April 1st and I was off once again to Partridge Lakes in Culcheth, I had an early start and was at the fishery for 9am, there was the usual Saturday open match taking place and looking at the number of cars & vans on the par park it was another good turn out.I've fished a few of the Tuesday opens and once I know a little more about how to catch the crafty F1's I will be having a go in the Saturday matches.

Spey canal was open for day tickets and I was going to have another practise session trying out rigs and different approaches to how I would fish a match.Spey Canal is my favourite on the fishery, it has quite large near & far ledges and a lot of the fishing can be done with a minimal amount of pole.

Spring has arrived and there were lots of ducks,swans,geese & robins making plenty of noise during the day, it was a dull day to start with some rain but it would brighten up in the afternoon and was glorious when I fnished the session.As I walked down the canal there was plenty of bubbles showing with a few fish topping and I chose peg 10.

Tactics were to fish pellet across at the bottom of the far shelf, with a couple of hours on banded caster down the track and then in the margins for the last hour or so.My peg had bubbles all over and I was sure there were a few fish in the peg,there were plenty coming in front of me for a top 2 + 1 section, so i decided to have a look here.In went a few micros with 4mm expander on the hook,as soon as the float was put in I had indications,after 5 minutes I had my first F1.I had a good first hour with 7 more coming to the net,when the swim slowed I went over to the bottom of the far shelf,once again I had a couple of fish quickly, but this swim died away.

Float for the pellet swim was my ususal RW 4X 14 with a strung bulk , seems to work ok for me.After a couple of hours I decided to have a go on banded caster, some of the recent matches have been won on caster so I was hoping to catch some fish.Float for this approach was a MAP S3 4 x 12 with a bulk and a 4 inch hooklength,hook choice was an LWG eyed size 20 with a micro band tied on.I'd been flicking a few casters down the track to my right during the session and when I went in with my rig I had a bite but missed it, I was about 2 foot deep to start.Several more bites were missed and then I had an F1 after that I had a couple of chub and a lot of small rudd.I kept adjusting the rig but could not find anymore F1's so decided to try in the margins.

I fished the margin to my right and was short of the next pallet, I sprinkled in a few maggots via a cad pot and lowered my rig in,straight away I had indications so I kept lifting the rig and lowering,I was soon into a good sized F1.I had a lot more F1's from this swim and wished I had gone in a little earlier.I'd also been putting in a few pinches of Sonubaits F1 groundbait every now and again.

Elastics were white hydro for across & shallow, Prestons soild No 10 for pellet on the bottom and Prestons Dura Hollow 10 for the margin. Mainline was .145mm dia with 4 inch .125mm dia hooklengths.

I had a good session and learned a few more things today, next time I'm at Partridge I will be fishing the Tuesday open and hoping to draw a good peg and get amongst the fish.My rigs seem to work well and It's now about learing how to feed correctly to get the best out of your peg.

Day ticket was £7