Rory Jones recently had a brilliant result winning the three day Preston river Yare Festival. Here is how he got on. 

I fished the three day Preston river Yare festival this week with Tom Scholey and Rob Perkins, fine gentlemen and great company. 

Peg 61 was a dream start, a nice steady days tip fishing down the middle of the river saw 33lb of skimmers hit the pan. Enough to win the section and the match. 

Day two and I was heading to peg 129. A mixture of feeder fish in the first hour and plenty of pole roach resulted in 16lb. Enough to secure the section and 3rd in the match. As the river dropped the fish drifted further out making the fishing more difficult. The roach seem to like both flow and depth.

The final day was spent on peg 141, a very deep pacy peg in what had been a fair, but difficult section. The first two hours were spent on the feeder chucking down the middle for a handful of small skimmers. Onto the pole edging a big rig through with caster resulted in some quality roach and a total weight of 12lb, that was just enough to sneak the section. 

Three good pegs, 3 points and a total of 61lb was enough to win the festival!

The feeder gear compromised 12ft Sphere M Feeder rods, Black Viper reels loaded with 0.8mm braid and size 12 Sphere Match hooks tied to 0.17mm fluorocarbon and a mix of Sonu baits F1 Dark and Thatchers. 

Pole gear involved No 6 solid, 2g – 6g floats, 0.16mm Cenex Hybrid Power line, to 0.9mm hooklengths to either an 18 or 16 Sphere Match hook. 

Thank you to Andy Wilson-Sutter for running a cracking match, looking forward to next year.

The tidal Yare is such a fascinating river, and stuffed with fish.