Autumn Feeder Fishing For Silvers
Fishing for skimmer bream might not be everyone’s first choice but I love them and they can be life savers when the water temperature drops.
Open mind
Today I’ve come to a local club venue, one that regularly holds matches and where in the depth of winter bags of silvers can exceed 40lb, however anyone that has fished for skimmers will already know that they can be somewhat frustrating. One day they will be crawling up the rod, the next creating no pattern and registering the tiniest of bites. Knowing this is very important and you have to approach each session with an open mind as well as bringing along an array of baits if you want to get the best out of your peg.
Natural baits
The standard selection of hook bait I take when I know skimmers are the target consists of dead and live maggots, preferably reds, casters and worms. Pellets do pay a part in hookbait during the warmer months but once the water temperature drops I prefer natural baits, however I do add a few small pellets into the feeder along with chopped worms and a few dead maggots. The groundbait I tend to use early winter is Sonubaits Super Crush Green that I mix before leaving home with bottled water, before passing through a sieve a couple of times to make it light, fluffy and very fine.
Timing casts
At the start of each session I like to clip up and make half a dozen accurate casts simply to activate the swim. I then get into a routine of casting every three minutes and hope that the skimmers will turn up fairly quickly. When they do bites can come quicker than three minutes, however when the water is really clear and cold I may push each cast to a slightly longer period, yet with skimmers it’s more of when will they turn up than will they turn up so it pays to be positive.
Long and traditional
Bites can vary from steady pull rounds to the shyest of taps so I prefer to use a braided mainline and have loaded my Black Viper Compact reel with Cenex 0.08mm Sinking braid and have teamed this up with a 12’ Sphere Medium Feeder, the perfect rod for feeder fishing for skimmers. As for the rig it’s a simple running feeder set up with a few tweaks. Firstly I still feel that when skimmer fishing its best to have quite a long hook length and mine is a couple of feet of 0.16mm Cenex Hybrid Power down to a size 16 Classic hook which is the perfect size to allow me to alternate between worm, caster a double red dead maggot. Further up the line is a short twizzel boom and the free running feeder link comes to rest against a small Stotz shot that protects the knot to the twizzel boom. The feeder bead that runs on the braided mainline has a short length of stiff line from it down to a link swivel and both knots are protected with a short length of clear tubing. This acts as a boom and reduces tangles considerably and the swivel link allows me to swap from different sized feeders throughout the session.
Peas in a pod
As expected today’s session has seen double red dead maggot produce most bites and as on many occasions the bites have been really shy but the braided mainline has exaggerated these allowing me to read the conditions and keep in touch with the fish. Unfortunately the stamp of skimmers has been quite small today and have been like peas in a pod, all around 6-8oz but once they got their heads down its been one a chuck letting me build a decent bag of fish.
Tim Bruce
Tim’s Tackle
Sphere 12’ Medium Feeder Rod
Black Viper Compact Reel
0.08mm Cenex Sinking Braid
0.16mm Cenex Hybrid Power Mono
Size 16 Sphere Classic Hook
Xenos Jet Feeders
Tim’s Bait
Dead/Live Red Maggots
Casters
Worms
Micro Pellets
Sonubaits Super Crush Green Groundbait
