Much of my stillwater fishing in recent years has evolved around one technique, introducing groundbait and lots of it, known as the baiting pyramid. The idea is to try and attract a wide range of species to dine in the swim, create competitive feeding and hopefully tricking the fish into making a mistake. This method has worked extremely well on many venues and has accounted for large bags of specimen bream, carp, tench and crucians.

To demonstrate its effectiveness I visited the Marsh Farm Complex controlled by Godalming Angling society. A venue famed for its specimen crucians, which also holds some cracking carp, tench, roach and rudd.

The key to the baiting pyramid is feeding and I arrived just before first light and had a quick look around. Luckily there were very few people fishing and I quickly decided on a swim facing an area of open water. Swim selection is crucial to catching consistently and when using this method even more so. Picking a swim, an interception point if you like, is vital to its success.