Cool Runnings

Britain’s leading all-round angler loves taking on challenges at all kinds of venues. Read his triumphs and disasters, warts ‘n’ all, exclusively in AM.

- Steve Collett

I DON’T know about you, but no matter how many times I go fishing, I am always seeking an edge, but just a little one, as I’m not greedy.

If I catch ten fish, I want to catch 11 the next time. If I don’t catch any, I want to know why, and I will just sit about sulking until I’m back on the bank. At this time of year, those little tweaks and twists are needed more than ever.

You run the risk of your session being feast or famine if you plonk yourself in any peg without having any prior knowledge of how it has been fishing. Strange as it sounds, it’s the famine pegs that I want to get the most out of.

I popped over to my local lake to try something that I hadn’t done before. It was another itch that needed scratching. Which bait to use in winter has always been a conundrum. Do you use spicy and oily or sweet and dry, in black, brown, red or white?

When you have selected your peg and worked out what colour bait to try, you then have the mind-bending question that can make a good day turn bad, or vice versa: how much should you feed?

I have been on lakes where one piece, yes one piece, of corn is all you need for a bite, and others where you could feed ten pints of maggots and still not catch a fish. I have been on lakes where you pick a peg and just throw out a white wafter on a straight lead. That’s it. Any feed will kill your swim dead.

So, what do you do? Well, while I was in a tackle shop, I came across a few packs of groundbait specifically designed for winter, with the taglines ‘Low Feed’ and ‘Cool Water’, and immediately I thought I could gain an edge.