Commercial Fishing Tips | Pellets for winter silvers with Cam Hughes
SILVER fish can be life-savers on winter commercials, given the sheer number and different sizes of roach and skimmers out there to catch.
Silvers grow big in commercials as they eat pellets intended for carp, but if you use maggots, pinkies and worms it can be a job getting through to the better fish when their smaller brethren always get to the hookbait first.
Feeding more bait is not always the answer, as it runs the risk of killing the swim entirely or, worse still, pulling in a few carp if the weather is mild – the last fish you want to be playing on light tackle.
The solution lies in using pellets. When skimmers and bream are the target, I can be confident that every time the float goes under, it’ll be a decent fish. Provided I don’t go mad with the feed, there’s a minimal chance of a carp crashing the party. Pellets also seem to put off the little fish.
You see, skimmers see pellets all year round and accept them as part of their natural diet. I find that I also get a far more instant response to pellets as opposed to maggots and groundbait, so it’s the ideal bait to a session and get a quick burst of fish before things quieten down.
Don’t attract carp!
The more bait you put in, the more chance there is of attracting carp, even in the cold, so go steady!
I’ll fish two pole lines, one fed negatively and the other more positively, to see how much feed the skimmers will take and if the positive swim pulls in more carp.
My positive line sees a third of a big pole cup of micros go in, while the negative swim is fed only with a small pot on the pole to tap in little helpings of pellets.
I try to leave the positive swim for as long as possible to let the fish settle, but also just in case they don’t want more feed going in over their heads, as may happen if I fished here too early and had to feed more bait.
Start negatively
I kick off on the negative line and feel my way in, only feeding another little pot of micros after 10 minutes if I’ve not had a sign.
If I catch a fish, then I’ll feed again to see if any more are about, but those bites will tell you how to feed from here on.
If the plan of ‘catch and feed’ is working, then carry on, but if things die down you have to try and do something.
This could be changing to that positive swim – going on the waggler, for example – or feeding more heavily on the negative line to see if this is actually what the skimmers wanted in the first
Admittedly, this final option would be my last resort, since after an hour on the negative swim I would expect fish to have settled on the positive line and to be able to catch here.
The distance to fish
As the water begins to clear, the further away from the bank you can fish, the better, and that makes 14.5m my main fishing distance on the pole.
This also gives me the advantage of leaving enough space between this line and the bank to put in a short pole swim with casters for roach and perch, for example.
However, I won’t just stick to this one line as often the bigger skimmers will back off the feed.
Adding just half a section of pole and going past it can bring you a run of fish in no time.
If the swim goes quiet, I add a half extension and go out to what will be 15m and hope to catch here.
This won’t work every time you do it, and you should only spend 10 minutes maximum here, whether you catch or not, before reverting back to the main 14.5m swim.
