Harry Billing wins Garbolino Silverfish title

Festival season at Cornish complex White Acres was rounded-off with the Garbolino Silverfish event and the title went to a familiar name in the South West of the country as Harry Billing lifted the silverware. But only after the usual tallying-up of dropped scores when he ended up tied with three other anglers on a perfect 36 points!
The Garbolino man has tasted plenty of success at White Acres and surrounding fisheries, culminating in the 2012 Parkdean Masters, since he relocated to Cornwall from his native Manchester and silverfish are his game as Harry was a feared angler on the canal scene back in the North.
Racking up four section wins and dropping a four-point score from his worst day, Harry ended up clear of runner-up Adam Wakelin with Andy Power taking third, both men having poorer dropped scores.
Whereas previous Silverfish festivals have been fished on frozen lakes, this year saw mild and often wild and windy weather. That helped the weights, Harry kicking off on Day 1 with a section win thanks to 62-12-0 of skimmers, roach and a few F1s on maggot and caster over groundbait on the long pole from peg 7 on the Sycamore Lake.
It was a case of more of the same on Tuesday as he notched up 60-0-0 of F1s using caster in the margins of peg 6 on the Twin Oaks Lake. Day 3 gave him his midway section finish from the Trelawney Lake, which was ultimately to be binned.
It didn’t take long for him to get back in the groove though, Jenny’s Lake peg 15 seeing him work hard for 33-1-0 of roach and skimmers on maggot and caster to post another eight points and going into the final day, only a win would do – and Harry duly obliged.
The draw put him on peg 20 of the Pollawyn Lake and he won not only the section, but the lake as well, with 44-3-0 of skimmers using maggot on the long pole line.

Result: 1 H Billing, Garbolino, 36pts (dropping four points);
2 A Wakelin, Preston Innovations, 36 (dropping six points – 219-4-0); 3 A Power, Preston Innovations, 36 (dropping six points – 214-1-0); 4 M Godfrey, Pole Fishing Magazine, 36 (dropping six points – 195-2-0); 5 D Hammond, Drennan Oxford, 35 (dropping five points – 197-13-0); 6 C Hughes, Sensas/Rive, 35 (dropping five points – 196-3-0).