YATES STRIKES GOLD AT SILVERFISH FESTIVAL
Total weight needed after tough second day at White Acres
PAUL Yates enjoyed a weekend of two very different halves to win this two-day silverfish event at the Cornish complex.
He recorded a bite-a-chuck section win on the first day of action, before having to tough it out on the Sunday to claim a second section maximum. That sealed the £700 prize on total weight after he finished tied on two points with Kian Wardle.
The match was fished by the cream of the UK match scene, and rules dictated that anglers would fish one day with F1s and brown goldfish counting. On the second it was silverfish only.
Paul’s 54-12-0 total meant he finished over 12lb clear of Garbolino man Kian, with Des Shipp taking third as the best of a clutch of anglers on three points.
“On day one I was in the silverfish only zone and drew peg 26 on Pollawyn Lake,” Drennan/Doncaster Fishing Centre man Paul said.
“The plan was to fish shallow on the long pole for roach and the occasional skimmer, before changing to shorter lines on the deck for skimmers and barbel. And it worked really well! I began at 11m to 13m, loosefeeding caster and fishing caster on the hook between 2ft 6ins and 4ft deep. For two and a half hours I had a bite a chuck, mainly from small roach but with quite a few better 12oz fish and the odd skimmer.
“I then changed to a 5m line where I’d fed groundbait with pinkies, chopped worm and red maggots and caught skimmers up to 1lb. It was slow going – if you were patient, you got a bite,” the former England man continued. “With 45 minutes to go, I changed to a shorter line at an angle to look for barbel and caught six up to 3lb on maggots. The scales gave me 48-12-0 and an easy section win.
“Day two gave me Python Lake peg 23, an end peg but an area that can be hard,” Paul said.
“F1s counted, but with 35 minutes to go I’d caught a roach and a skimmer! In the closing stages though, some F1s turned up and I caught four plus a roach on single pinkie fished over little balls of groundbait and pinkies at 13m well down the peg. The F1s seemed to be in the wide areas, whereas my section was narrow. I weighed 6-5-0 and just 2lb was second in the section, so that big weight on day one helped!”
Overall: 1 P Yates, Drennan/Doncaster Fishing Centre, 2pts (54-12-0); 2 K Wardle, Garbolino, 2 (42-9-0); 3 D Shipp, Preston Innovations, 3 (104-2-0); 4 C Vandervleit, Drennan/Bait-Tech, 3 (92-5-0); 5 F Gianoncelli, Preston Innovations, 3 (85-15-0); 6 J Arthur, Drennan, 3 (79-6-0); 7 D Barlow, Drennan/ Bait-Tech, 3 (63-0-0); 8 A Power, Preston Innovations, 3 (42-15-0); 9 D Davies, Drennan/Van Den Eynde, 4 (95-1-0); 10 L Kerry, Preston Innovations, 4 (56-4-0).