‘BAGGER’ BENNETT SEALS ZEROFIT SILVERFISH FINAL WIN

Match ace Andy Bennett is the new Angling Trust Zerofit SilverFish 2022-23 champion following a perfect display of pole fishing in this season’s £10,000 grand final at Lancashire’s Bradshaw Hall Fisheries.

Nicknamed ‘Bagger’, the Guru and Blakes Baits-backed angler lived up to his moniker with an remarkable 31lb 14oz haul of skimmers, roach, and ide from Lake 4’s peg 14 to collect the £5,000 top prize.

This was just over 4lb too good for England international Cameron Hughes in second place on 27lb 5oz.

Daiwa sponsored Cam, who had a busy day on Lake 3’s peg 2, collected £2,000 for his runner up spot in a final which saw over £10,000 paid out thanks to generous sponsorship from clothing giant Zerofit.

Filling the next spots were Steven Reid in third on 26lb 8oz, Jordan Holloway with 23lb 14oz for fourth, and last year’s champion Steven Forster in fifth place overall with 22lb 6oz.

A drop in overnight temperatures hampered the action across Lakes 3, 4, and 6 used for the 40-peg final, but a bold approach from the start by Andy saw him put 14 skimmers in the net in the first hour.

“The match started a lot better than I anticipated,” admitted Andy, from Manchester, who qualified from Bradshaw with a similar weight back in January. “I put in probably double the amount of worm that I normally would to try to drag some fish into the swim. Because the F1 carp hadn’t fed it allowed me to top up my peg which isn’t something that you can normally do, and it made a difference.

“When the F1s came in in the last hour I went another section out and had another run of skimmers.”

Andy finished with over 80 fish in total, the bulk of which came from his 13m line where he fished a light, 0.75g rig with a bulk and three droppers almost dead depth in 7ft of water.

This year’s competition saw hundreds of anglers take part in 20 nationwide qualifiers starting in last October with 40 section winners each securing a place in the grand final. Look out for next year’s competition starting in September!

* The Angling Trust would like to thank all the anglers who took part in the competition this season, our amazing volunteer organisers at each qualifier, the team at Bradshaw Hall Fisheries for hosting the final, and event sponsor Zerofit.

ZEROFIT SIIVERFISH FINAL 2023

1 Andy Bennett, 31lb 14oz – Lake 4 Peg 14 – £5,000

2 Cameron Hughes, 27lb 5oz – Lake 3 Peg 2 – £2,000

3 Steven Reid, 26lb 8oz – Lake 3 Peg 25 – £1,500

4 Jordan Holloway, 23lb 14oz – Lake 6 Peg 6 – £1,000

5 Steven Forster, 22lb 6oz – Lake 4 Peg 19 – £500

Section prizes:

Lake 3 – Adam Wakelin 21lb 4oz – Peg 4

Lake 4 Pegs 4-19 – Steve Harwood 16lb 5oz – Peg 13

Lake 4 Pegs 20-33 – Jamie Hughes 15lb 11oz – Peg 33

Lake 6 – Stuart White 19lb 2oz – Peg 1