The River Swale at Morton was the venue for the second Angling Trust RiverFest 2014 qualifier on Saturday 28th June, and hopes of big weights were high after some bumper catches during the first week of the season.

The river was low and crystal clear for this match but that didn’t stop Matt Maginnis from stealing victory against a host of local stars on his first ever visit to the river.

MAP backed Matt, from Kidderminster, drew peg 3 in A zone and was immediately informed that he could be in for a good day if the resident chub shoal fed. Thankfully for Matt they did and he coaxed out ten good samples plus a few small fish on waggler and maggot tactics for a 31-4-0 total. 

The middle zone section was won by Leeds Angling Centre team man Stephen Beckwith who also took a mainly chub catch of 21-6-0 using stick float and feeder tactics at peg 43.  The C zone winner was Willy Worms Mirfield backed Andy Bradley from Cleckheaton. Andy drew peg B7 and switched between stick float and bomb tactics for 15-15-0 of chub.

Despite the low and clear conditions, sixteen of the 60 anglers recorded more than 10 lb and a good mixture of fish were landed.

 Top six individual results1. Matt Maginnis 31-4-0 (peg 3)2. Steve Webster 22-7-0 (peg 27)3. Keith Mottram 21-12-0 (peg 25)4. Steve Beckwith 21-6-0 (peg 43)5. David Atha 21-0-0 (peg 2)6. Jamie Houlder (peg 51)The third RiverFest 2014 qualifier takes place on Saturday 5th July on the River Severn at Lower Lode.