20 mm Boilies in the Winter.

29^th November 2011 and unbelievably it has taken until now for the winter to start  looking as though it is finally starting to cut in. The water I am currently fishing has finally seen the water temperatures start to drop this week to below 10 c (50 f) and combined with big winds there is a certain wind chill reminding me of what will surely come in the weeks ahead.

The water temperatures are still plenty warm enough and the carp still active but each winter when the waters drop below 10C (50F) they continue to drop quite rapid so to my mind winter although late is now starting to happen and my tried and trusted winter methods now come into play.

Anyone who has read much of my writings in the past will know my love of very small baits yet winter is the time when one rod will go in the opposite direction and is one of the few times of the year I would consider putting a 20mm hook bait on.

This has caught me so many cold water carp I guess in a way it is again being very different as so many other anglers finally start scaling their tackle down and using the type of baits I use all summer.

When reliant at times of a single hook bait attracting the carp’s attention I am happier with something easy to see but not necessarily bright and in your face.

My favourite way of achieving this is to first shave the side outer skin of a few 20mm standard shelf life bottom baits straight out of the bag but leaving the ends intact for the hair to pass through and retain the harder skin there.

I then transfer these shaved baits to a old pop-up tub containing a matching Glug and simply leave them to soak the glug right in over a period of however long it takes to use the tub up. The shaved sides of the boilies helps the boilies to take more glug in quicker than a standard boilie.

Notice I said Glug and not Dip?

Here at Quest Baits we produce matching Glugs and Dips for each of our boilies range. These tend to confuse a few people not being sure of the difference.

The Glugs are a liquid food source and you can’t really go over the top with these – they are not over flavoured being in human terms like a dilute drink which has been diluted and perfectly palatable.

The Boilie Dips on the other hand are much more heavily flavoured and designed for a simple quick dip of the hook bait rather than a hook bait soak. Again put into human terms like a dilute drink before the water has been added.

A single peeled 20mm boilies which has been soaked in Glug will be detected by any carp having a mooch around without the need for it to be bright and coot and tuftie attracting.

Give it a go it could just end up surprising you – particularly when combined with a tiny mesh stick of crushed boilies, Maximum Action Pellet and Microfeed in a mesh bag dipped also into the Glug for a few seconds before casting.

There we are another one of my winter tactics handed on a plate!

 

 

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