SKIMMERS HELP SHIPP TO SILVERFISH CROWN
Des leads the field home at Bait-Tech Viaduct Fishery
ENGLAND star Des Shipp backed up his Parkdean Masters triumph at the start of October by taking the silverfish all-winners final at Bait-Tech Viaduct Fishery last week, adding a tidy £750 to his year’s winnings
In a match fished by the winners of the silverfish pools in opens at the Somerset water, Preston Innovations man Des saw off the 50-strong field in wind and rain to weigh 50-12-0 of skimmers, leaving Stu White on 44-13-0 to settle for £250.
Drawing on Cary Lake, Bristol man Des stuck to the pole all day with caster short and groundbait and dead maggot long. Unusually for Viaduct, it was smaller skimmers rather than the quality 2lb fish that made all the running.
“I fancied being on Cary because of those small skimmers, which keep your weight ticking over, as opposed to waiting for the better fish as can happen on the other lakes,” Des said. “These fish are between 4oz and 10oz along with the odd better skimmer and plenty of roach. You can catch them quickly, so I was very pleased to draw on there, but I was concerned by the grey colour of the water and no visibility thanks to all the rain we’d had.”
The plan was to start short with casters to let the long pole line settle. Des put in two swims at 13m, feeding one with three balls of groundbait at the start and the second more negatively with only one ball in case the fish weren’t keen on lots of feed.
“On Cary the fish can become hard to catch if you feed lots of particles in the groundbait so I kept it tight with just a few dead maggots – I didn’t think casters would work as well in the coloured water,” he continued.
“The caster line produced a few roach and the the odd skimmer but after 40 minutes I went on the one-ball line and caught small skimmers immediately.”
From that point on it was a case of rotating lines after a run of fish from each, topping up with a small sausage-shaped ball of groundbait each time. The mix was 70:30 Sonubaits F1 Black and Thatcher’s Original, although a switch late on in the day to going a little bit further out won it for Des, in his opinion.
“I added a dolly butt to the pole and went out half-a-metre to see if the skimmers had backed off a little and caught 6lb in 20 minutes. I was kicking myself for not trying there sooner!” he explained. “It was very much a day of being patient, not forcing the peg and trying to catch better fish but taking what came along and keeping something going in the net throughout the match.”