Such A Close Final!

Yesterday was the THowsEnder Silverfish Final at How End Lakes with a cool £1,500 to the winner. Every peg was in on Yasi’s Lake with a great atmosphere in the morning. I really fancied somewhere from peg 5 to 9 as that seemed to be where the chunky ide seemed happiest, plus you don’t have the sun in your eyes when trying to spot finicky bites! Instead I drew peg 14 on the opposite bank. Still reasonably happy as I’d avoided the carpy end pegs, but it was apparently the shallowest peg on the lake with just 2.5ft down the middle.

I kicked off slowly, but started to put some silvers in the net. Mostly skimmers and roach, however, and not the bigger ide I was hoping for. I was told the peg can hold a few chub, but I only saw one of those all day, plus one small tench and one crucian and just a smattering of those all-important ide.

The wind was really bad at times so keeping good presentation wasn’t easy. I’d get runs of fish but they just wouldn’t hang around for long in that shallow water and swapping swims was vital. The last two hours was an out-and-out pinkie job as the fishing got tougher, not helped by the lake towing and carp starting to muscle in. Still bites to be had, but every single one was hard earned.

They began weighing in it at peg 1 and Lee Newsom was the early leader with 26lb 8oz from peg 5. As most of my fish were skimmers and roach I didn’t think I had anything like that, so was surprised to put 24lb 12oz on the scales. That was the best weight on my side of the lake and enough for 4th overall and a nice section prize. Len Stephens was 2nd with 25lb 13oz from peg 9 and Mark Knight was 3rd with 24lb 15oz from peg 6, so just 1lb 12oz separated the top four!

A great silverfish Final with extra close weights, which is just what you want to keep everyone in the mix. Even with the fish being extra moody, the close pegging and a cold wind hitting the lake, the venue showed how good it is for quality nets of silvers. A very well done to Lee for winning and everyone at How End for putting on such a great Final.