With the River Trent running low and very clear, most of the competitors thought that this year’s RiverFest final on the River Trent at Burton Joyce could be a difficult two days. How wrong they were!

After two days of hard-fought match fishing action, it needed more than 34lb to win the fifteenth prize in a final, which also saw a new record one day and overall weight!

The Day One winner was John Lock who drew peg 31, a short distance down from the outfall and a peg that no one really fancied before the draw.

Upon arrival at the peg, John resisted setting up immediately and instead, took time to look carefully at the swim in front of him. Scanning across the river, he could see odd bream breaking the surface, well across the river. Conditions were flat and calm, and John could also see a lot of bubbles coming up. There were clearly a lot of fish over there, but would they feed in such still, bright conditions?

John set up a variety of gear but then only needed a feeder rod as he went on to plunder 94-7-0 of bream, a new record final weight which put him 27lb ahead of second placed Colin Beech and a massive 67lb clear of third!

Colin was at peg 57 in the Nelson Field, where he also employed big fish feeder and straight lead tactics to weigh 67-3-0 of barbel and chub.

Best weight of the silver fish anglers went to Rob Casterton who landed 27-1-0 of roach and dace from peg 74, towards the bottom end of the Rack section.

Before the draw on Day Two, the big question was would the bream and barbel feed again on the pegs which had won 24 hours earlier? Or would it be a silver fish dominated match?

Hadrian Whittle drew peg 31 this time and Paul Passmore pulled out peg 57 and it wasn’t long before both of them were in action, landing bream and barbel.

Paul came out on top this time with 46-1-0 of barbel while Hadrian’s eight bream catch went 37-1-0. This elevated both of them into the main list places. Third place on the second day went to Paul Moutrey with 31-8-0 from peg 18.

John Lock had added 11-7-0 of small fish to win the trophy and a cheque for £14,000. Colin Beech added 15-3-0 to take his score to 82-6-0 and Paul Passmore’s first day catch of 13-5-0 added to his Day Two catch put him into third with 59-6-0.

Special thanks go to the Ashfield Angling Club and members for the use of their water and for help on the day.

Dates and venues for RiverFest 2022 will be published in January and tickets will go on sale in March.

RESULTS
DAY ONE

1st John Lock 94-7-0 peg 31

2nd Colin Beech 67-3-0 peg 57

3rd Rob Casterton 27-1-0 peg 74

4th Cameron Hughes 26-14-0 peg 23

5th Mark Godfrey 26-6-0 peg 15

DAY TWO

1st Paul Passmore 46-1-0 peg 57

2nd Hadrian Whittle 37-1-0 peg 31

3rd Paul Moutrey 31-8-0 peg 18

4th Howard Kaye 25-13-0 peg 15

5th Cameron Hughes 24-9-0 peg 80

OVERALL

1st John Lock 105-14-0

2nd Colin Beech 82-6-0

3rd Paul Passmore 59-6-0

4th Cameron Hughes 51-7-0

5th Hadrian Whittle 47-6-0

6th Matt Derry 43-13-0

7th Paul Moutrey 43-8-0

8th Rob Casterton 38-1-0

9th Rich Alexander 37-11-0

10th Steve Hemingray 36-4-0

11th Alan Scotthorne 36-2-0

12th Howard Kaye 35-8-0

13th Mark Godfrey 35-5-0

14th Will McCranor 35-3-0

15th Steve Harwood 34-9-0

Pic: Lloyd Rogers