Had a few days off last week and went to Tockenham Reservoir, near Royal Wootton Bassett, the conditions were perfect, 10-11 degrees and a gentle south westerly blowing into the dam. I dragged all my tackle around the the far side of the lake where the wind was blowing into the dam and just set up one method feeder rod.

The swim I chose was right in the middle of the dam, here you can cast into the deepest water in the lake, it is 16ft deep at 33 turns, this is the area of the lake the bigger bream spend their winter days.

I didnt have long to wait before the first bream of the day, second cast in fact, from then on it was regular fish until the end and I finished up with nearly 100lb of bream averaging 2-2.5lb each, great fishing in January.

A few tips to make your day more successful is to make sure that you use a sticky method mix, 16ft is a lot of water for the method feeder to fall through, my favourite is the new Sonubaits Tigerfish, keep your casting very accurate and regular, there is very little groundbait around the feeder so you need to keep topping up the peg all the time, its not a sit and wait method. Another tip is to use a 6 inch hooklength instead of the normal 4inch, bream dont suck in the hookbait like a carp and you will get a better conversion rate with a slightly longer hooklength.

But the most important bit of advice is to fish in the deepest water, if you fish in the shallower swims you will catch skimmers for most of the day and you wont catch the better fish until later in the day, when they spread out.