This week I'm writing about the 1st round of the silvers league I joined, there are 18 anglers in this league half of which call Whitemoor Lakes home and the other half Orchard Lakes, its a 6 round league with 3 matches at each venue, each match is split into 3 sections of 6 and points is what you are fishing for with 1 point for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and so on, you drop your worst match and then lowest points at the end takes the prize.
This is a steep learning curve for me and my results so far have shown this, I've had a 5th, I couldn't make the second round due to family commitments (luckily I can just drop this one) and last round I lost at the draw bag unfortunately and finished last in section and overall. To be honest though having not fished silvers matches before this I am happy to come away from each round gaining some knowledge no matter how little it may be.
So as I said I'm writing today about the 1st round, this was held at my home Whitemoor on the main lake, (not one I fish very often as most matches are held on the Top or Canal Lakes) I drew peg 11 typically one of the best Carp pegs on the lake but I was happy none the less.
I decided on having a short line where I was going to throw and fish maggots shallow at the beginning just to put some fish in the net, for this I used a Dino F1 4x10 float to 0.09 mainline, I also set up a rig for just past this (about another pole section) in about 4' of water and on this line I used a Dino Gino 0.2g, lastly I set up a slightly heavier 0.4g Gino at 13m in 6', I had 2 lines one at 10 O'clock and one a 2 both lined up with separate bush features on the far island.
All in shouted, I started off by potting 3 balls of groundbait one of which was full of casters and a small amount of chopped worm, I put the worm in as I know the lake holds some very big Perch, some have come out over 3lb in the past so these can't be ignored.
My groundbait mix for this match was a full bag of Special G Gold and a full bag of Pro Natural Bream, I mixed both bags together thoroughly whilst dry, I filled a bait tub with water but before adding it to the groundbait mix I added in some Liquid Brazem. I was very bream focused as I felt that getting one or two bigger skimmers would see me do well in section and after all that's what we are all fishing for.
I went in on the short shallow line for a hour to put some fish in the net while the groundbait did its job and hopefully a few fish settled on it. I hooked a single maggot, threw in 3 or 4 maggots and slapped the rig into them as they fell through the water, I let the float settle fully before throwing in more and slapping the rig again. It didn't take to long to start catching a few small Roach only problem being it was going to take a whole lot of them to build any kind of weight.
I decided after around a hour to try something different and went in on the bottom rig just past where I was fishing I put in a small ball of groundbait laced with caster and chopped worm and went straight over the top with a whole worm on the hook. While I was fishing this line I started throwing casters on the shallow one instead to see if I could bring in some better stamp fish for when I go back in on it later. After about 30 minutes I got my first proper bite on the worm and turns out I was right about the Perch and I hooked into one of the monstrous ones.
Ok so maybe not the one I was after but none the less I learned not to bother with that line for a while, I decided to have a look on the shallow line again and see if the casters made any difference at all. First few put ins I had a few small fish but then the stamp did get better gradually, maybe I wasn't feeding enough while focusing on fishing the bottom but after my focus changed so did the fishing.
Now I was getting a few fish double the size of the original ones mixed in with the odd smaller one still and was very happy with how this line was going, this fishing continued for around an hour until everything all of a sudden went completely dead. At that point I felt like maybe the Carp had arrived and thought it was time to leave this line alone and look elsewhere for a little while.
I decided to have a look on the 13m line at 2 O'clock this was the one I didn't feed anything at the start, I put a kinder pot on my top kit with half a dozen 4mm Carp and Course pellets in and an 4mm X-pand pellet on the hook, to start with and as expected I was getting a lot of funny little lifts and dips on the float but nothing turning into a bite I gave it 4, 5 minute put ins and after nothing I thought I would have a try at 10 O'clock, I went in on this line with half a worm and a red maggot on the hook, I don't think it had fully settled before the float buried and a skimmer was leaping out the water.
As you can imagine at this point I was thinking I was in for a flurry of fish and the single point was mine for the day, turns out though I didn't get another bite on any line other than a Carp on the shallow one, but at least I was right about it going funny due to them turning up.
In the end I put 4lb and a few oz on the scales which seen me 5th in section, I did leave feeling pleased with my performance though as most of the things I tried had worked, I just felt I needed to work on timing and managing swims better in the future for maximum results, my section was very close though there was a 3lb weight, myself, 2 5lb weight, a 6lb and it was won with 7lb so very tight which is one good thing about Whitemoor its always very fairly pegged and the lake fishing the same all over.
Going into the 4th round I feel I'm well out of the running, for me though I'm looking at it as an opportunity to spend more time learning for any further silver fishing in the future so no need to be down on it. Onwards and upwards!
Thanks very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed enough to come back next week.
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