Snake lakes, canals, strips call them what you like - there are dozens of commercial lakes shaped like the lovely Pool Five at Flushing Meadows fishery, where you join me today.

From an anglers perspective, they are very appetising, presenting nearside cover and an attractive far slope to fish to. Also, unlike more open plan waters the fish cannot back away from you!

But they present their own unique challenges too. Being a competition angler, I often walk the bank before the start of a match and one complaint stands out. ‘I can’t find anywhere to fish!’

I’m not talking about spare pegs of course. The uneven nature of the shelves on commercial snake lakes often makes plumbing a nice flat area to present your bait a nightmare.

People often point the finger of blame at fishery owners, but this is rarely a fair accusation. The reality is that even if these lakes were manicured using a scalpal and clay, a couple of years at the mercy of mother nature means that erosion, tree roots and water mammals soon lead to very uneven slopes.

It is undoubtedly frustrating though. What can often look the most appetising piece of water above the surface, turns into a veritable bombsite when the plummet does its work.

What makes this even more frustrating of course, is that we anglers know just how easy the fish can be to catch when you can present a bait well for them in the correct depth of water. Enter my solution, the ‘Snowball.’

Bait companies seem to come and go quicker than reality TV Stars at the minute, so I paid little attention to Fjuka Bait when it first hit the headlines. Then I saw a clip on social media about how the bait can be molded, shaped, and rolled… and it set me thinking.

I remembered the old ‘conker’ idea. Although primarily used on the bomb, this tactic saw anglers rolling a piece of paste around a big hard pellet for extra attraction. No good at all for pole fishing, as obviously paste breaks down very quickly. But would Fjuka allow me to do a similar thing on the pole?

The answer is yes! Because it breaks down fairly slowly, and is very mallable Fjuka can literaly be shaped to cover any hard hookbait. This in itself opens up endless possibilities. Bare in mind Fjuka comes in seven different colour permetations, including four hyper-fluro options, and all of a sudden the bait becomes a bit more interesting.

But in this instance the colour is a secondary consideration really. The fact that the bait is heavy is far more important when it comes to dealing with tricky bottoms.

The crux of my idea was to mold Fjuka bait around a banded hard pellet, and in doing so, create a heavy, bright hookbait. The key is to make the total weight of your hookbait heavy enough to sink your float. So in practice, you can set your rig to the depth in which you want to fish, then gently inch your hookbait up the slope until your float bristle shows - then you know your hookbait is presented on the slope.

Once in situ, the colour and attractiveness of the bait becomes more important. Another challenge of fishing on choddy or sloping bottoms can be that a small hookbait can become lost among the stones and mess on the bottom. No such problem with Fjuka, it is bold and bright, plus the Sensate™ flavouring means that fish seem to home in on it!

"It's bold and bright and the Sensate™ flavour means fish seem to home in on it"

To demonstrate the method, I will show you how I attack an awkward far bank swim, like peg ten here at Flushing Meadows.

First of all, a plummet is used to gauge a rough idea of what depths I am facing at varying distances away from the far bank cover.

Next, I try to decide what depth I think the fish will be in. As a general rule, I err on the side of fishing a bit deeper than I think I will need to be to catch the fish to start with, and then move up into shallower water if I need to.

The next step is to make the Snowball, and as you can see from the pictures, this is simply a case of rubbing some pellets together, then shaping them around your hookbait. Obviously, the size of hookbait that you use should depend on the size of fish you are targetting, and be kept in proportion with your float size. It is worth stressing again, that the total weight of your hookbait must be enough to sink your float.

Next comes the fun part! Ship your rig out to where you want to fish, and allow your hookbait to pendulum back towards you. It is best if you can get your hookbait to land in the deepest water on a fairly tight line towards your pole tip and float, so that it pulls your float under.

Now, the key is to lift your float slowly, so the bait arcs back in towards the slope, and settles on the bottom. Once you have some bristle showing, your trap is set!

Today, I catch a couple of quick carp before false indications become a problem - which indicates that fish are actually feeding higher up the slope than I am fishing. When this is the case, you should try shallowing up the rig so that you are presenting a bait in shallower water. The golden ticket comes when these line bites stop, and positive bites are all you get!

A move into shallower water brings more action, and it quite literally is a carp every put in fishing in twelve inches of water. I dont even have to feed anything!

4. Flatten out the reshaped Fjuka pellets and offer it up to the hookbait

5. Wrap the malleable Fjuka around the hard pellet to give it a soft outer covering

6. A carp every put in                

On some days, you can catch an awful lot of fish by feeding nothing, just letting the big, visible nature of the hookbait and the Sensate ™ attractant do its work. On others, it is best to feed a little via pole mounted pot. As a very general rule, you should gauge the the size of the particles that you feed to suit the gradient of the slope.

For example, a heavy, round bait like Fjuka 2in1 might roll down a steep slope, but a finer bait like dampened groundbait would be more likely to simply sit on the slope. A word of caution though, feeding too many fine particles can create its own problems as they waft off the bottom causing problems with foul hookers, so keep this in mind too.

Another key area where weight of your hookbait is vital is shallow fishing. One of my favourite ways of fishing is the Jigga, or self hooking rig. Of course, the great thing about this method on venues that have uneven bottoms is that it doesnt matter a jot, as you are targetting fish up in the water!

The effectiveness of the jigga method hinges around the fish hooking themselves against the weight of the pole tip. We go to great lengths to ensure our line, hookbait and shotting help to keep everything tight, but all too often we neglect to think about the hookbait itself.

Now let me be clear. There are definitely days when light, wafty baits like maggots and casters outscore heavy baits like Fjuka. Generally, this is when the fishing is harder, and I think the fish like to watch the bait fall a little more.

However, on the best days I have definitely found that a heavy hookbait like Fjuka 2in1 not only helps to get bites quickly, but also sorts out the better fish too. Often when the fish are feeding really well, I feel that the bigger fish and smaller fish segregate themselves into areas. Sometimes it might be that the bigger fish want to feed right up in the water, so push the little fish out of the way and they end up further down in the water column.

On other days, the bigger fish hang deeper, and the smaller fish are forced into shallow water to get a helping of the feed. In both situations by setting your rig to start working at the correct depth, and fishing a heavy hookbait you are getting your bait where it needs to be to catch the best possible stamp of fish. You can even shape your Fjuka to match the bait that you are using.

Today, this has been absolutely deadly, with some cracking roach, rudd and other fish falling to the lure of the red Fjuka 2in1 bait.

Martin's impressive net of Silvers- thanks to a heavy hookbait

So there you have it, two key ways that I have found that the heavy properties of Fjuka 2in1 have boosted my catch rate. Getting better at fishing is all about finding an edge, something that you can do to make your bait or presentation stand out from everybody elses. Because you can make this bait into almost any shape and size, and the colour permetations are so striking, I really believe that the possibilities are endless.

Martins tackle :

Rod 13ft heavy feeder rod

Reddl 5000 size

Mainline 5lb. 0.17mm

Shockleader 10lb. 0.26mm mono 26ft

Hook: Preston KKM-B size 16

Float: Innovation PR27 Size 14