What a lovely mild wet and windy weekend we have just had.  Almost the perfect weather to be out Carp fishing in, the only addition I would have liked would have been a slightly lower barometer pressure.  But none the less, I go because I can go in spite of the weather.  I do like to keep tabs on what’s occurring weather and temperature wise.  For example last weekend just after the lake had thawed I recorded a water temp of 37f when I arrived rising to 40f by the end of my session.  After a week of wind and air temps of up to 50f when I arrived for this weekends session I once again took the water temp to find it has risen to 45f.  So a 8f rise in a week, now this kind of water temperature should see Carp action.

So with all this info to hand its then a case of deciding the best way to go about catching some Carp.  Im hoping one or two fish are going to be active enough to pick up a bait, but its the time of year when you really don’t want to be putting to much bait out as its so easy to overfeed.  Its an old saying and one bearing in mind, you cant take out what you have already put in.  So take it easy and fish to the conditions, think about what you are trying to achieve. Which at this time of year is just a bite!

In the summer one of my favourite methods is the solid pva bag fished over a spodded bed of particle and pellet.  The solid bag is still a method I employ in the winter, but I do tweak it a little. 

What I like to do is make my solid bag as attractive as I can and one of the best ways iv found to do this is to stick to a filling of the Sonu 2mm S pellet feed that I would use in the summer but through the winter months I pour in some of Sonu’s pva friendly bait dips. You don’t need a lot, 20ml is about right.  Due to the nature of these particular dips you cannot overload them so in theory you could add a lot more.  What you then have when the bag breaks down is a nice mouthful of bait and a smell rising through the water column. 

Although iv not taken any photos for you as the weather was wet and wild, this weekend iv managed two mid double commons and a Tench using this method when the other 3 guys on the lake didn’t have a take between them.  Im sure this was down to the attractiveness of the solid pva bag approach.  Try it for yourself, it really is a great winter method.