OPEN WATER

For consistent bites throughout the day, this part of the swim should be your banker. It offers deep water well away from the bank and a flat bottom around which you can build the peg up. The distance you fish is entirely up to you but a comfortable sensible range is around 11m on the pole or three rodlengths out on the waggler.

However, one top area at this time of year is to fish roughly 6m out. On most commercial fisheries this is at the base of the marginal slope where the shallows level out to the maximum depth. This is a golden patrol route for carp that often comes good later in the day, but it can produce good numbers of silverfish as well.

Watch top match anglers on a commercial fishery and they’ll always begin by fishing here. The fish will not be too far away, soon homing in on the initial feed. Kick off with a full pot of pellets and corn or hemp and meat – the latter is a particularly good feed in autumn – then fire a few pellets or cubes of meat over the top with a catapult every minute or so.

This loosefeeding will keep the peg simmering away nicely and also gives you the chance to catch shallow if the weather is mild enough. Carp, especially in shallow lakes, will happily come up off the bottom to pick off the feed. Match what you’re feeding with the hookbait, so that means a 6mm soft expander, a banded hard pellet or a cube of meat.

Should you decide to go for silverfish on that shorter swim, chopped worm and caster makes a superb feed, as does caster and a few cubes of meat – roach and skimmers love a bit of Spam.

Fish a classic light rig with a size 18 hook and keep throwing casters in by hand every 30 seconds. Roach, too, will come off bottom and can be caught much faster than on the deck.