Do carp feed in winter?

The theory

If you believed everything you saw or read, we’d all end up using small PVA bags and hi-viz pop-ups during the colder months… hang on, we all do. So carp don’t eat a lot in the winter months then? Not according to our pro…

The fact

“I am tempted to say what a load of rubbish and leave it there,” jokes seasoned carp angler, Ian ‘Chilly’ Chillcott. “But of course there is more to it than that. I believe that it is written and talked about because the anglers concerned have nothing else to say, and are also not prepared to put the hard work in, in order to get the best from the introduction of bait during the colder months. Carp will and do eat bait throughout the winter, and I can only think of one water where my tactics have not worked in the past eighteen years of fishing hard through the winter months. In fact, I use twice as much bait in the winter as I do in the summer, and I believe my results speak for themselves. It’s not all about vast volumes of bait either, but simply the regularity with which you put it in. It takes time and a little hard work, but it is so worth it in the end. You only get out of this game what you are prepared to put in.”