My Riverfest Final

Riverfest Final 2025 and boy did it fish grim for most of us! Day One I had hopes of drawing the barbel area or the top end of the Rack, so was a bit disappointed to draw B68, which was a few pegs past the gate. You’d definitely need bonus perch or eels to do any good from here. I fed a short line with worms, a groundbait swim at 13m for silvers and a feeder line at 25 turns, as it just gets shallower the further you go out in this area. 

First run through and a bite over my groundbait. Struck and the familiar nodding of a decent silverfish. Great start! Shipped back, broke down and lifted the pole up, only to be greeted by metres of elastic and a great big toothy pike on the end. First chuffin’ cast! Had it on a couple more times and even had one leap for my pole pot while I was cupping in! 

Managed a few roach and dace in between the pike, plus some chunky perch down the sides. Possibly lost an eel that snagged me in the rocks, but I didn’t have it on long enough to know for sure. Ended up with 5lb 2oz. Just 3lb came off the peg the next day. A big well done Geraint Powell winning easily with 61lb of barbel and Paul Cannon 2nd with 27lb of barbel and a bream. 

This competition’s all on weight, so with 20lb+ expected to make the top 15 prizes I was fairly happy to draw A37 on the roadside (permanent peg 10). There’s definitely a chance of a bream or barbel if they decide to feed and three or four big fish ‘might’ do it. My peg had thick weed all the way out to 11 metres and two pike rolled as I set up, chasing the micro dace. Trying to catch small fish was never in my game plan. but I don’t think I could’ve caught more than 2lb of bits anyway. Brian next door only had 13oz of them and he spent a long time trying. 

I set up two feeder rods and a couple of chopped worm rigs and that was it. Two feeder swims; one at 28m and a longer one at 45m and went through the card of baits all day. Glad I took a big packed lunch as I never had a single bite, not even a sucked maggot! I did catch a big piece of plastic pipe that put up a good scrap, but that was it. 

Mark below me had just one single 6lb bream and Hadrian on the end peg had a 7lb bream. Two above Tony had one single 10lb barbel very late. Not a lot else was caught. Unbelievable how poor the Roadside fished on the day as it looks brilliant. 

Well done Phil Foster winning the day with a massive 102lb from the barbel area. A mammoth catch that saw him take the coveted title. Either side of him didn’t weigh in, which is unbelievable! So, not the end I wanted to a great event. Take the two massive barbel weights out of the equation and it has to be the lowest weights on record. Burton Joyce is still a magical venue to me, but something has really upset the fish this year. 

Hats off to the organisers, peggers out and stewards and the Angling Trust for all the coverage and getting the results done so quickly and efficiently. A special mention to Dave Harrell for creating this very special event. 

Hopefully they’ll find a proper headquarters for the draw next year as that was the only thing clearly lacking. I also hope the AT has a word with the Environment Agency next year. I cannot think of another prestige sporting final where you’d get your licence checked in the middle of the actual match!? 

Already looking forward to next year’s qualifiers and still got a couple of nice river events to fish this year, so all that prep hasn’t been wasted, but I do have ‘rather a lot’ of unused bait in the fridge! Definitely a chill in the air today. Soon be time to dust off the commercial silverfish tackle!