Running water maestro Andrew ‘Spud’ Murphy has been crowned champion of the annual two-day River Wye festival after he amassed a colossal 281lb of mainly chub. In fact on the second day, the top 5 in the match weighed almost 800lb between them, experiencing some of the most incredible days fishing possible.
Staged on the prolific Hereford town centre stretches of the venue, it saw 53 hopefuls battle it out to take the silverware.
But the venue expert showed his rivals a clean pair of heals, and while he was joined by three other anglers on a perfect score at the end of the event, his total weight was over 100lb better than the nearest chaser.
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Running line tactics did the business on both days and Angling Times caught up with Spud to find out how he achieved such a memorable victory.
“I drew peg 55 on day one and if the chub fed, I knew there was a good chance of putting a respectable weight together."
“They are fish that can munch their way through a lot of bait, and I fed eight large balls of groundbait laced with casters, hemp and meat at 25m. My mix was Bait-Tech River Extra and soil."
“The plan was to run a bolo float over the top of it and for the first half an hour, I didn’t have a bite. This didn’t concern me though, as I know what the Wye is like, and it can take a little bit of time for them to find the food and switch on."
“Once I saw anglers to the side of me starting to catch a few, I felt like the arrival was imminent and that is exactly how it panned out."
“From that point on I caught a 1-2lb chub and the occasional dace most runs through for just shy of three hours, feeding another ball of groundbait after every other fish."
“The fish backed away a little in the final stages, but I still ticked over and once the whistle had gone, I felt I had a chance of winning the section."
“That’s what happened, with my 90lb 4oz made up of 75 fish, beating second place by just over 15lb."
“It was a great start, but the fish had been very tightly shoaled, with blanks in areas. I needed to draw well on day two to stay in the hunt for the title.”
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The second day saw Spud draw one of the favoured areas of the stretch and hopeful of a good day, he setup all float rods to fish a positive match to capitalise on his peg.
“I was desperate to avoid a draw close to the tennis courts as the area had been awful the day before, and I got a lot more than I bargained for when I pulled 95 out of the bag – the peg that had won the match the day before with 153lb!"
“I’d drawn a real hotspot, and it was all down to me now to put in a good performance."
“The plan was the same as the day before, with eight balls going in at the start again. In my mind I hoped for at least 100lb, with 150lb possible if everything went to plan."
“I didn’t get a bite on the first three runs through the swim, but after that the chub arrived and were ravenous.
“There were times when I couldn’t get my rig in the water quick enough, and when they did show signs of drifting off, loosefeeding heavily with hemp and casters soon got them interested again.
“I ended the match with 95 chub and thought I’d reached the upper end of my target, but when the scales revealed I’d weighed 191lb, I was amazed!
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“That meant they averaged 2lb apiece which is big for the stretch. That got me the section win, won me the match outright and was enough to get my hands on the title and £1,000 top prize!"
“There’s no doubt that you need to draw favourably to compete in this event, but it’s great to see a plan come together when you get fancied pegs."
“Positive feeding is so important on the river when you are on fish and over the two days, I’d estimate I fed 10 bags of groundbait plus the soil, and six pints each of hemp, casters and maggots."
“That may sound a lot, but if you don’t give the chub what they want, they’ll soon disappear when other anglers are piling it in.”
RESULT: 1 A Murphy, Bait-Tech, 2pts (281-4-0); 2 C Stephens, 2pts (178-2-0); 3 B Giles, 2pts (133-7-0); 4 J Holloway, 2pts (97-2-0); 5 A Cranston, Preston Innovations, 3pts (163-4-0); 6 J Robbins, Cadence, 3pts (63-14-0).
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