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Seasonal carp bait guide | What to use and when

We asked big carp ace, Dave Levy how he goes about adjusting his baits with the seasons...

by James Furness |

Updated on17th November 2025 at 4.11pm

Carp are fascinating creatures, which change dramatically through the seasons. Their metabolism defines so many of their other characteristics – it affects their movement, eyesight and our likelihood of catching them.

The best analogy I can give in this respect is to think of it like this: in winter, carp are like a baby – they can’t digest many whole foods, can’t move a great deal, spend a lot of time sleeping but will eat ‘mush’ if you give it to them. Fast forward to summer and their eyesight is incredible, they’re far more active, and have learned a lot about avoiding danger.

This simple thought process gives us huge clues on the best ways to target them over the course of a calendar year.

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Winter and early spring

In the colder months I have a few approaches I’ll use. If it’s a venue I’m fishing regularly, then hopefully I’ve been able to bait till at least mid-October. Keeping something going in stops the fish almost going into hibernation mode. It’s why some of the best winter waters are ones being fished regularly.

In this scenario, where I know the lake and have established a feed, there are two baits that will get me through the colder months – boilie crumb and maggots. The metabolism of the fish is low at this point, and I want everything to be as digestible as possible.

My Cell boilies are ground down to a fine crumb, with the maggots and a bit of lake water added to stodge it up a bit. I don’t use any additional liquids at this time of year, because it’s very easy to get them wrong in cold water. This mix is then Spombed out over the spot – not much, just three to four Spombs, maybe as few as two if it’s freezing. Then I fish for a bite at a time.

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If I don’t really know the lake and haven’t established a feed or spot then, in the cold, single hookbaits are my choice.

I do love a yellow in the winter, but the old Richworth Tutti orange colours also work incredibly well. If you take a look at an orange bait underwater, they really stand out. I’ve tried this tactic on vast deep venues, one winter on Walthamstow casting to the middle of nowhere and having bites. I think it’s an inquisitive thing. So even if I catch one on this tactic, I don’t then introduce bait. I just keep going with the singles, changing colours if the sport slows.

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Rely on zigs

Zigs work so much more than any of us anglers realise and are worth a try all year – winter, spring, summer or autumn, day and night. One year I fished exclusively with zigs on one rod, and I caught loads of fish on it.

Unless you experiment, you never really know. In winter, you sometimes turn up and find a lake hasn’t done a bite for weeks. This is a great time to fish zigs because the fish will be just sitting in those mid layers. I’ve had loads of bites on them in the dark too, so don’t be one of those anglers who reels them in to put bottom baits on for the night.

To be honest, 90 per cent of my zig fishing is with black foam, which I soak in Betalin. But it’s worth experimenting with colours here too. I like to glue four maggots to the top. This is a great visual aid, and they have an attractive smell all their own.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ZIG RIG FISHING IN THIS EXPERT TIPS & TACTICS ARTICLE.

Spring to summer

As we move into the warmest months of the year, my mix will feature bigger food items. I’ll use a different type of crusher, so my boilies will now be chops and halved baits.

Once the water is at full temperature, I’ll be using whole boilies, but with my own special twist. To make my boilies even more attractive, I cover them in liquids and oils like Mainline’s Smart Liquid.

I then coat them with matching boilie crumb, which, because of the liquids, bind to the baits. Once in the water this coating breaks down within hours, leaving the boilies surrounded by a parcel of attraction.

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By mid-summer I’ll really be upping the bait levels too, sometimes as much as 10kg inside 48 hours. It’s all venue -dependent, but this will also be the time I think about using particles, especially tiger nuts. I don’t go light with them either – this isn’t the 1980s, nuts are prepared to a far higher standard and are better quality these days. I’ve found tigers to be a great bait for adding to spots, particularly over a long spell on waters where the fish may not be immediately visiting.

In this instance, after a week good-quality boilies can pop to the surface, whereas tigers will stay for the duration until the carp come along.

The carp is a totally different animal in the warmer months – their eyesight has improved dramatically, and they are far more mobile and alert. This is why many choose to switch to ‘match the hatch’ type offerings, and I agree for the most part.

I just like to tip mine with a fleck of colour, particularly white. A lot of stuff that has been in the water a long time turns white, so I think the fish treat it with far less caution.

PELLETS ARE ANOTHER SUPERB SUMMER BAIT FOR CARP. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS GUIDE TO THE BEST.

Don't overthink flavours

My final bit of advice for the year in terms of bait and baiting is with regard to flavours. I’m fairly traditional in that I don’t use fishmeals over winter. You have to get the mix spot-on for them to work at their best, because the oils solidify. So, if you’re unsure if your fishmeal is the right make-up, I’d save it for the warmer months.

There’s one bait that’s in my armoury all year round, however, and that’s Cell. There are many reasons why it is so good, but one of those is you can’t freeze the smell, as its Ethyl Alcohol based. That means it’s working for you at all times, even after just going in.

Stick to these simple observations with bait and baiting, and I’m sure you will be catching carp every season, from summer to winter and spring to autumn.

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