There is still very much a place in your armoury for Sonubaits F1 Groundbait in the cooler winter months, as I discovered when I fished the Silver Maniacs two-day match at Stafford Moor.

The format is that you have to win or come second in your section on Day One to make it to the 16-man 'winner takes £2,000' final.
On Day One I won my section and my lake, Woodpecker Lake, by adapting a very cagey feeding regime which involved a mix of Sonu F1 Groundbait which just about bound a mixture of chopped worms and casters together as I targeted the lake's skimmers.
The ploy worked very well, with my feeding routine being to feed a small cadpot of my sticky worm and caster mix, dressed in the F1 Groundbait, after every fish I caught.

It was hard going but my weight of 28lb was comfortably more than a lot of anglers who struggled to put a run of fish together.
With my place secured in the winner-takes all fish-off, I awaited the draw for the big Sunday match with eager anticipation.
I drew peg 6 on Tanner Lake, which was being used for the decider, while Ian Didcote, who had been on Tanner the day before and had drawn peg four, then found himself one peg along, on five.

This immediately gave him an edge as he had fished the lake a day earlier, so was more tuned in to how the fish responded to feed.
At the all-in I adopted the same feeding strategy as on the Saturday while Ian put five big balls of groundbait in on his 14.5 metre line.
After 45 minutes I saw he was catching skimmers steadily while on my long line it was desparately slow.

With four hours of the match left I stopped fishing and mixed more F1 groundbait and went out and dumped five proper jaffas on the 14.5 metre line. I shortened off to 13 metres while the longer line settled, then went back out 20 minutes later and started catching skimmers properly immediately.
The pole I used was the new Gis 14, which is superb, with a Preston Slip original pole elastic fitted through the top three. A .6g Preston Silverfish 2 pole float was used with 0.117 Preston Xceed main line to a .10mm Preston Xceed hooklength, finished off with a size 20 PR34 hook. The rig had a bulk and two number nines droppers.

While my rig worked like a charm, the end result was that Ian finished with 48lb and I was second, 10lb adrift. That crucial hour-long advantage he had given himself turned out to cost me the big pay-out!

But the bottom line is that Sonubaits' F1 Groundbait is a must in your carryall in winter and bream and skimmers cannot resist it.