Keith Arthur’s
views on the news
IWAS looking forward to TideFest. With the fully-tidal Thames producing some amazing sport I expected some huge bream weights… and hoped I’d have one of them. Sadly, neither materialised.
We had a big spring tide which caused the river to carry a lot of sediment and that, coupled with single-digit temperatures overnight, must have put the fish off. The moon was out during the day, too – never a good thing.
Incredibly, I drew one peg below where I drew two years ago, and sadly there was a big post a third of the way across with a whole tree wedged against it. If I fished close to the post it was a snag pit – as the tide receded, the upstream wind blew my line over it so I had to cast well downstream, not a good way to fish for bream.
I had two skimmers for 2lb 10oz and, ironically, Uxbridge Rovers’ Mick Smith won the match and £600 from the peg I had in 2015.
He had eight bream, including a lump of around 8lb. Ali Atwater was second a couple of pegs downstream – a really fancied area. Nigel Newport from Tackle Up, Fleet, was next to him at what turned out to be end peg in our section, mostly because the angler that drew the end peg slung the number back on the draw table and went home, saying it was a no-hoper. Right...
Thanks to the generous sponsors, Thames Water and the Tideway Tunnel, for the excellent payout and I’m happy to say that Get Hooked on Fishing will receive a nice cheque too as the event’s chosen charity.