Tommy Pickering

The silvers switch

ALTHOUGH it’s still possible to catch a good weight of carp on commercials, when November arrives I’ll begin to include silverfish in my plan because they can provide plenty of bites when the big fish aren’t in the mood. That helps keep the boredom at bay believe me!

Every commercial will be full of roach, skimmers, hybrids and perch – plus a few surprises such as tench and barbel. These fish are normally of a good stamp owing to the high-protein diet of pellets that anglers feed so you can soon have a good weight in just a few hours.

What’s tricky is deciding when and for how long to target the silverfish and where to fish for them in the peg to still leave you with a few carp options. To my mind, I would have two silverfish swims on the go with a view to catching different species on each.

TIMING

Often carp will show early and late in a five-hour session, so that leaves the mid-session spells of hours two, three and four as prime silverfish time. Begin by looking for a carp, but after an hour change to silverfish unless you are bagging on carp of course!

SHORT LINE

Speed is important when targeting small fish and these are often found close to the bank, which makes the job a lot easier.

Roach and perch love to feed on or at the bottom of the marginal shelf on lakes. This is found at around 5m to 7m out. I can fish here easily and catch fish quickly plus I can feed by hand.

This line should be ‘instant’, producing bites quickly, but a longer line after bigger silverfish may take a while to get going. Skimmers are an important target on commercials at this time of year.

Maggots are the starting bait, but if I am getting bitted out by little fish, I’ll change to casters.

LONG LINE

Skimmers are a vital fish on commercials and many of them average between 1lb and 2lb.

When they are in the swim and having it, you can soon catch 30lb of them but rarely will they venture close to the bank. Instead, I fish a dedicated swim well out into open water on the pole at 12m or 14m. Here you’ll find a flat bottom that skimmers love plus the maximum depth of water.

Pellets are superb for skimmers and I’ll feed dampened 4mm pellets or, if allowed, some fishmeal groundbait with pellets mixed, using a 4mm expander on the hook. Double red maggot makes a great change bait.

This swim can take a while to get going so don’t expect too much action immediately – I’ll keep having a look every 20 minutes or so from the word go and when I catch on pellet, I’ll go back in and have another look as skimmers rarely swim around on their own!