Former European Championship team gold medallist Chris Jones had added another title to his list of achievements after winning the prestigious River Wye 3 Day Festival last week.
This annual three-day sell-out event features 72 of the best river anglers in the United Kingdom, hosted by Hereford AC, with the festival run on a section points system.
The match is split into (A, B & C) 24 peg zones, then further split into 12 peg sections for points.
One point is awarded for winning a zone, two points for second, and so on, with the lowest cumulative score over the three days deciding the winner. Day one is a random draw that then decides the rotation for days two and three.
Welshman Chris won his section on day one, with a 10lb+ barbel (biggest fish prize) and a few smaller fish, and then had a second on day two in a tough section – meaning he was was tied on three points with two other anglers after two days.
He was lucky enough to draw the "flyer" for day three, but duly did the job that was required to take the section and the match overall, winning the festival with just four points.
Chris, who is now on the newly formed Angling Cymru Coarse Anglers sub-committee, was of course also part of the team that memorable bagged European gold in Holland for Wales back in 2016.
He also qualified for this year’s Coarse DragonMania Welsh Championship final that was held at Fachwen Pool in Newtown back in September.
"Huge congratulations to Chris Jones, AC CA committee man, who won last week’s River Wye Festival with an outstanding four point score over the three days,” said Andy Thompson, who is Chairman of the Angling Cymru Coarse Anglers.
“Fishing against some of the UK’s best river anglers, Chris demonstrated his undoubted skill with excellent results each day.”
Below, Chris talks us though his three days on the way to victory at the River Wye 3 Day Festival…
Day 1
Day one of the festival I drew A section permanent peg 16. Not a brilliant draw, with good anglers on good pegs, I felt it would be tough to compete without big fish. Set up a lot of tackle to cover all options; bolo floats, stick floats, long pole, pole to hand rigs, flat floats and feeders.
Started fishing for barbel, but 35 minutes without a bite forced me to onto other lines. First half of the match was slow. Just one perch and a roach. Then midway through caught a small 2.5lb barbel on the feeder with maggots. Then nothing so back searching for bites. With 40 minutes to go, I'd got myself to 3 perch, 3 roach, 1 barbel and 10 or so small dace. Knew I would need a big fish to be in with a chance of getting good points. Spent the remaining time fishing for barbel. Having loose fed cubes of meat across the river for a couple of hours, I cast my rig to where I felt the bait would have been on the bottom. 25 minutes to go and the rod has slammed over. "BARBEL ON" a good tussle then followed with me finally landing a beautiful fish.
On the all out with scales have come along and 30lb was winning from peg 2 – none other than River Wye legend Hadrian Whittle. I knew my fish wouldn't be anywhere near this but 11lb was 2nd so far. My fish have weighed 18lb which has scored me 2 points so a fantastic start considering. The barbel was also a big one. 10.6oz and, with there being a big fish prize in this festival, it gave me a chance of that if nothing else.
Day one was won by fellow Welsh angler Lee Edwards with 70lb off fish from the rowing club bank (B section).
Day 2
Day two and my turn in B section. Drew peg 60. Again not one you’d have picked on paper but still a decent area. Set up lots of tackle again. But main target today was perch on flat floats. Then dace and chublets on pole to hand and bolo.
Started on the bolo over a bed of groundbait laced with hemp and casters.
First hour was good catching steady. Then had to swap and change. Would be about to get small runs of perch before having to rest lines. Ended up with 59lb for the all-important section win. This now put me joint 1st going into the final day with Lee Edwards and Joe Holloway.
Day 3
The final day and all to play for. Was praying for a good draw and when peg 96 came out, I could only but laugh as it’s by far the best peg, not only in the section, but probably the match. Still not a given to win, but a peg that comes with the label of "must win from 96" – but again this festival is fished by the best and, with Hadrian on peg 92, it wasn't a done deal.
I have set up to fish bolo and stick floats along with waggler two thirds of the river across. Fed ground bait at the start before switching to mainly just loose feed. Hemp and maggots. First hour was fantastic catching chublets before again having to swap and change rigs and feeding to keep bites coming. Come the weigh in Hadrian had put a fantastic 51lb on the scales which I had feared would push me close. Luckily I've weighed 64lb to win the zone and the match on the day. This has left me with 4 points over the 3 days meaning I've won the festival!
Absolutely made to have won this festival probably right up there with my own personal achievements.
Top 4 was made up of myself, Charlie Gooch 2nd, Rory Jones 3rd and Lee Edwards 4th.
Fantastically run festival by Dave Roberts and his team. Already looking forward to next year.
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