Second Round Winner

A pretty decent weekend targeting commercial silvers. Saturday I was at Meadowlands for the Fish South qualifier. I’ve drawn peg 40 on the Pump Bank of Lambsdown with every peg in. Sadly only found 5ft of water at 15m, so I didn’t particularly fancy my chances for a winning weight, but you never quite know at this place…

A cold morning and surprisingly active carp meant it fished pretty hard in our area. I’ve ended up with 26lb of mostly hand-sized skimmers, which beat everyone around me, but was well adrift of Callum Dicks’ 39lb match-winning bag.

Sunday was Round 2 of the Packington Silvers League and my turn to be on Big Gearys. Pretty sure we all fancied a peg from 9 to 16, so I was a bit deflated when peg 1 stuck to my hand. I totally blew out on the same peg this time last year and had visions of being carped out again… especially when I was greeted by an ominous ball of carp mouthing all the leaves!

The noisy aerator was also on full whack, so I tackled up in double-quick time and had to walk away for 45 minutes, just for some peace and quiet. Thankfully it went off before the start, just as I was searching for my ear plugs and flat floats!

I’ve had two tiny skimmers straight away for a positive start, but then waited 15 minutes for the next fish. Things slowly picked up over the next three hours and I’ve caught mostly baby skimmers on and off, pulling out of a few as they were so soft mouthed. I’ve also had some nice big hybrids up to 1lb and some proper skimmers very late on. The carp were thankfully not a problem as I only hooked four or five all day.

I was really surprised to see my fish go 25lb on the scales. I’d had a busy day but it didn’t feel like I’d caught anything like that weight. Even more surprising, it was enough to win the match, so I’d redeemed myself after last year’s blow out on the same peg!

Maggots and casters have been best, fed with Sonubaits Supercrush Expander, Supercrush Green and a dash of Thatchers. Also had to finally dig out my Wind Blocker Plus Jacket as it was a tad chilly both days.