Another Near Miss At The Bowl!

Back on the commercial silverfish campaign at the weekend. First up was my first ever trip to Marsh Farm, down in Surrey, for the Fish South Silvers qualifier. Very impressive looking venue and it sounded great with quality bream, crucians and tench the main target.

At the draw everyone said you needed pegs 11, 12 or 13 as they’d totally dominated the last few matches. I sadly drew the opposite side of the lake in the 30s and struggled for 11lb. A mid-match run of two bream and a 1lb skimmer on worms at 16m got my hopes up, but they soon vanished back to the teens. Plenty of food for thought next time I fish here though…

Well done Simon Duke, easily winning with an impressive 67lb of bream from peg 12. A tough match for most of us, but definitely worth another trip.

Sunday was a lot more local with the Angling Trust Silverfish qualifier at Bishops Bowl. Fourteen anglers on White Bishop and 14 on New Greenhills with one qualifier off each lake. I’ve drawn end peg 16 on White Bishop. One of the best carp pegs on the lake, so not ideal!

Kicked off on a top kit for eight roach and perch, but soon hooked my first carp five minutes in. Another carp next drop saw me move out to a 6m swim where I’ve fed Sonubaits F1 and a bit of Thatchers. Fully expecting carp, I was pleasantly surprised to catch eight big skimmers in double-quick time on maggots. With 12lb to 15lb already in the net after an hour it was game on. I just prayed the carp would behave…

Sadly the rest of the match was a nightmare. I had carp boiling everywhere, sometimes even mouthing my float! I’ve hooked around 40 carp to 12lb with the very occasional quality skimmer amongst them. Amazing what you can get in on a 0.10mm bottom and 8-10 Slik!

I just needed one more skimmer as I’ve weighed 30lb 8oz for 2nd on the lake behind Amanda Rowett’s 32lb. She’s fished a really tidy match, so very well done. I sadly never won a bean as the top three weights all came off New Greenhill with Paul Sanderson fishing well to win that lake with 42lb.

So that’s two years running at Bishops Bowl that I’ve been a single fish from qualifying. At least I have some more qualifiers to enjoy. Just need to retie a few hooks first!