
If you want to catch carp through the winter use a bait low in animal
protein but high in fibre. A bird seed base mix would be a good bet. You
will have to make sure there is always some bait available in your swim so
the carp can have a little feed each day. I would bait up with 50 20mm baits
every other day but not the day before I was to fish. My hook bait would be
a 14mm bait with soft paste wrapped around it. The paste would be made
exactly the same as the boilies but not cooked. This would give off loads of
attraction but the only bait for the carp to pick up would be the hook bait.

"Brian" wrote in message
...
Sounds logical.


"Phil L" wrote in message
...
Brian wrote:
Hi. Are Carp fussy about type of bait in winter?

For example, would they sooned eat easily digestible maggots, over a
harder digesting food like trout pellet or boillies?

Basically yes - they cannot digest food well in very cold conditions,
which
means they may carry it around in their gut for a long time before it's
digested and while their bellies full trying to digest that, they cannot
eat
anything else.
If on the other hand they take bread or maggots, it breaks down and goes
through a lot quicker and leaves them empty sooner, but with them hardly
moving so much they dont need to feed more than once a week or so.
In summer there's no problems at all because their metabolism is much
higher
and they eat almost continuously.
A feeder rod and a pint of maggots is the best tactic for winter carp
IMHO.