If you regularly fish a stillwater in winter with a head of skimmers, then let me recommend that you try the new Sonu Baits F1 groundbait.

This stuff, because it is a mixture of fishmeal and sweet additives, gives you the best of both worlds in terms of attracting fish into your swim. Skimmers, as we know, have a sweet tooth and the F1 groundbait certainly attracts them into your peg.

Just before Christmas I fished a Delcac Christmas match on a 30-peg stillwater called Sumner's Pond at Barnes Green in West Sussex. The average depth here is six to seven feet and I opted to fish two swims at 14.5 metres, one loosefeeding 2mm Fin Perfect feed pellets, and the other with a groundbait approach, using Sonu baits F1 groundbait.

The end result was a net of around 40 small skimmers for 13lb 1 oz and fourth overall in the match. Every skimmer came from my groundbait peg and it beat the pellet swim hands down.

The F1 groundbait is very easy to mix and I did mine on the bank as the lake had been frozen over all week. If you overwet it slightly, all you need to do is use a battery-powered whisk and put some air through it. I never had to put it through a riddle, it just mixed up great and the smell is superb. It has almost a coffee-ish/brasem smell and it smells very nice.

At the start of the match I potted in three small balls of the groundbait and just topped up as and when bites started to tail off. This kept the skimmers mooching about and with single or double red maggot hook-bait and a PB15 float, with a proper bulk and two number 10 stotz on the short hook-length, I could see every movement because bites were finicky.

I'm looking forward to giving the F1 groundbait some more outings in due course. Give it a try - I know you'll like it.