Acorn Fishery – Ace of Acorn Silvers Qualifier – 30th October 2025

I’d booked quite a few Thursdays off work to fish the various silvers qualifiers at Acorn so even though I managed to qualify for the Ace of Acorn at my first attempt, I was still going to fish the others as they’re decent size silvers matches. There was a great turnout of 26 anglers including the likes of Des, Tony Rixon, Dave Willmott, Steve Kedge, Andy Akehurst and John Mills to name just a few.

The draw was announced and Des got somebody to pull out a peg for him and he didn’t look impressed when he was handed number 10, a brilliant carp peg which hasn’t been very good for silvers at all. I delved into the bag and was over the moon with 34, a brilliant silvers peg that has been framing regularly. Tony was peg 1 on the island, another great draw and I stupidly agreed to have a pound with him, I also had Kedgy next door on the other side of the bridge so I could be in for a severe case of neckache today!

Mr Rixon was the end peg on the island

I set up rigs for 13 metres, two lines in the deep water at 10 metres and a short top four swim. On the whistle I fed all my swims before starting across, I missed a bite first put in before hooking an ide next chuck only for it to come off as I shipped back and checking the rig, the maggot had gone over the point of the hook. I started catching the odd fish but was missing loads of indications (liners perhaps?) so I tried changing depths and going further across, hooking a maggot sideways resulted in a 1.5lb tench which was a nice bonus but the missed bite madness was getting silly. At one stage I got another top kit out and set up a little rig to fish tight to the boards but that wasn’t really the answer either.

Tony was catching some ide and even had a couple of big perch and with Kedgy getting a few as well, it felt like I was getting a proper spanking. After a couple of hours, I tried the 10 metre lines and although I had the odd ide, I was still missing loads of bites. With ninety minutes remaining I came in on the top kit plus two line but once again it just hasn’t happened. For the rest of the match I swapped between the 10 metre swims and managed two skimmers and a few ide, I only ended up with 25 fish and was sure I’d finished well down today.

The scales started with Andy A on peg 40 who’d done well on his first visit weighing 16lb 5oz, then Tony had 17lb 11oz so I began shining my nugget up in readiness for the official handover. I was nearly last to be weighed and when the scales got round to our side, I went to have a look at the weigh board, Des was winning with a fantastic 27lb 10oz of mainly skimmers from a peg not many would have fancied this morning, Dave Willmott also did brilliantly with 22lb 15oz from peg 12. Photos courtesy of Acorn*

Des won with 27lb 10oz from peg 10*

Dave Willmott was second on the day with 22lb 15oz*

Kedgy weighed 11lb 14oz, my fish went 14lb 6oz, George on 36 had 12lb and last to weigh was Steve Whatley on 38 who had 8lb 10oz. Back at the results and Des won the match and qualified for the final, Dave was second and Tony took third spot just ahead of Andy who won our zone and took the other qualifying place. In the end I wasn’t that far away, finishing fifth in the match and second in my zone but it definitely felt like I’d fluffed a great chance today.

1 – Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) – 27lb 10oz (Q)
2 – Dave Willmott (Acorn) – 22lb 15oz
3 – Tony Rixon (Premier Angling) – 17lb 11oz

Sections
A – Darrel Barnes (Acorn) – 8lb 9oz
B – Jerry Salisbury (Acorn) – 9lb 10oz
C – Ant P (Acorn) – 9lb 14oz
D – Andy Akehurst (Sensas) – 16lb 5oz (Q)

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