I recently won a match on Trelawney Lake during the White Acres Silverfish Festival with 38lb of F1s and skimmers - and my secret sticky grounbait mix incorporated Sonu F1 groundbait, fine brown crumb, brown sugar and some black groundbait dye.

The trick was to feed chopped worm and dead maggots into the four-and-a-half feet of water in front of me, but the groundbait needed to hold together for a little while on the bottom before breaking down.

A lot of modern commercial groundbaits are made up almost entirely of a fishmeal base, so I decided to concoct a mix that was 60 per cent Sonu F1 groundbait and 35 per cent fine brown crumb, with five per cent brown sugar and a sprinkling of black groundbait dye added. By carefully adding water I came up with the perfect mix for the job intended and went on to catch steadily all match.

Because of the cold weather I opted to feed two swims with my groundbait, chopped worm and dead maggot mix. In one swim I cupped in a ball the size of a satsuma and in the other I cupped in a golf-ball sized offering.
You wanted the F1s and skimmers if you were going to build a weight but as soon as roach came into the peg you needed to feed a golfball-sized nugget of groundbait and this attracted the better fish straight back into the peg. Their appearance made the small fish leave, and it was later possible to top up with grape-sized lumps of groundbait to keep the fish feeding on the bottom.

I fished at 13 metres with the pegs around eight feet apart. I had two top kits, both on Pullakit tops, set up, with a Preston Slip original elastic in a number three grade in one and a number four in the other. I had Preston PB8 floats in a 4 x 12 set up on both top kits. One rig had strung out shot and the other had a bulk and a single no 10 dropper.

Main line was 0.12mm Preston Xceed line with hooklengths of 0.074mm and 0.083mm on the rigs, with PR30 hooks in sizes 18 and 20 finishing them off.

I fished dead red maggot on the hook as dead maggots don't attract as much attention from roach as live maggots. I also used dead pinkie as hookbait, too.

The rigs were set at absolute dead depth, with just a sixteenth of an inch of float bristle showing. Bites were shy dips and dinks but it was rewarding fishing which I thoroughly enjoyed.