Qualifiers: Peter Morris, Paul Bick, Mal Hallows

The River Soar hosted the seventh round of RiverFest qualifiers and although some decent weights were posted, it didn’t fish as well as the weeks leading up to the qualifier. This was down to clear cold water going into the system the day before.

A zone was split between Cossington and a new section at Sileby Mill and the former produced not only the winner, but also won the match.

Peter Morris drew the first peg below the Marina and attacked the 6ft deep swim with a seven-metre whip. Feeding small balls of groundbait with maggot on the hook, he amassed 200 fish for an excellent 26-0-0. Second overall from the top peg with an all roach catch of 20-15-0 was Barry Oliver.

Third on the day was Will Raison with another roach bag for 16-9-0. There were also a further eight double figure weights showing just how tight this section was.

B zone was split between Waterside, 1860, Greens and the Cobbles. The winner of this section was reigning RiverFest champion Paul Bick with an all skimmer catch of 14-4-0 on long pole over groundbait and worm head from the top end of the Greens.Second in the zone was former RiverFest champion Steve Sadler with a roach and perch catch of 12-11-0 from Waterside.

C zone was pegged on the Deeps and it was here that the Soar showed its moodier side after weeks of good weights from the area. This time, match organiser Tony Beech was winning the zone from peg two until Mal Hallows on peg one caught a 10oz skimmer on the last cast to weigh 9-14-0 and pip Tony by 4oz! Both caught on the feeder.

Special thanks go to Tony Beech for all his hard work in the build up and on the day.

River Soar RiverFest Qualifier 2017
1. Peter Morris 26-0-0
2. Barry Oliver 20-15-0
3. Will Raison 16-9-0
4. Paul Bick 14-4-0
5. Brian Rigby 13-5-0
6. Steve Sadler 12-11-0