Question about food for wintering

This is my first year beekeeping on my own, and in my memory and my notes I have instructions for making a honey/ sugar mixture for the winter and putting it in a produce baggy with holes in it as winter feed (this was from a hands-on class with very experienced beekeepers). But when I look online, pretty much everything I find is about making candy boards. Is that a better method? Also, it seems that a lot of people use a screened inner cover for the candy board but a few folks say that you can use your regular inner cover. Does it matter? I'm in New England if that helps at all.