Fee, it does take a number of cycles to get a grip on what is going on down there. At first I only recognised EWCM (quite unmistakable really) and the thick sticky infertile CM. After a while you start to notice that the infertile stuff is thinning out and getting slippery (a bit blerk but the analogy to hand lotion is a good one) and then you can start to tell the beginning of spinn CM. After 3+ years, even with a screwy cycle like mine (I have PCOS and am irregular) I could always tell when I was fertile plus when I had O'd, which was great to know when AF was due.

I have anatomy such that my fingers are too short to feel my cervix, so I never could try that! I found that CM alone was enough info for me, but I guess the more info the better.