Do you use your carp fishing pellets straight from the bag? I ask this because if you do this then in the colder temperatures of winter and spring you could are under-exploiting these baits massively in particular if you find yourself in the habit of using high oil pellets such as oily halibut pellets!

Pellets are made with binding materials that pull together all the ingredients, additives and other aspects of the pellet together to form a food package. The vast majority of pellets used in carp fishing are hard and dehydrated so they store better without going mouldy, so their palatability and nutritional attraction remains intact for longer. Many normal state hard dehydrated pellets will actually remain intact on a rig as hook baits overnight in winter and spring yet may break down in as little as 4-6 hours or less in warmer water temperatures of summer.

Pellets may contain less or more water-soluble substances, however it must be plainly obvious that halibut pellets and marine pellets for salmon and trout farming for instance are not designed for carp! It might be noted that salmonids and a vast number of sea fish have a higher metabolism compared to carp. This is a major reason why halibut pellets and salmon pellets for example contain higher levels of oils to supply these higher energy needs with levels of this very efficient energy source.

One of the limiting factors about many poorly selected pellets for use in the cold of winter and spring is that they contain high energy oils. In warmer temperatures these normally act as feeding triggers as carp really respond to very many forms of marine oils. These oils are an exceptionally productive energy source and feeding triggers with irresistible (if not essential) nutritional and health benefits to fish!

Many of the most proven pellets contain nutritionally-stimulating ingredients and additives, such as easily-digested fish meals, predigested fish protein, marine oils and even milk proteins (as with the awesome CC Moore Milkimin pellets which I regard as among the very best for big wary fish all year round!)

Some pellets contain metabolic stimulants that are absolutely ideal when introduced for boosting fish feeding activity in winter and spring time. CC Moore Cantax Red stands out in this regard (try soaking them in CC Moore Liquid Red Venom before use!) Another great alternative is to use (genuine) Boosted Bloodworm pellets and use the PVA-friendly CC Moore Boosted Bloodworm Extract liquid as a bait soak in advance and actually injected into PVA bags!

Their unique Amino Green 365 is a specially boosted pellet also designed specifically for carp essential needs and maximum feed-triggering potential. This pellet is outstanding in the cold of winter and spring for example and breaks down very easily. Just a small part of their attraction is the betaine, natural salts and extremely digestible incredibly nutritionally rich spirulina powder in them.

Though composed of millions of tiny life forms, spirulina (or aquatic forms of protein-rich algae,) are so potent and powerful they are like basic building blocks of life or even mini batteries for a carp. Often when you see carp not in the mood for anything else he will be sucking up or filter-feeding on tiny life forms such as plankton and algae so it really makes sense to exploit it in the colder months!

Of course part of the great attraction of popular marine and halibut type pellets in summer especially is that they break down so actively releasing all their stimulation and attraction into the water column. No-one can deny the huge success of such pellets and marine oils. In a way this is very similar to the earlier carp fishing historical phase of anglers using fish and marine meal boilies glugged in marine oils.

Many marine pellets today have been designed with carp in mind and do not have the high levels of marine oils that traditional halibut pellets contain. CC Moore certainly know a thing or 2 about sourcing the very best quality pellets with maximum fish-catching potency and vital freshness with all the benefits of fresh oils, vitamins, maximum palatability and performance.

In winter very many pellets certainly do not break down very effectively and do not efficiently rapidly disperse all their fish-pulling substances and particles and this can often lead to you catching less fish as a result. Part of the reason for this is due to various characteristics of the pellet formulations including the levels of water-soluble ingredients and additives etc included. Usually many of these are salty and hygroscopic so they attract water into the pellets and this not only re-hydrates pellets but this cross flow of liquids forces out very attractive liquid and powders in solution and speeds the effective breakdown of pellets!

However the main barrier to them breaking down is usually the presence of high levels of things such as bulk fish oils. Instead of very easily leaching away out of the bait as in the height of summer heat, in winter very many oils used in pellets actually solidify and may reduce digestion of food send signals to the brains of the fish that they are full quicker and reduce feeding on bait in the cold.

With some types of pellets comparatively very little liquid substances may leak off over a period of 6 to 12 hours - particularly in the case of large marine halibut type pellets. I have caught big fish in winter on halibut pellets but I must admit I did things to them so they would break down faster. (Try CC Moore liquid foods!) Using a range of different pellets such as small halibut pellets, 2 hour dissolving Milkimin pellets, Cantax Red pellets or any others including Amino Green 365, Belachan, Salmon and Krill, Boosted Chilli, Boosted Mussel,

Here is a slightly different way to exploit pellets so you know for certain your fish will not be anywhere near as cautious of them, and will perform highly productively in cold weather as well as warm weather! As halibut type marine pellets are just so ingrained into popular carp fishing now I will use these as an example. However I advise you to try many other either alone or in mixtures with halibut pellets too (or omitting these type of oily pellets entirely!)

