RiverFest Final Full report
Ian ‘Speedy’ Ward lifts the trophy
Not since the comeback of Elvis has an event been more eagerlyanticipated than this year’s Angling trust RiverFest Final!
following week after week of cancellations caused by floods sweeping through the severn at shrewsbury, finalists eventually lined up to do battle for the title.
even then, it took just 14-10-0 over the two days to win this year’s final, the £14,000 top prize going to severn regular ian ‘speedy’ ward. after struggling like many on day one, he found some fish on the sunday to win outright from matt maginnis, whose 11-7-0 saw him pocket £7,000. ian courtney was third with 10-1-0 worth £5,000.
after those floods, few were sure how the river was going to fish and another blast of rain in the run-up to the final added a reddish-brown sediment to the water that put the fish off. it saw none of the 72-strong field weigh in double figures on saturday.
however, being an event decided on weight, it did mean that anyone could be crowned champion with a decent weight on day 2. That’s exactly how it turned out for ian as he bagged 14-6-0 to be crowned a popular champion. “winning on the severn means a lot to me as i’ve had so many good times on this river and it will always have a special place in my heart,” he said.
“The money is great, but it’s about the title and the legacy. what i found especially lovely was the warmth that my fellow anglers showed to me. There’s a special camaraderie that match angling seems to have. if i never achieve anything else in fishing, this will be enough!”
“it was a crying shame that we didn’t have the river in the best of form. we knew that saturday would be hard and left us all hoping for improved conditions on sunday,” he continued. “The reddish colour comes from peat in the welsh mountains and the water from there feeds into the severn. The rain we had in the days before the final ran loads into shrewsbury and wrecked it. There were loads of fish topping, but they weren’t feeding.”
here ian talks us through the two very different days of action that saw him crowned riverfest champion for 2019…
This is below the toll bridge and after speaking to local lads, i felt i had a good chance of a few fish although that colour was a big concern. it’s also a shallow swim compared to those around it and my plan was to fish running line, but the state of the river didn’t lend itself to that, so i settled on a long whip and feeder attack.
Three whips were set up at 6m with rigs to let me run through, hold back and nail the bait totally still using a 12g flat float and 6g dh Bolo and 19 floats with 0.16mm mainlines, 0.12mm hooklinks and size 18 B560 hooks. Given the pace of the river, i ruled out loosefeeding and fed just groundbait with a little hemp and caster added.
The mix was 50/50 aBc Baits pro roach and river with 0.5kg of crushed hemp added and four balls went in on the whip line. i also had a perch rig with an 8g flat float fished tight to the near shelf to use lobworms or dendras, baitdroppering in chopped worm, molehill and worm soil as the perch in this area are big if you get one. Tip lines were also put in with a medium cage fished a third of the way out and a bomb just short of the middle for fishing pellet and worm to try for a barbel or chub.
The plan looked good, but the reality was very different! i kicked off on the cage feeder with maggot and after 10 minutes had a drop back bite from a small dace. The next cast produced another dace and then i missed a bite so i reckoned that if i could catch on the feeder, then i’d catch on the whip.
sadly, i never had a sniff on any of the whip lines or the perch swim so went back on the cage feeder with 15 minutes to go. i had a few more small dace to weigh in a mighty 4oz! That evening i reflected on the match and felt i could have stayed on the cage feeder a bit more but it was a weight event, so i was still in with a chance.
DAY 2 – PEG 44 PRIORY WALL
I looked at the weigh sheets from the day before and fancied the Priory Wall – especially as the river was clearing. I know that the fish like to clean off over a gravel bottom and pegs 43 to 46 have that, even though they are quite shallow at 6ft.
A lot of micro dace were caught here but I always feel that where small dace are in numbers the bigger adult fish are as well. The clarity was much better. I could see 18ins down and was instantly a lot more confident.
The plan was simple – catch dace! I knew the peg well and set up 6m and 7.5m whips and a stick float plus a perch rig fished down the peg to an overhanging tree. With less pace on the river, the floats were much lighter, namely DH Bolo and DH19 floats in 1.5g using 0.10mm hooklinks and size 18 B560 hooks.
Feeding was very different because a lot of anglers go wrong when faced with tiny dace in that they stay on one line hoping better fish will turn up. Once you feed groundbait, the tiddlers home in on it and the better fish never get a look in, so I decided to introduce groundbait only on the 6m whip line to keep the small fish occupied and then fish at 7.5m with loosefeed.
Four balls of the Pro Roach, River and crushed hemp mix packed with dead pinkies went in at 6m. I then fired maggots, hemp and caster onto the 7.5m whip line and began having a look for a perch but three dropsins resulted in three lost hooks, so I scrapped that.
On the 6m line I caught 12 tiny dace as expected, so I moved out 7.5m with the 1.5g Bolo float and had a 4oz dace first chuck. Two run throughs later another one turned up and by alternating between running through or holding the maggot hookbait back slightly, I was finding good dace and the odd roach but halfway through it went quiet.
I took a chance and increased the amount of maggot and hemp fed to a pouch every five runs through and it worked. I also had two bonus fish in a 1lb perch and a similar-sized chub. At this point people walking past were telling me I’d win it although I also heard about Matt Maginnis catching a barbel so I felt it was going to be close.
With 45 minutes remaining, the peg died so I put three balls of groundbait in on the 7.5m line laced with hemp and caster to try and get the fish settled in one spot and I reckon I had 3lb of dace.
At the whistle I had 80 dace, seven roach, a chub, a perch and a skimmer, only the second skimmer I’ve ever caught at Shrewsbury in 20 years of fishing the river! That lot weighed 14-6-0 and it was then all about waiting to see how things fell into place.