Homemade Carp Fishing Boilie and Paste Recipes and Tips for Spring Success!
For many carp anglers this period will be very challenging as fish are still in late winter or very early spring sets of behaviours. This can mean many less bites when fishing conventionally; here you will find some sound insights, alternative bait substances and real fishing experiences to help you understand what fish are doing right now - and how to exploit this to catch many more big spring fish!
This is a time when waters are warming up but maybe not quite enough for the carp to begin feeding in the depths, areas or in the modes of feeding you might be hoping for, now that sunnier warmer days have finally arrived - following the coldest winter for 30 years! Normal carp metabolism has taken a set-back because many carp waters are still in the process of reaching a minimal temperature for carp to be able to digest the volumes and range of foods and fishing baits you might normally expect.
In spring as in other periods, the night temperatures can severely limit the warming up process of water and although a carp water might get a few days of sun and double figure days the night-time cold could easily lose the heat built-up and disrupt carp feeding as a result. If you really study fish behaviours of fish at this time, then this will really pay great dividends. It could well be the case that many deeper water swims that are normally very popular and productive are simply not producing fish right now. If you measure the temperature of your lake water and find it significantly below 10 degrees Celsius there is no doubt that in many cases the fishing has yet to really get going as carp will be far less willing to feed heavily on high protein baits especially. If you are pinning your hopes on deep water swims, this choice could well have negative impacts on your results at this time.
If I recall my facts correctly up until water temperatures reach 15 degrees Celsius, lowered carp metabolism plus stored glycogen means that carp need to consume a minimum of 3 percent of their body weight daily just to sustain themselves. Coming out of long hard winters into cold lingering springs you can see how this can be advantageous if natural food is scarce because carp metabolism will rise at the same time as their natural food begins to flourish.
Actually you can see in this that it is carp natural food provision that has led to the way that carp metabolism rises in the way it does so carp are far less likely to run out of vital stored energy and starve before natural food levels regain adequate levels to sustain carp naturally. Taking angling baits out of the picture you can see how carp can easily survive on minimal marginal browsing and mid-water and top-layer filter-feeding on extremely nutritionally-rich natural foods such as algae and plankton. This is while mainly remaining in the warmer more energy-efficient upper layers of water or thermocline. Spring is certainly a great time to exploit low protein baits that are designed to have very good digestibility that reflect carp needs at this time and replenishing the lost glycogen stored in the autumn for the winter is important as it will be needed for spawning for instance soon enough!
The way layers naturally are formed in water in lakes means that carp may be found in a layer that is comfortable for them that is far more energy-efficient to spend the majority of time in than colder layers. The densest coldest water will be the layer lower down and in spring it can be very difficult to get bites fishing on or close to the bottom