Halibut pellets come in many sizes and not all grades or sources or qualities are exactly the same. They may come in small sizes but the size we shall be using is powdered size! Halibut pellets are steeped in the kinds of oils that do not dissolve in readily in cold water and they certainly do not disperse their liquids or effectively break down and perform ideally in cold water compared to a myriad of incredibly soluble substances! Power is the smallest form and will disperse so using this will in a way negate the need for so much dissolving of substances as powders will disperse in water currents etc.

So many carp anglers seem to have become addicted now to using halibut pellets as (relatively) economical ground bait and free baits. These pellets are used in ground baits and in all kinds of water soluble PVA bags and webbing and netting type products. Some anglers even soak their PVA stick mix ground baits in oily halibut pellet in cold weather. As this oil is the stuff that stops the pellet from breaking down so well in the cold it really is illogical to use it in winter when so much more massively effective liquids can be exploited!

To a degree many oils are at least part soluble even if this is 1 or less than half a percent. Even this is enough for it to be carried better away from oily baits. In summer for instance, fresh good quality halibut pellets almost ooze oil and this soaks onto PVA from within a PVA Stick full of them for instance and look really attractive.

But beware - in the much lower water temperatures of winter and even into the middle to the end of spring, this covering by marine halibut type oils on the PVA netting or webbing can be disastrous! Some less aware anglers even dip their PVA nets or stockings in such less viscous oils and wonder why they comparatively few fish in colder weather. Sometimes they may even give up, pack up and reel in their rigs - with their PVA sticks still intact (un-dissolved) and still attached to their hooks!

One simple way to avoid this is to use a much more viscous oil that does not solidify in the cold and leaches off baits and baited areas extremely productively. Try using hemp oil in winter instead of halibut and trout pellets oil type products - or at the very least why not try mixing them together and adding liquid lecithin (e.g. from CW Baits) to emulsify it so it disperses along with other bait substances etc much more effectively and also enables baits to be digested more energy-efficiently and productively?!

It makes great sense that as carp are predominantly filter and suction type feeding fish, using much smaller particles suits them in many ways better than 10 or 20 centimetre baits. The best way to eat vegetables to get all the minerals, amino acids, vitamins and other potent compounds etc most energy-efficiently is to eat it liquidised into fine particles.

As so many angler like to use halibut pellets of one form or another here is just one simple suggestion of using halibut pellet powder (or even crumbled pellets) to create something new that really will get fish excited and be digested better and catch more fish - even in the colder months!

My bait suggestions below involve using a PVA-friendly liquid called Marine Amino compound from CC Moore. This product is pure L030 liquid fish protein with extremely stimulating essential amino acids fish need and are instinctively highly attracted to feeding on!

In using PVA bags, netting, webbing, stocking or whatever it is a great idea to use powdered pellets as part of your attack. If you mix your pellet powder with equal parts of bread crumb, and bird food Robin Red additive you will do well. There are many things you can do to make your ingredients and baits different.

One great tip is to add extra additives and ingredients and liquids to the very successful but all too familiar bait additive Robin Red to make it different to normal. I recommend for example that you try adding CC Moore Marine Amino Compound mixed with pure betaine crystals to this mixture! You will be adding similar enhancing properties and stimulants as in halibut pellets but in a form that will dissolve much more easily in cold weather and will disperse so carrying other liquids and bait particles and pulling fish in towards your baits from near and far!

Try experiment soaking and mixing the your Robin Red and halibut pellet powder in CC Moore Marine Amino Compound (and a much smaller amount of pure betaine) in gradual increments before hand. This is so you get maximum liquid attraction into your bait but without making it more than damp! (Note that you can get away with exploiting much more betaine in loose or easily-soluble baits as it very quickly dissolves and works its magic outside of the bait compared to most tighter-knit boilies for example.) Then try mixing small batches of this PVA mix with your bread crumbs in a special folding bowl for example on the bank, just prior to making rigs and casting out!

This way you not only get outstanding nutritional liquid and powdered attraction effective in the cold, but you can use popular PVA bait delivery systems with precision - without worrying about baits dissolving and getting many more fish hooked.

You are getting the best of many of these ingredients and additives by putting them together in such a fine way. This bait will not fill your fish up prematurely, you will still be using the pellet ingredients you favour and they will certainly disperse in the water to wake up at excite the winter and spring fish of a lifetime! After long periods of cold weather carp often need to replenish their stored energy used up when not feeding and at a time when natural food stocks can be most scarce the cold of winter and spring generally gives you much more chance of the fish of a lifetime.

I was fishing (on a different water) the day that Jon Pack caught the old British record during the winter - and I can tell you it was freezing that day! Ironically enough I have little doubt that his bait contained very similar feeding triggers and enhancing effects as the liquid fish protein I have recommended here!

Big wary carp are very vulnerable to capture when natural food is much less available. You can exploit this fact but doing things that bit differently to the rest of the year really pays-off! So when the chances that your only bite of a winter or spring time session will bring you the fish of a lifetime, try making a new well-designed homemade bait and vastly multiply your chances!

Would you rather catch that new personal best fish sooner rather than later? Those anglers who catch record carp and make history make their own luck! (Get more valuable information - see my bait-making secrets and readymade bait catch-multiplying secrets ebooks and free articles at the website Baitbigfish; see my biography right now!)

By Tim Richardson.

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