One barbel enough for 3k win

One BITE and one fish were enough to seal the Evesham Angling Festival title for Andy Richings, as the Gloucestershire man left it late to take the £3,000 top prize with a big Warks Avon barbel that took him from zero to hero!

The match was the second of three that make up the angling extravaganza on the river at Evesham and, after drawing his peg, Lobby’s Tackle man Andy decided on a big-fish approach that was all or nothing.

Pegged on 15, a swim that had blanked the day before, Andy was at least in a good area for catching a barbel and, with the river still coloured from rain, there was always a chance. With 15 minutes of the match remaining though, he was nowhere, but then one bite and a 10lb 4oz barbel later he was being installed as favourite to win! Added to a few perch, his weight of 10-6-4 beat Dan Abbott’s 8-0-0 from peg 2.

“I had Iain Jennings, the winner of the Wychavon the day before, next to me, and he reckoned my peg was a consistent one for barbel,” Andy said. “I had two choices – either fish for 3lb of tiddlers and come nowhere or try for a barbel, go for one bite and maybe win £3,000. It was no contest!”

Casting a cage feeder packed with halibut pellets and groundbait down the middle, he had little success with pellet on the hook. A change to a thumbnail-sized piece of meat did the trick and over went the rod tip with 15 minutes to go. Geared up with strong line and a big hook, the fish was soon landed.

“As soon as I netted the fish, the crowd behind me said ‘that fish is worth three grand – you’ll win with that’! It was only when the scales worked their way around the river that I knew the crowd was right!”