I had a very busy match on the 2010 Preston Innovations Festival at White Acres, winning a tough section on Porth with 17lb of bottle top skimmers, attracted into the peg with Sonubaits’ F1 groundbait.

I had drawn peg 18, one of the first couple of pegs in the meadow, where it goes very deep from close in. My peg was 15 feet deep at 11 metres and was still sloping away.
I fed some chopped worm, caster and Sonu F1 groundbait on the 11 metre line but kicked off on the waggler, fishing six feet deep at around 18 metres out.
I started feeding small balls of Sonu F1 groundbait out there, smaller than a golf ball, and soon had small skimmers and roach showing an interest.
I used a 13 foot Preston Excel rod with a 4AAA Preston insert waggler, with three number nine shots and a size 24 swivel down the line. Reel line was 2.5lb Preston Direct Mono and the hooklength was .09 Preston Powerline.
The hook was a size 18 Preston 333 and it did the job just perfectly. I found the way to maximize time spent in the hot area was to flick the rod and not follow through when striking. This meant that if you missed a bite, the float was still in the danger area.
Saving time like this is crucial on a venue like Porth where the weights are always tight and it’s always a case of ounces separating the top boys.
None of my fish was bigger than four ounces and most were in the 2oz category, so to weigh 17lb meant a very busy match.
I managed to lure the fish in to the 14-metre mark for the last hour and I missed fewer bites by rigging up a shallow rig and fishing the pole.
The pieces of worm on the hook were no bigger than a caster – perfect for tiny skimmers.