Fish further out

Obvious as it sounds, to get regular bites you need to fish in the right areas! This tends to be the middle or the widest area of the lake. The reason for this is that regardless of wind direction, fish always feel safe in this area. That said, I would always recommend sitting with a cold wind off your back – in the calmest part of the lake. Or, if it’s a warm wind, sit with it in your face, because this will improve your chances of getting more bites. There’s another reason for this. Today, I’m on Loco Lake at Lindholme Lakes with the wind off my back, as it’s quite cold. Even though my main line is 50 yards out, towards the middle of the lake, I always feed a line closer in – around the 20m mark – heavily in the winter. The plan is to catch a few on the bomb here later on, when the fish feel safe and are ready and willing to eat. There is always a window in the day when fish will feed in this shallower part of the venue you’re fishing. Effectively, I am extending the margins. When the water is cold and clear, what would be classed as my ‘summer margin’ line will be 20m out, rather than under my feet, while my main line will be at 40m-50m rather than the more conventional 20m-25m that it would be if the water were warm and coloured. Also, when I say “heavily feed” the close-in line, I catapult a whole tin of sweetcorn over a wide area, whereas the longer line is fished with a clipped-up Hybrid feeder. This enables me to slowly build a tight area of loosefeed. I’ll cover both of these points in more detail later.