My Riverfest Qualification at Bridgnorth

Recently, I qualified for my 8th Riverfest final. In this blog, I’m going to have a look at the tactics, preparation, and tackle that helped me qualify.

Preparation

I started preparation earlier in the week for the Saturday match. My contacts are handy as I travel to a few different venues, and some anglers fish the River Severn more than I do. Geoff Brierley is one such angler whose knowledge is second to none on these middle reaches of the River Severn. Early in the week, Geoff mentioned the chub are feeding better than the barbel, even on the noted barbel pegs.

My tackle was prepared, including three strong float rods and three different feeder rods. I coupled the rods with balanced reels and lines. Strong poles and flat floats were also ready. Come Friday, we see the river’s water levels have risen after a bit of midweek rain. Speaking to Geoff again, I was told the river had coloured up, which isn’t great for chub fishing. He told me that 20 lbs would be a good weight, bringing more pegs into the mix.

The Draw

I drew a fancied peg, number 29. This peg is above Linley Island.

Linley Island halfway down my peg. This is taken on a low river on another day. Image courtesy of Bridgnorth Society Angling Page on Facebook.

As you look down the peg, it narrows up into a ford before going very narrow and tearing around the island. Across and slightly downstream from me, the river goes under some Mr Crabtree-style trees. They are very fishy-looking; my information says this is where you catch.

Set Up

This was a challenge. I could sit on a platform three feet above the water, but with a narrow gap in a reed bed to bring the fish through. I decided to get in the water and set up my platform. I set up two feeder rods, which can also be changed for straight lead set-ups. Added to this was an 8g flat float to fish at 11 meters with worms, but I really didn’t fancy it. I also set up two landing nets, one with a big specimen net. The smaller landing net has a fine mesh, great for smaller fish and washing the dirt off worms.

The Match

Hours 1 & 2

Starting three-quarters the way across on a meat feeder, I had a small chub first cast, then no more bites. I felt they were backing off from the feeder. I started to catapult pieces of meat across onto this line. I changed to fishing over to the tree line with a caster and hemp feeder. This resulted in the problem of small fish smashing my bait every cast. Back onto the three-quarters over line but now with a straight lead and meat, and bingo, a run of 5 chub. I reckon after two hours, I have 9lbs in the net.

Have a look at the picture of my peg. Spud Murphy took the photos; see the red crosses and arrow. This shows where I fed the meat and cast downstream on the lead. Also, the across feeder line over to the trees.

Hours 3 & 4

Now, I have run out of bites, so it’s time to change. The caster and hemp feeder has been changed to a meat feeder, but it is set up only to trickle bait in. I do this with an inverted blackcap feeder full of hemp and some meat. This is now chucked over to the tree line. I caught two barbel on this feeder and another three chub on the straight lead on the shorter line. I am very confident now as I have two ways to get a bite. Teammate Spud Murphy arrives at my peg after 4 hours. I tell him I have 23 lbs. He had me down as second in the zone at that point, which was spot on.

Last Hour

One more chub on the fading straight lead before concentrating right over for the last 45 minutes. This caught me another two barbel.

Result

Happy days! My ten chub, four barbel and two dace weighed 34 lbs, 12 ounces. This won the zone and the match. 24 lbs was second in the zone and match, the last two barbel I caught, made all the difference.

Conclusion

By feeling my way into the match and changing things, I caught right to the end. If I had gone gun-ho at it, I think I would have caught less. Chatting with Geoff helped me be a bit more conservative than I may have been.

Tackle I Used

This is the tackle I used and an explanation of why. Everything is balanced.

Rod and Reels

CR10 14ft No 3 Feeder Rod coupled with a CS10 5000 Reel (3/4 straight lead line). Reel loaded with Edge Tackle 0.26 Specimen Mono.

CR10 13ft 8in No 4 Feeder Rod coupled with a CS10 5000 Reel (right over feeder line). Reel Loaded with Edge Tackle 0.28 Specimen Mono.

Terminal Tackle

Straight Lead Rig – The reel line was Edge Tackle 0.26 Specimen Mono tied to 0.25 Edge Tackle Fluorocarbon Pure Hook Length. The Hook was a size 14 Preston KKH-eyed hook with a bait band.

Far Bank Feeder Rig – The reel Line was 0.28 Edge Specimen Mono tied to 0.28 Pro Gold hook length. The hook was a size 12 Super Specialist Barbel hook with a bait band.

Fluorocarbon

I have only just started using fluorocarbon this season. It’s stiffer and lies on the riverbed flatter than traditional mono, so I needed to try it in practice before committing to it, which I have done. I felt it needed to be done or risk falling behind in the match fishing scene. I like it, and I am starting to understand it. Edge Tackle also has a range of Specimen Fluorocarbon sizes are 0.35 – 0.42, or 10 lbs to 18 lbs.

Hooking the Meat

I prefer to hair rig my meat using a bait band and a baiting needle to put the band through the meat. I often use bits of dry spaghetti in the bait band before pulling it tight. This can help to keep the meat on the hook.

Feeders

Edge Tackle Cage Feeder medium size in 30g and a 40g inverted blackcap feeder. The feeders are free-running on the line. The feeder set-up uses Edge Link Swivels and Line Stops from Edge Tackle.

Bait

It was a low-feeding, big-bait day in the coloured water. I used one small tin of Bait Tech hempseed, a few casters, and a tin of meat. I processed the meat into 11 mm punched and 10 mm cubed samples. I also needed a small amount of fishmeal ground bait to plug the inverted feeder. I did have one look on a flat float with lobworms but sacked it off quickly.

The Final

It’s great to be back at the final in September, which is held at Burton Joyce on the River Trent. Wish Me luck!