Sunday 18th February 2024.

This last week saw the Milo and Bait-tech sponsored Spring 2 day festival take place. The match was fished by 54 anglers who lined the banks on the match length below the pumphouse at Belmont and the Tennis Courts section. Due to heavy rain in Wales on Tuesday the river had risen overnight to just over 2.4m by the start of the match and peaked at ariound 2.5m by the end of the match on the first day. The match was split in to 9 sections of six anglers and 2 zones of 27 anglers. The anglers swapped zones on day 2. As the match was decided on points (1 point for section win) and then weight it was important to win the section to stand any chance of winning the festival. With the river up and coloured a range of species were likely  to be caught  including bleak, barbel and chub. The decision was between catching a good weight of bleak on the whip or targeting the bigger fish. on the feeder.

Individual winner on Day 1 was Steve Maher who drew peg 87 on the Asda bank and weighed in 42lb 2oz of bleak.  Runner up was Brian Rigby who targeted the bleak on peg 55 on the left bank, to weigh in 41lb 7oz. Third was Jason Bean who was pegged next door to Brian and weighed in 38lb  3oz. Full results from Day 1 below:

Day 2

The river had now dropped overnight to around 2.2m with the colour dropping out. Any one of the anglers who won their section on Day 1 was in with a chance, all that was needed was a good aggregate weight over the 2 days and of course another section win. Winner of Day 2 was Joe Holloway who weighed in 59lb 4oz from peg 86 on the Asda bank consisting of chub, bleak and the odd dace. Runner up  from peg 94 was Doug Foreshew who weighed in 46lb 4oz, with third place going to Brian Rigby with another bleak catch of 44lb 12oz from peg 64 just up from the rowing club.

Overall festival winner was Joe Holloway who won his section on Day 1 from peg 40 weighing in 33lb 9oz of barbel, chub and bleak. Combined with his Day 2 weight his aggregate weight was 92lb 13oz. Runner up was Brian Rigby whose combined weight amounted to 86lb 3oz. Third overall was Steve Maher with 79lb 6oz and fourth was Hadrian Whittle with 56lb 12oz. All four anglers managed 2 section wins, but weight was the deciding factor.

A big thank you to Dave Roberts and his team of helpers for a faultlessly run festival and to Milo and Bait -tech for sponsoring the event. Full results below

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