Catch - 68 Fish (9 decent skimmers, plus hand size skimmers, roach, rudd and perch)
Weather - Sunny start, wet and windy later
Match - Silverfish League - rd 1 - 4th out of 23
Following a couple of matches during the summer which showed some quality skimmers, I was looking forward to this series. 23 anglers had booked in (only 22 turned up), which included some good quality silvers anglers and venue regulars. A lot of my silvers fishing usually revolves around pellet fishing, but being early September carp could be a real issue, so whilst I had some pellet with me just in case, the intention was to base my attack around groundbait, 3pts of caster and worm.
With 22 anglers fishing I was expecting us to be spread around the lake. Instead, there were 14 anglers in line down the left bank (p5-p19) and then 8 anglers between (p33-p40), so end pegs were likely to massively important.
I drew p37, which put me in the middle of the right hand section, with Ray Wickham to my left and Steve Fouracre to my right.
The weather forecast was for wind and rain, with the wind would be blowing up the lake left to right. With that in mind I set 2x rigs to fish on the deck, 4x16 wire stem and a 1.5g wire stem if the wind picked up which never got used. I also set a shallow rig for roach and rudd, 2 margin rigs, 1 for worm hoping for a tench or big perch and a 4x16 jolly to fish caster.
On all in 2 balls of F1 green with caster and a few 4s were deposited at 8m and 3 balls at 13m (I didn't want to fish longer due to the wind). Whilst that settled I started on my top 3 fishing shallow with caster and after 20 minutes had 20 roach & rudd.
A switch to the 8m line with half a worm and my first bite resulted in a decent skimmer, followed 15mins later my another.
As the match progressed it was a case of switching between lines. The 8m line was topped up every 15/20mins with a small ball of feed, as was the 13m line, but this line proved to be a struggle all match. I did hook and loss a decent skimmer, but I also hooked and land 2 carp from this line. Fortunately my carp problems weren't as severe as Steve on my right, who had fed more pellet and was getting carped out.
Down my margins I had fed some groundbait, caster and few 4s to my left and just caster to my right. Initially started on the worm rig hoping a tench or 2, which never arrived although I did net a few hand sized skimmers, but fishing the caster rig proved to be better and the left hand margin swim proved to be the strongest.
With 90mins left to go my long line really hadn't produced and my 8m swim was fading, so decided to give the long line 2 balls of feed and stopped feeding the 8m swim altogether. Instead I set up another swim to my left at 9m with a pot of groundbait/caster.
The last hour proved to my best with 5 decent skimmers over both short lines to finish the match with 19lb 3oz. It was no surprise to see the end pegs come 1st & 2nd and I was quite pleased with my efforts from the middle of the section, although a little disappointed to lose 3 skimmers as I was shipping back.
Whilst the league runs on total weight, the pay out on the day was top 3, plus 3 sections and I managed another pick up thanks to a double default section.
1. 28- 8 - Paul Faires - p33
2. 24- 3 - John Fuidge - p40
3. 23- 0 - Vic Bush - p17
4. 19- 3 - Ken Rayner - p37
5. 18- 9 - Lee Woodhouse - p12
6. 18- 0 - Ziggy - p9
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