Tony Sets Early River Season Benchmark

Shakespeare Superteam ace Tony Bench got the new season off to a great starting the first Shakespeare Qualifier of the new season on the Warwickshire Avon, bagging a 21-8-0 net of chub to beat a 74 strong field on a day when good weights were hard to come by.
Drawn on peg 35, the famous confluence with the River Isbourne, Tony fished waggler half way across the river and caught chub to 3lb.
Bronze maggots were Tony’s hook bait of choice, and by regularly loose-feeding a combination of maggots and casters he was able to keep fish coming all day.
Over 15lb behind Tony was second placed Mark Brush of Daiwa Gordon League, who again caught chub on the waggler. In joint third place were Ed Warren, who topped up a net of small chublets with a 1lb+ eel and perch on the flat float, and Paul Bradbury with another waggler caught net of chublets.
However, it was pretty grim elsewhere with only five and a half pounds needed for third place. Mark Brush, Tony Bench and Dean Cherrington all qualified for the Shakespeare final.