*** Miracle Berry by name, Miracle Berry by nature ***
This is one of those products brought over from the specimen carp side and for good reason. A strong blackcurrant mixed with a dash of Buchu oil and a sprinkling of fairy dust, created an awesome cold water specimen hookbait… and we had to bring these out in the small sizes for the match & coarse angler. A bright pink standout bait is perfect for feeder or bomb fishing and with a little squirt of the matching booster spray spray watch the carp roll in. A deadly colder water bait. You can found out more at our leading stockists or online here: https://spottedfin.com/…/go2-miracle-berry-hi-viz-wafter/
A range of hookbaits developed and tested over a number of years, each unique blend of flavours and attractors has been tried and tested with great success on waters across the UK and Europe.
This bait is made with the finest Blackcurrant flavour, Buchu essential oil and is a veritable carp magnet. It will stimulate the carps olfactory system in a profound way. With added N-butyric and Betaine.
GO2 wafters are the perfect for use on methods, hybrids and bombs. With an element of buoyancy they negate the weight of the hook meaning the bait is the first thing to fly back into the fishes mouth. Not only are they great for carp and F1s but are a great ‘alternative’ hookbait when targeting big bream!
Miracle Berry:
“This bait is made with the finest Blackcurrant flavour and with the legendary carp catching Buchu essential oil, it is a veritable carp magnet. It will stimulate the carps olfactory system in a profound way. With added N-butyric and Betaine.”
If you are planning on fishing over the winter months, choose your venue to suit your needs, once you’ve started your campaign, you will only make it a lot harder on yourself by moving waters.
90s Style
The key factor in successfully catching carp over the winter months is definitely motivation, without that, you will find the long winter nights and cold weather hard going. It’s extremely hard work setting up in the dark and cold – consider this when picking your venue, along with how many nights you plan on doing each week. A single night and then head off to work in the morning, I’ve spent many winters doing two or three single nights each week. Believe me, you certainly need the motivation to set up and pack up in the dark, don’t forget you could be blanking a lot. If you choose to do a couple of nights in a row, you still may need to set up in the dark on the first night, and carrying extra kit for winter can make this a lot harder. A tip I’ve learned is only to take the basic kit you need to your swim on the first night and then collect the rest the following morning. If this isn’t an option just take less kit, it’s amazing how much you don’t really need.
The Swamp
Pick your venue with the above in mind, a long walk to set up in the dark came to be very hard going and you will be doing this all winter long. Oddly, a walk back in the dark was less of an issue for me, as long as I’d set up in the daylight. A trick I discovered, once you were all sorted, had a bite to eat and the last drink of the day, pack it all away. It simplifies the job in the dark/the following morning and is less of a bind.
Cold Night’s
The ideal solution is to find a venue with parking around the lake or even the luxury of parking behind your swim. The car park swim is always a favorite and over the winter months, especially on weeknights, is generally empty, fishing out of your car is a real bonus over the winter.
Being organized helps. Getting into the same routine every time you set up and pack away, it’ll become second nature to you. One winter, I would do a ninety-mile round trip for a single night, set up, and pack away in the dark. My reward was a spectacular mirror at the end of February.
Rewards
Setting up in the dark is easy, you’re not really in a rush, it’s already dark. If you’ve done your homework or even been fishing the venue all summer long. You know the swims and the layout of the water. You may, if you’re lucky, know where the carp are and get a head start on other people. If you’re new to the water, pick a swim which gives you the opportunity to watch large areas of water. Don’t forget to lean out in the early hours, I often will have a brew at 1 am and just listen for carp. They love sticking their heads out in the long dark hours of winter. If you’re in the swim with a good vista you can find them and then go catch them the next time.
Winter fishing can be very wet cold and damp, with lots of mud, higher water levels and can be extremely hard going when you push your barrow up and down long muddy tracks in the dark.
Dark Night’s
Baiting up and casting out is simple, make note of all the horizon makers before winter sets in and look out for the shadows on the water. The beauty of winter is all those crystal clear sky’s, with a little bit of light pollution in the mix, it can be amazing how easy it is to pick out the spots. As long as your casting skills are good, you will build up your confidence so that you can arrive in the dark hours, cast out, bait up with great success and you will catch carp.
Comfort is the key.
I’ve written about this plenty of times before, if you’re not enjoying your winter fishing, you will not last. I spent many a year under an umbrella doing single nights and after a fair few years, I realized that a full-on bivvy was so much more comfortable. Forget about the hardcore anglers, just use a bivvy. It completely changed everything and with the simplicity of modern bivvy, it’s a lot easier than it was ten or more years ago. Take a hot water bottle if you get cold in your sleeping bag, the modern ones should do you well. Forget the days when I would get two sleeping bags and put one inside the other. Use a bivvy heater for the hours you are sitting in your bivvy, you can’t be laying there in the bag for hours. Just make sure you don’t fall asleep with it on and definitely make sure you have some ventilation. If you really want comfort, then use a piece of carpet or a thick picnic rug. I also place my rod bag and bivvy bag around the inside of the bivvy, this reduces the drafts and keeps you a lot warmer. An overwrap is a must for me these days – must be an age thing, but it keeps me going these winter months. Using a letterbox door opening is perfect, it keeps you warm, but lets the gas fumes out, if you have your heater on. You can also use your stove, if you need to keep the amount of kit down to a minimum.
You also can’t be stuck in your bivvy 24/7, you need good footwear and warm clothing. Remember base layers are the key, more thin layers work better than one or two, as it traps the air in and keeps you a lot warmer. I sleep in a very thin pair of soft trousers and in the day stick a fleece pair over the top in the extremely cold winter days. My feet get terribly cold these days, I blame pike fishing in the winter when I was a kid in wellies. I’ve found that if I’m stuck in the bivvy, you need something thing between you and the floor and an old unhooking mat is perfect for this.
