Marcus Howarth's Go-To Winter Mix
The mix has served Marcus well over the years...
During the harshest of weather, I always fall back to a mix that’s served me well over the years. The main bulk of this mix is boilie crumb and at this time of the year, Manilla’s my choice. Boilie crumb not only releases a heap-load of attraction, it also takes on extra liquids and additives really well.
Also included…
I want to try and get as much smell and taste on, and around the spot as possible, and boilie crumb fused with some of the Cloudy Manilla Liquid allows me to do just that. I break all the baits up and crumb them, either by hand or with crusher. I include a few broken bits of boilie too, just so that there are some larger food items down there.
I then add some of the Cloudy Manilla Liquid. This makes it really smell and (obviously) clouds the water up nicely. I then add some sweetcorn. Corn’s extremely visible and is another classic bait for the colder months. Finally, in go some maggots (where permitted, of course). I’ve always had a lot of success with maggots and quite often will use them on the hook too. All these baits are easy for the carp to digest and when they’re really on the feed, there’s no limit to how much you can use.
Small items
The other advantage of having so many small items of food on the spot, is that when the birds arrive, they won’t be able to clean you out too easily. No matter how long they sit over you diving, there’ll always be some food out there, along with that smell from the liquid, hovering, if you like, over the bottom too. When you’re pre-baiting especially, this can really work in your favour as the bait will remain until the carp arrive. Having a number of items in the mix allows you to play around with hookbaits and you can experiment with wafters, maggots or corn rigs.
All my best winter captures have fallen to this mix and I’ll be using it this winter for sure!
How to put together Marcus’ winter mix
What you need:
Manilla boilies
Cloudy Manilla Liquid
Sweetcorn
Maggots (if fishery rules allow)
1. Start off by blitzing up the Manilla boilies. Whilst the bulk of the mix is fine crumb, Marcus does like to include some large food items.
2. Now add a good helping of the Cloudy Manilla Liquid and a can of corn.
3. If the fishery rules allow, Marcus will include some maggots in the mix.