Bait wise when it is fairly mild I will fish with fluorescent pinkies and when it turns cold I will turn to squatt. You will be pleased to find that the bait bill will be on the low side as around a pint of pinkies or a pint of squatt will be ample for a five hour session.

To ‘kick start’ the swim at the start of a session a couple of small balls of ground-bait will usually do the trick. I use a 50 - 50 Sensas Lake and Sensas Matchblend combination mixed on the dry side to form a cloud.

The rig is usually fish between 3 metres and 4 metres to hand, the deeper the peg, the closer they will come. Set the rig up as shown the diagram and dot the float down as far as you can. Plumb up accurately to start the session one inch off the deck. Introduce the ground-bait either by hand or via a pole cup on spare sections of a pole and start to loose feed over the top.

Response from the fish should be fairly spontaneous usually small roach being the first to arrive. You will find that the intended shape of the float cuts through any chop on the surface and bites will be very positive, that is it will either go under or the fish will hold up the bait and the long antennae will not settle. Keep the loose feed going in regularly and try to get into a rhythm - cast, feed, fish! If bites slow up it does not necessarily mean the fish are ‘backing off’ it could mean that they have moved up in the water to intercept the loose feed, try shallowing the rig to catch ‘up in the water’. If you feel you are losing your shoal try introducing a small ball of ground-bait this can sometimes re-kindle their interest as they come in to investigate the cloud.

Stick with the method and you could enjoy a very busy days fishing never knowing what you are going to hook next. The best session I have enjoyed during the winter campaign was a 270 mixed bag of bits for 11lb 12oz. and a lake win.

I also see no reason why the method should not work throughout the summer targeting the lake’s roach, skimmers, crucians, tench and small carp. Beef up the rig to say 0.14 main line and 0.12 hook-length and fish an elasticated top 3 with a No. 7 elastic and use maggot and/or caster as bait. Crucian’s and tench respond very well to Sensas Crazy-Bait Mussel & Squid flavour. Give it a go you might be very surprised..... tight lines