Dear Jon ‘Shoes’ Jones,
I fish a small estate lake along with around 20 other carp anglers. During the winter months we caught quite well using similar flavoured pineapple boilies. Would it be a good idea during the summer months to make a concerted effort to use the same baits or would this create problems in the long term?
Many thanks,
Terry Littlewood, Rotherham.

Thanks for your letter Terry. I’ll start by saying that most venues around the country have seen the very popular pineapple-flavoured boilies, from pop-ups to bottom baits. I now think that this flavour is just as good, if not better, than Tutti Frutti, which hammered waters a few yearsack, and incidentally, is still a bait many use today.

Now, you say that you are one of 20 anglers who used this bait during the winter and would like to know if you should continue using it during the summer months. Well, for a quick answer, I would say yes. I do a lot of travelling up and down the country whilst running the British Carp Angling Championships and I have never seen so many anglers using pineapple pop-ups. Many anglers favour these baits, not just in the winter but at any time of the year.

A recent American common caught on pineapple-flavoured hookbaits.

I suspect on your particular water the pineapple bait was used basically because it is at the top of everyone’s list of baits to use. The carp don’t have that much choice of food during the cold time of the year, so I would imagine that all of the anglers reverted to a single bait or a single bait with a stringer. The carp haven’t got a lot of natural food, so often it is the only food source available, and bang, you’ve got one in the net. So I wouldn’t be worried about the bait not working or that the carp have seen so much of it that it would cease to work.

Do you know if all the anglers are using the same coloured bait? Have you thought about changing the colour or even the size? (90% would be using a yellow hookbait.) Let’s go back a little, to the winter. If you have caught loads of carp during the summer and are thinking about what to use in the winter, then there is only one option – use the same bait. The carp will still feed during the winter and the likelihood of one picking up your bait is still very high even if they have been caught on it during the summer.

A lot of anglers, including me, will use a pineapple hookbait over non-pineapple loose feed. Why? Because it works. So yes, continue using the same bait throughout the summer and keep using it through the winter as well, you might get a few more takes. As I said before, in my opinion, it’s a definite yes.

All the best,
Jon ‘Shoes’ Jones.