2013 Thames Festival – Simon Willsmore

The 2013 Thames Festival was a new three day event and one I hadn’t originally planned to fish, but after spending a day watching the Drennan Knockout Cup match on Medley about three weeks previously, I knew I just had to fish it. Medley is always a great place to fish: At the weekend it can be quite busy with anglers, swimmers, boats and dog walkers but mid week it’s a different venue!

The first match was on Medley and to be honest the river didn’t flow enough so the fishing was a bit harder than normal. I was pleased to come second in my section with 9lb of perch and roach which came to a combination of feeder, pole and waggler tactics.

The following day’s match was at Abingdon, a venue I had never fished before but will in the future. I finished with 19lb of skimmers and roach all on the Acolyte at 13m, it was one of the most enjoyable day’s fishing I’ve had on the Thames and the quality of the fishing was outstanding, bit like the pole!

Last day was back onto Medley and with a first and a second in the bag I knew I had a great chance in the festival. But being the last day a lot of people were going to fish for bream and if they showed, the competition could be turned on its head. I plugged away for 13lb mostly roach on the pole and due to the bright conditions the bream didn’t show up, another section win and the festival was mine with 4 points.

Over 40lb of river fish in three days when the conditions were far from ideal really shows how good the Thames is and with a drop of water in it, the sport would have been even better. Next year’s event will be bigger for sure and if you like river fishing you should give it a go, Paul Glenfield is the man to contact and it looks like he has a job for life now!

Thanks to Dave Harrell for some great photos

For full details of the Drennan Acolyte, click here.