Keith Arthur’s
views on the news
IT’S very hard to believe that there are still a number of anglers, very vocal on social media, who insist that river fishing has had it.
They must flinch at every appearance of yet another fantastic river fish, or bag of fish.
The Thames RiverFest result is yet another example, where nearly 550lb of bream was weighed in by four anglers.
The other sections weren’t too shabby, either, with 25lb and 18lb of roach required to qualify.
The two-day Broads Festival produced phenomenal weights of roach and skimmers, winner Steve Harwood scoring a perfect two points with a weight of 58-11-0 that would have placed him third on a weight format.
Not long ago I read that some sections of the River Severn are devoid of barbel, yet a mate of mine had 11 to 6lb on a single short daytime session from one of the exact sections named.
He’s a match-style angler, and fished a feeder with maggot, caster and a few pellets. A lesson here, perhaps?
The wonderful Alan Stephens, from Alcester, had 45lb of Bewdley chub and barbel on the waggler, followed by two cracking bags of roach on a match remembering the late, great Clive Smith. The anglers were delighted that Clive’s great buddy Ken Giles presented the trophy, by the way.
Perhaps, when river stocks didn’t appear to be as fabulous as they are now, it was easier to winkle out known fish from known swims, and so that kind of expectation became the norm.
Thank goodness we’re now back to ‘proper’ fishing.