A Final Struggle

Saturday I fished the Angling Trust Silverfish Final at Meadowlands. Arguably the biggest and best commercial silvers event in the calendar and an absolute who’s who had qualified.

I didn’t fish the practice match the day before, but it fished its brains out. Especially Warren Pool with numerous 40lb+ weights of skimmers and Matt Godfrey winning with an amazing 69lb! That was definitely the lake I fancied to win, so I was happy to draw peg 8 on Warren for the Final. Middle of lake, plumbs up nice and an area I’ve always done well from.

Well… I could hardly get a bite! 400lb of fish being tipped back the previous day had clearly taken its toll and combined with a surprisingly cold wind it didn’t fish to its potential. I’ve doubled my weight in the last 40 minutes to weigh just 13lb. My final fish was a quality ‘brown un’ that finally decided to make an appearance amongst numerous non-counting carp. Well done Matt winning the lake again, this time with 28lb.

The bigger Lambsdown Lake dominated the frame with the top eight weights. A big well done to young Tyler Bird, way out in front with an impressive 60lb winning catch from the deeps.

Love fishing Meadowlands. It’s such a special venue, so hopefully the Final will be back there next year, and maybe I can make it fifth time lucky?