JOHN LOCK SETS A NEW HIGH IN RIVERFEST 2021 FINAL! 

With the River Trent running low and very clear, most of the competitors thought that this year’s RiverFest final on the River Trent at Burton Joyce could be a difficult two days. How wrong they were!

After two days of hard-fought match fishing action, it needed more than 34lb to win the fifteenth prize in a final, which also saw a new record one day and overall weight!

The Day One winner was John Lock who drew peg 31, a short distance down from the outfall and a peg that no one really fancied before the draw.

Upon arrival at the peg, John resisted setting up immediately and instead, took time to look carefully at the swim in front of him. Scanning across the river, he could see odd bream breaking the surface, well across the river. Conditions were flat and calm, and John could also see a lot of bubbles coming up. There were clearly a lot of fish over there, but would they feed in such still, bright conditions?

John set up a variety of gear but then only needed a feeder rod as he went on to plunder 94-7-0 of bream, a new record final weight which put him 27lb ahead of second placed Colin Beech and a massive 67lb clear of third!

Colin was at peg 57 in the Nelson Field, where he also employed big fish feeder and straight lead tactics to weigh 67-3-0 of barbel and chub.

Best weight of the silver fish anglers went to Rob Casterton who landed 27-1-0 of roach and dace from peg 74, towards the bottom end of the Rack section.

Before the draw on Day Two, the big question was would the bream and barbel feed again on the pegs which had won 24 hours earlier? Or would it be a silver fish dominated match?

Hadrian Whittle drew peg 31 this time and Paul Passmore pulled out peg 57 and it wasn’t long before both of them were in action, landing bream and barbel.

Paul came out on top this time with 46-1-0 of barbel while Hadrian’s eight bream catch went 37-1-0. This elevated both of them into the main list places. Third place on the second day went to Paul Moutrey with 31-8-0 from peg 18.

John Lock had added 11-7-0 of small fish to win the trophy and a cheque for £14,000. Colin Beech added 15-3-0 to take his score to 82-6-0 and Paul Passmore’s first day catch of 13-5-0 added to his Day Two catch put him into third with 59-6-0.

Special thanks go to the Ashfield Angling Club and members for the use of their water and for help on the day.

Dates and venues for RiverFest 2022 will be published in January and tickets will go on sale in March.

RESULTS

DAY ONE

1^st John Lock 94-7-0 peg 31

2^nd Colin Beech 67-3-0 peg 57

3^rd Rob Casterton 27-1-0 peg 74

4^th Cameron Hughes 26-14-0 peg 23

5^th Mark Godfrey 26-6-0 peg 15

DAY TWO

1^st Paul Passmore 46-1-0 peg 57

2^nd Hadrian Whittle 37-1-0 peg 31

3^rd Paul Moutrey 31-8-0 peg 18

4^th Howard Kaye 25-13-0 peg 15

5^th Cameron Hughes 24-9-0 peg 80

OVERALL

1^st John Lock 105-14-0

2^nd Colin Beech 82-6-0

3^rd Paul Passmore 59-6-0

4^th Cameron Hughes 51-7-0

5^th Hadrian Whittle 47-6-0

6^th Matt Derry 43-13-0

7^th Paul Moutrey 43-8-0

8^th Rob Casterton 38-1-0

9^th Rich Alexander 37-11-0

10^th Steve Hemingray 36-4-0

11^th Alan Scotthorne 36-2-0

12^th Howard Kaye 35-8-0

13^th Mark Godfrey 35-5-0

14^th Will McCranor 35-3-0

15^th Steve Harwood 34-9-0

All photos courtesy of Lloyd Rogers. https://all-roundangler.com/riverfest-2021/