Two Great Days On The Skimmers

It was the Angling Trust Zerofit Silverfish Final at Barston Lakes today and I’ve drawn my thousandth end peg of the year. The rather famous peg 124, arguably the best carp peg in the Midlands. I hoped the skimmers liked it there too!

This peg wasn’t put in on the practice match yesterday, so although we all fancied it no one quite knew what to expect. I certainly ran to it, grinning from ear to ear, but upon arrival I wasn’t quite so sure. It looked a little bit too tight into the corner for catching a winning weight of skimmers, but I’d soon find out…

Despite feeling really confident with my rigs and tactics it took forever to get my first bite. Just four little skimmers after an hour was not a good sign…

Firing up a new swim in front of peg 123 brought some more fish. All match I wished I was sat on that peg instead. By now the skimmers were a good size, however, just not coming out quite fast enough. Ligging on with maggot over Sonubaits F1 Original and Crushed Expander was the only way I could get a bite. Surprisingly only hooked a couple of carp. Hundreds were rolling in the middle of the lake, though, so I’m glad they stayed there!

After feeling like I’d just very slowly plodded along all day with the wind in my chops I was quite surprised to see my fish go 44lb 12oz on the scales. Nowhere near as many fish as yesterday’s 70lb effort but three times bigger. So, all in all a good days fishing and a tidy weight of skimmers, that could have won many normal silverfish matches. But this is Barston and you needed 56lb to make the top five. What a venue!

A very big well done to Steve Hemingray winning the £5k jackpot with 68lb. A very worthy Silverfish Champion!

So that finally rounds off a pretty good silverfish season for me. Now there’s hopefully just enough time to get back on the river before I dust off the shallow rigs!