Cage Feeders

NGT cage feeders.

Cage feeder packed with
method and hooklink
set up with hook and 2 kernels
of sweet corn.

I've been experimenting lately with cage feeders in moving water in the wintertime. I recently bought a bunch at Big Carp Tackle, (link is HERE). These were NGT cage feeders that weighed about 1 oz.  They sold for just $.95 apiece, a real buy.
I know some real sharpies that use these all the time in the winter, so I decided to give them a shot. Before using these, I would pack the method around my sinker, something that works well in summer and works well when using a hair rig. But, the disadvantage to packing around the sinker is that the method really disperses quickly in the moving water. The cage feeder, a device in which method is tightly packed into the cylindrical feeder, really holds the method in place and slowly releases it through the holes in the feeder.
These feeders are generally used without a hair rig. Here's how I do it. I just simply put a swivel at the end of my line.  I tie a short piece of mono onto the swivel and knot on the cage feeder. I then run about a foot to a foot and one half section of leader onto the end of that same swivel and tie a hook onto the end.  The hook I am using is a #10.  The line (leader) is 10 lb. test.  I then put the sweet corn directly on the hook (2 kernels).
Easy to set up, and very effective for carp in the wintertime.

A good size mirror rests in the water. This fish took the sweet corn.
Note how much method is still in the feeder and that was
after about 15 minutes of sitting on the bottom in the moving water
along with the fight of the fish coming in!

New Bait Discovery.....Wild Onion Bulbs

These wild onion bulbs were sticking
out of the soil.  Could they be an
effective bait?

Man, I made a major discovery yesterday while carp fishing.  I was fishing my usual one kernel of artificial corn but doing very little on it.  I landed just one carp.  Then, as I went to move my bag, I noticed a round object sticking out of the dirt.  It was a wild onion bulb. On closer inspection I saw several of these bulbs which were exposed because some of the topsoil along the bank had washed away with the recent flooding.These white with a little pink colored bulbs were just the right size to thread onto my hair rig and they had a strong odor that I hoped the carp would go for.  Heck, if they hit garlic flavored stuff, why not this.

This carp was landed on a hair rigged wild onion bulb. This
bait landed many more fish yesterday, proving its
effectiveness.

I knew from past experience that carp will hit just about any seeds, bulbs, nuts, etc. that naturally exist in their environment. So, why not these bulbs?
To make a long story short, I landed 8 carp on these bulbs as the fish keyed right in on this bait.  I was using these bulbs on one outfit.  The other outfit had the white artificial corn.  That produced just 2 carp. So, on this day, the onion bulbs clearly outfished my hot bait of recent weeks.