I tend to believe that we as anglers miss out a lot on the near side swims, often preferring to fish long because everyone else does. My thoughts are why complicate things. I know that if the fish are present close by I can draw them in close enough to compete. The fish you expect to catch are generally larger so in reality you do no need to catch as many. By careful feeding and being prepared to do something different to the norm then you can have some good red letter days, if its in a match all the better.

I generally try to feed at least two, preferable three lines in the margins. Top threes either side or a longer line as far as possible to any feature the peg may hold. It may be a bush, a bigger clump of grass, or a difference in depth. Careful plumbing of your swim will determine where in your peg the fish are likely to be. Small depressions on the bottom of the lake will hold any feed deposited in there as it will not be affected by movement of the water above it.

One will be fed with corn only, the other 4mm GOT Pellets, with the longer line taking both in smaller quantities. The longer line is initially fed by pole cup then topped up by a Fox Tosspot. The nearer lines are fed the same to start then by hand. This spreads the feed about slightly and allows you to pick off some wary fish that do not come onto the main pot.  For  hookbaits Jolly Green Giant and either 4 or 6mm GOT Expanders are superb and are consistent in both size and quality. Cheaper corn tends to be harder. The hook will not pull through the bait to the fish enough and results in a few bumped fish.

Rigs are nearly always MW Pellet floats in .2 or .3g range and I have them shotted with a bulk around 12inches from a size 16 B911. In deeper water (over 3ft) I will spread the shot out to give a slower fall of the bait through the water especially in the last foot. Lines vary according to the time of year but will have no hesitation fishing .20 in winter if they are having it. At the end of the day it’s no good hooking them only to lose them.

One tip I will give is to try fishing the edge shallow. By this I mean say 6 to 12inches off bottom in a 2 foot swim. You will be surprised the amount of fish you can catch.

Finally we all do things slightly different; it may be feeding to holding your pole, lifting and dropping to fishing well over depth. There are no rights and wrongs with fishing, it depends on the day. We will all learn from the experience of being on the bank with others suffering the same fate.  It does help though that the wealth of knowledge that the GOT Baits anglers possess is always readily and freely available.