Match tactics
It all depends on whether I am fishing my ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ swim
Fish O’ champ Jamie Huges reveals his winter feeding strategies
HOW do you get the best from a swim in winter when fish are not really having it?
On mixed stock lakes you have to make full use of the water in front of you, feeding positively and negatively in up to five areas and giving the fish different feeds at the same time.
Lloyd’s Meadow Fisheries near Chester offers a perfect example of such a water in Kingfisher Lake, but on my visit it was partly frozen and clear.
Fish will still feed under these conditions provided that you find out how they want it. Give yourself several options and you’re on the right track.
PICKING YOUR SWIMS
My peg has an island and lots of cover, and because it’s freezing I wouldn’t expect to catch a lot in water less than 3ft deep.
I’m after a spot that I can feed positively so that if the fish have a go I can be ready for them. Equally, I need a swim to approach negatively, should the fishing prove hard. My positive line should be in an area where I feel most of the fish are likely to be, which is where a bit of venue knowledge comes in handy.
Attacking a peg holding lots of fish is more likely to work than feeding heavily in an area where they are thin on the ground. The more productive an area, the more it should be fed!
Today, these lines are at 14.5m in front of me and to my right, close to a sheet of ice. I fancy the ice swim to eventually produce but I reckon the line in front will be good to begin with.
START POSITIVELY
You might think that beginning on the negative line would be the
way to go, but not so. I always start by feeding positively to see if the fish will take this much bait, and if they will from the word go, you should be on for a belter of a day. Even if this ploy fails, an hour or so spent here will give the negative swim time to settle after that opening ball of groundbait.
Try this the other way around and you could wreck the swim. If nothing happens on the negative swim, chances are it won’t happen on the positive one. You rarely catch a lot in the opening hour of a match when things are cold, so you lose nothing by beginning positively.
THE SESSION
As expected, not much happens for 90 minutes. The positive line produces just a couple of small skimmers, but I won’t abandon this swim totally and will keep feeding – late in the day it could come good for half-an-hour.
Moving on to the negative line and it’s slow going too, but the odd net roach turns up, taking the bait just as it touches bottom.
Slowly, the peg improves, and after that initial ball of groundbait I feed more crumb – but only a nugget around a third of the size and only when bites have dried up completely.
Three hours in, I pop in another small ball and immediately catch a roach. In three drop ins, three plump skimmers turn up before the roach are back. All the while I’ve just potted in a few maggots and refused to feed more in a spot where there are a few more fish. If I’d fished just the one swim I might have caught, got carried away, upped the feed and ruined things.