There are many options for accurate baiting and bait presentation. Probably one of the most neglected is wading out your baits to give you that perfect presentation. On 90% of waters this will not be possible, due to depth, silt or wading restrictions, but if it is possible then why not give it a try.
On a local lake that I fish the depths of the waters quantify the use of chest waders. With depths of around 3 to 3 ½ feet, getting in the water in chesties is not a problem.
Prior to this I would have already have done my plumbing work with a marker float to ensure that wading is possible.
Care still has to be taken as there a some large areas of deep silt and weed. I initially take out my landing net handle to use as a prod to ensure that I am not walking into a silt hole or walking off or onto a ledge..
Now there may be some of you that are horrified that that I am disturbing the carp from the margins and scattering them to the far end of the lake. Most estate lakes, as with the one that I am talking about, are used to graze cattle etc.
Below is a quick exchange of emails I felt may be useful for a few other readers…
A question to Shaun.
I am doing some winter fishing this year and wonder what bait you would recommend and what size. I like the look of the FruityTrifle.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Fruity Trifle is one of my favourite winter baits. The basemix I started using right back in the 80’s and have caught literally hundreds of carp on it. It is very easily digestible so the carp will feed again quite quickly – very important in the winter as many baits stay inside them for too long. Size wise I always try and mix the sizes in my own fishing and if the distance being fished allows I always crumble baits up for loose feed as well as offering whole ones.
Ideally I would introduce a small amount of 10mm’s, 15mm’s and 20mm’s whole and broken But if I were limiting myself to just one size of bait I would take the larger 20mm’s simply because there is plenty of scope for breaking them into smaller pieces and trimming them down etc.
Hope this helps
Best fishes
Shaun Harrison
Tom replied.
Thanks for the reply like most nowadays I read you must use 10mm in winter and so on. Just to give you the (more…)