High water
Once I would read for hours, now I watch Netflix, Disney, or Amazon Prime for hours on end. This oddly does help me stay up more and listen out for those carp in the middle of the night. It goes without saying eat well, drink hot drinking and there’s plenty of good warm clothing on the market these days, unlike the ’80s and ’90s, it was hard going then.
New Friends
My knowledge of winter fishing has been gained over the past 40 year’s of fishing and some years have been harder than others. Simply because of the amount of effort needed to get to the lake; from walking up and down a mile-long track in the dark three night’s a week, to simply fishing out of the boot of my car. You have to do what’s right for you and not others. As I said at the begining, motivation is the starting point and it all builds from there. You will still have to work hard at finding the carp and using the correct bait application. Simply put, if you’re not enjoying it, you certainly will not be fishing at your best and no doubt not catch to your full potential. Winter is one of the best times in the year to fish, fewer anglers on the bank for me makes it just perfect
Great results
Hope this helps you catch some good lumps and inspire you to get out on the bank.
Until next time
Richard
Use my code for 5% discount
The discount code applies to the entire order when purchasing the Deeper Sonars PRO, PRO+, PRO+ 2, CHIRP, CHIRP+, CHIRP 2, CHIRP+ 2.
The code is valid in all countries. CODE = DEEPER-H-SNL5Q
One last roll of the dice for 2021. I arrived back down the lake about 0645 on Monday and met up with a fellow syndicate member. We were going to try and pick a couple of swims close by so we could be a little social in the daylight. The forecast cast was pretty grim over the coming 3 days with high pressure and easterly winds.
First light
The rods were wrapped up in my spots where I was fishing last week. I would bait up again around noon and see how it goes over the first 24 hours.
Grey Day
There’s not much chance of any sunshine today, and the wind isn’t that strong, which is quite pleasant. I put out a few spombs of boilies and some Spotted Fin nut mix particles. Within a couple of hours, my left rod was away with my first bream. Oh, joy! They are still about. This is not what I need. However, good fortune arrived with the estate manager in a boat to remove the 3 spombs that were decorating a tree, it gave the area a slight festive feeling. Quite apt for this time of the year. With any luck, this pushed the bream out into more open water and away from me. I’d decided that there can’t be many carp moving around with them, as they sometimes do.
We will see if this benefits me over the next 24 hours.
That was a very uneventful night, but the bream had definitely moved off my area, which is a plus point, and with any luck, there’s a chance of a carp. We did some thinking today about maybe moving one of my rods to a different spot.
Ian joined me today for a social with his pike rods. Unfortunately, there was also no action, but we had a good chat and a laugh. We are both looking forward to the spring when he is back out more.
I’ve moved my right rod onto a different spot of the corner of the island near a nice gravel hump
Hopefully, this may well produce something over the next 48 hours. Looking at the forecast for this coming weekend and is looking pukka; unfortunately, for most people, it will be Christmas festivities (spoken like a true fisherman – the wife says!). I’ve only baited this area with a few boilies that I stuck out over the course of the day.
Stunning SkyMorning
I was up early this morning after receiving a couple of bleeps over a 20-minute period; that was it, but it gave me a bit of hope.
After a chat with a fellow member and realizing that he may have spotted carp close to where I set up on the fateful night of the broken phone. So, after a bit of thought and a push in the right direction, I headed off with my Deeper for a hunt and after 30 minutes bingo.
I was soon on the move and set up again.
Single hook baits only, and a few boilies stuck out, I was all done.
The night was silent, with only a single bleep from the wind that had picked up and had swung round to the southwest over the night. This would bring wind and rain over the Christmas weekend, bit of a shame but that’s the English weather for you. This brings this year’s fishing to a close.
I hope you all had a great Christmas as this blog will be published during the festive week and enjoy your New Year. See you sometime over the coming weeks in January. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what 2022 brings.
Until next time
Richard
Use my code for 5% discount
The discount code applies to the entire order when purchasing the Deeper Sonars PRO, PRO+, PRO+ 2, CHIRP, CHIRP+, CHIRP 2, CHIRP+ 2. The code is valid in all countries.
I’ve decided to look back over 2019 as part of my Podcast series and will feature multiple trip in one long podcast, from pike to carp fishing and easy lakes, to the big water I love to fish so much.
Since I was last here, there has been an incredible amount of rain; the inlet and outlet are working overtime. The lake it’s probably come up 6 to 8 inches, which is going to make it hard going again and I will be happy with one fish again. I do have the pick of the lake, with the exception of the inlet end where there is another angler set up. After my struggle last time to get a bite and seeing a lot around the island (where someone was fishing), the island felt my best option and gave me a good view of the lake. If I felt the need for a move – there is sunshine forecast, which may well help me as I’m also at the back of the wind.
I have baited up a bit, in the hope that if a group of Carp came along, I will be able to hold them.
I just had my first take and lost it, which is a real shame. However, a good sign of feeding Carp and the possibility of a few more (fingers crossed).
Just before noon, the right-hand rod was off, this one didn’t drop off and a small Common was in the net.
Glad about that, with another mesh bag made up and flicked out to the island margins. With a bit of brightness in the sky, it was time for a coffee and a bite to eat.
I very nearly moved, but at the same time, a nice fish rolled by the island. I stayed until 1430, but with no more action, it was time for a wet pack up.
This is DEFINATELY the last trip before Christmas! I will no doubt be posted after then, so hope you all had a great time and if I don’t manage another trip before the new year. Have a great time.
Until next year
I very much hope you have enjoyed this series of podcast, looking back over 2019 session.
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 