Match Masterclass - Commercial Silverfish Boom - ADTV

Because I had never fished Toad Hall for silvers before, I approached the session exactly as I would a real match. I set up two long lines at thirteen metres along with a shorter “top-up” line for keeping things ticking over when the long lines need a rest. The short line is also capable of producing bites quickly as we will be loose feeding that one, while the long ones receive a ball of bait and are given a few minutes to develop. Later in the session, these long lines become the key to targeting the bigger ide and skimmers that will make a real difference to your final weight.

Fish in these commercial venues behave very differently to fish in a more natural water like a reservoir. They are tuned in to a more commercial way of fishing, and they are very used to eating pellets. It’s for this reason that I strongly recommend using a pellet-based groundbait.  I used the new green Dynamite F1 Sweet, which is perfect for winter thanks to its darker colour and pellet based mix. Silvers on commercials grow up eating pellets, so giving them that familiar food source is a big edge.

Both long lines received an initial fist-sized ball of bait at the start, one ball of groundbait with a few loose bits sprinkled on top inside the cup. Then I left them completely alone to settle while I started fishing with the short line.
The short line was fed with tiny pinches of casters and maggots, which quickly brought small roach, ide and small skimmers into the peg. A simple change of hook bait can completely switch the stamp of fish, so I kept rotating between maggot, caster and bits of worm to work out what they were biting. Trial and error is essential with this kind of fishing as silvers can be really tricky so keep switching things around to find what is working best. 

My rigs are super simple but designed with purpose. My first setup uses a finesse carbon slim float  on 0.14 mainline and red slick elastic. The shotting pattern is a spread bulk towards the bottom of the line to produce a fast but natural fall through the water. This shotting pattern combined with the carbon float enables me to catch fish through the water on the short line, where roach and small ide intercept the bait as it falls. 

On the long lines I use wire stem floats with a bulk and two droppers, This sinks to the deck faster and is more stable, perfect for presenting worm heads or soft pellets for skimmers and bream a bit further out. I used a small size 18 hook on both rigs and the only thing I might change, depending on the venue, is if the fish were smaller I might use a lighter elastic.

During the early part of this session I was having great success on my short line. I was catching roach and ide on almost every cast and in a real match situation I would not have moved from that line at all unless I felt the need to. For the purposes of demonstration, after around half an hour I went onto the groundbait line with a worm head and caught an ide instantly. Another followed right away, then a decent skimmer.

The competitive anglers who fish for commercial silvers are really good at this line rotation. It's important to be constantly evaluating each line and judging when it would be better to rest a line and move onto another. It’s generally best top focus on the longer lines and use the short ones as top-ups in between but not always.  Once you learn to manage this rotation, everything starts to click and you can rack up huge weights of 50-60lbs of silvers easily.

Commercial silverfish is brilliantly enjoyable. It keeps you active, it keeps you thinking and it keeps the tip going round even at the hardest times of year. With good management of your different lines, you will build better weights and feel far more in control of your matches. Whether you are chasing a silverfish final or simply want to try some more exciting winter fishing, these kinds of sessions are a great way to get some winter action.