Blown Away On The Riverfest

First chance I’ve had to stop and report back from the Riverfest Final, which was a bit of a blowout! As the Trent snakes its way through Stoke Bardolph, some of us got the wind really bad and some barely a breeze. Well for me on Rack 2 it was some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever tried to fish in, sat in the open with no cover.

It was bearable when the starting horn blew and I felt really confident. The peg was really comfortable to get in and plumbed up nice… Target was 15lb of dace, roach and perch. Then it all changed. The wind increased, flicked a few degrees and battered us straight in the face!

Despite being locked on a spraybar I lost three flat float hooklengths in the first 20 minutes, rescued my hat 20m behind me and was barely able to hold 6m most the time. Swapped to my carp pole and tackled up a maggot feeder to chuck over the pole, but spotting a bite in the wind was nigh on impossible!

It took me two hours to finally catch a few perch short on the flattie. Last hour the wind finally dropped enough to fish further out and I had 3lb of roach on hemp. It was still hard work holding a pole, then deciding whether to wrestle with a landing net or risk swinging in each roach before it blew behind me!

So, I made the stupid decision to come off the roach and just sit for a big fish on the feeder. With it being decided on weight, I assumed I was absolutely nowhere. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Weights were much lower than I anticipated and if I had never chucked a feeder I would’ve had a couple more all-important pounds than the 6lb I ended up with…

On to Day Two and my peg 7 on the Roadside was a lovely sunny, wind-free mill pond! Felt I had to fish positive to stand any chance of a result, so just fished a bream line at 36m, a 15m swim where there was a slight flow and an 11m caster swim, past the weed, where there was zero flow.

Third cast with my Ethos XRF 12.6ft and 5000 HX Pro reel combo, fishing with Sonubaits 50:50 Method & Paste Green groundbait and worm hook bait I’ve had a 4lb+ bream! Three casts later I’ve had a bigger bream. Two slabs in the first hour. Game on!

Having done no good the previous day I stopped feeding my long pole and just went for broke on the feeder, with the occasional look on the 11m swim. I managed just one very big dace on the feeder and a handful of perch on the 11m swim over the next four hours, ending with 11lb 15oz.

I came 22nd with 18lb and only needed another 4lb to make the top-15 money places, which was easily possible. Just some very poor decision making on my behalf. Consolidating those two early bream with some long-pole fish should have been easily achievable. It’s not like me to fish so gung-ho, but one more bream was all I needed…

I’m still struggling with my chest, so it took forever to pack away, but I was consoled by a slice of lemon drizzle cake from Paul Cannon’s lovely wife Jayne. As Paul and I chatted away he was sure he saw a bream roll on my 11m swim… I turned around and saw the swirl and am still hoping it was just a pike!

So I came back shattered from a tough weekend, but it was still an excellent event and very well ran and covered by all involved. Nice to see the noted big fish pegs not totally dominate this year. Shame the weather scuppered things for a lot of people, but well done Cam Hughes on a very well-fished win.

The Trent at Burton Joyce is a great venue and changes every single year, so hopefully I can get back there for a fifth consecutive final!