Back In The Final

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UPDATE: Just uploaded a LIVE MATCH showing how I won, exclusive to Channel Members!

Made the long drive up to the Tidal Trent yesterday for the Riverfest qualifier. Really happy to pull out peg 20 at Torksey, a peg away from where I was last time and felt much more confident in what I needed to do.

The tide topped as we set up and was running off all day, dropping several feet by the end. Everyone I could see was into fish from the off and it was amazing fishing for two hours. I was on course for a big weight, but halfway through the fish switched off and you could hear everyone saying the same thing as we went from a bite-a-chuck to nothing.

I worked my way out and managed to keep putting an odd fish in the net. It was mostly silver bream early, then a few small skimmers and even had a bonus big roach getting on for a pound. Fabulous fishing.

My 26lb 6oz was enough to win the zone and the match, so I’m back in the Riverfest Final for a third successive year.

I set up two identical Matrix Horizon Distance 12ft rods with 8lb XD Mono on HX Pro 4000 reels. Feeders were 1.5oz to start but by the end I was on 3oz as it ripped through. For feed I’ve used Sonubaits 50:50 Method & Paste Green, Sweet Skimmer, and a bit of brown crumb and So Natural Crushed Hemp. Caught best on worm when it was solid, but had to really mess about with different hook baits later on.

Happiness turned to sadness on the long drive home as I had a heart-breaking phone call from an angling friend who wanted to say hello and thanks for a final time. He’s such a nice, generous and positive person who’s been through so much. Hopefully I can see him one more time today…

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2 Responses

  1. Tim kaye says:
    28th July 2025 at 2:08 pm

    Hi John tim kaye here. Did you again not clip up and instead fed a bow by hand? How did you keep your distance accuracy? Line marker? Well done cheers tim

    • Jonny says:
      29th July 2025 at 5:52 pm

      Hi Tim, no clipping up again. It’s too pacey and busy fishing for that. Just try to be as accurate as possible and feed a big bow according to the flow. I’ve found counting it out each time as you pay it out to the butt ring each time helps you work it out easier. As the tide goes out Ive found a few bites working my way out a bit further.