Feeder Switch seals £1,000

A timely switch to the feeder secured England star Des Shipp the £1,000 Stafford Moor Silvermanic title at the weekend as he won by just 2oz on a wind-lashed Tanner’s Lake to pick up his second title on this silverfish-only event.
Weighing in 16-13-0 from peg 2, Preston Innovations-backed Des edged out Lee Farmer on peg 30 by that tiny margin, with William Raison taking third on 15-13-0. But it almost never happened for the Bristol man as his pole attack threatened to be scuppered by the wind.
However, seeing Zac Newton on the peg next door catch on the feeder as the wind got up, Des went back to the van, set a tip rod up and enjoyed a purple patch of eight decent skimmers and a crucian to do just enough, although he was quick to acknowledge the luck he’d enjoyed.
“If I hadn’t seen Zac catch on the tip I wouldn’t have set the feeder up and wouldn’t have won – as simple as that,” Des said. “I had planned to fish the pole as there was no wind at the start of the match, but within an hour it was blowing a gale and I couldn’t fish short, let alone long which is where I’d based my attack around.”
Changing to a small groundbait feeder and fishing worm or dead maggot, Des hooked three early carp on the tip but the skimmers settled and fish to 1lb 8oz saw him make his move after a slow start on the pole where he fished pellet long and maggot and worm short.
“The lakes had a lot of water going through them and were a dirty colour, which I think is why the roach didn’t feed, but in practice we’d seen the better skimmers caught long, so I fed pellet at 14.5m until the wind ruined it,” he explained.
“Even the short line only produced a few eels so that shows how hard the fishing was. I didn’t fancy the peg as it’s close to a corner and that normally means carp city but after those early fish, the skimmers fed.”
Worm was his opening hookbait, but Des found two dead red maggots to be much better, introducing just a few through the feeder on each cast.
Result: 1 D Shipp, Preston Innovations, 16-13-0;
2 L Farmer, Sensas, 16-11-0; 3 W Raison, Daiwa/Old Ghost, 15-13-0; 4 A Morrison, Browning West Midlands, 15-7-0; 5 A Power, Preston Innovations Thatcher’s, 14-9-0; 6 Z Newton, Exeter, 12-13-0.