MATCH OF THE WEEK Bream go on the feed in Nene RiverFest qualifier as 130lb haul wins
Summer 130lb surprises even match winner Luke Downing
SOMETIMES summer rivers can fish their heads off, and that’s just what happened in the Angling Trust RiverFest qualifier on the Nene at Peterborough.
The top three shared over 260lb of bream between them, topped by a magnificent 130-2-0 winner for Farndon, Notts rod Luke Downing.
Dan Abbott was second on 76-14-0 and Andy Johnstone third with 61-0-0 – the three men were on adjacent pegs of the Orton Downstream section.
Luke caught all but three of his fish on the feeder, while Dan and Andy used the pole. Luke won the zone to book his place in the final, the remaining zones going to Colin Oakman (fourth overall) and local legend Rob Johnson. Luke said: “I’d only fished this bit of the river once as a lad and it was hard then, so I think we were all expecting the same on this match! The peg looked lovely but the water was tapwater clear, with lots of weed. A few little fish were topping, which made me think it might be a day for winkling out some roach, but to begin with I was going to fish the feeder and give it a bit of time just in case a bream or two was about. Just couple of them would be worth their weight in gold.
“I’d found a clear patch in the weed close to a far-bank overhanging tree and based my cage feeder approach here, putting in four lots of groundbait with worm, caster and dead maggots, but the first hour on
the feeder produced not a touch, while Dan and Andy either side of me had caught bream on the pole. I’d fed my pole line at the start, and was just about ready to try it when I got a half-hearted bite on a piece of worm. I picked up and a bream was on! With it safely in the net, I felt a lot happier that I might now have the chance to catch up the lads around me.
“The next hour was steady and I caught enough bream to get on level pegging. It looked like being a three-way race for the zone and a place in the final, although I was hoping the bream would stay and I’d keep catching.
“They did stay, and in hour three I caught one every cast while Andy and Dan slowed up, which meant I got ahead of them. I then hooked a big fish, maybe a carp, that broke me, and the peg went dead.
“Changing to the long pole where I’d balled in groundbait at the start at 11m I fished in a gap in the weed with a 2g flat float and caught three more bream on dead maggots in half-an-hour. By that point I was over the 100lb mark and feeling confident. I’d also been able to rest the feeder line and, going back on it, I carried on picking off a few fish while everyone else had stopped catching.”
“With 34 bream in the net, I easily had 100lb-plus. My only concern was that although I had more fish than Dan and Andy, if their bream were bigger they might still pip me. It turns out they were roughly all the same size, around 4lb, and after weighing in 130lb I felt that if anyone did manage to beat that, it’d be a remarkable feat!
“I never saw a sign of a bream – not a rolling fish, not a bubble, nothing. To get through is brilliant, as I only got two tickets, and with the final being on my doorstep on the Trent at Burton Joyce I’m properly looking forward to it!”