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Golden Reel Grand Final Saturday 10th September 2022. 

Another Golden Reel campaign of 25 qualifiers & the Semi Final reached it’s conclusion with 27 Grand Finalists fishing for the title of Golden Reel Champion 2022

The conditions for the final were not ideal as it was a muggy breathless day with highs of around 22C.
The wind directions was also difficult and a high pressure moved in.

Needless to say, there was hundreds of fish swimming shallow and the edges were alive with fish until the 12 noon hooter sounded for the start of the match.

Some early fish were caught in the first 30 minutes and it was at that stage looking positive.
Then the venue switched off with only odd fish being caught.

Section A, pegs 1-7 on the grass bank was proving to be very difficult section with some of the finalists in this section reverting to fishing for silvers.

Section B, pegs 8-13 was also very moody, but some early carp were being caught.

Section C, pegs 14-20 was out fishing the other sections with Matt Dawes, Luke Bamford, Pete Upperton and Neil Colcombe all catching a few fish.

Section D, pegs 21-27 was equally difficult with Sam Brown and Lee Riley making the running.

After 2 ½ hrs, it was quite evident that weights were well below par and the damage could only be repaired by way of edge fish making a showing.

True to form, the last two hours, 3-5pm, edge fish showed up, but they were very difficult to catch.

We had at this point got Luke Bamford on peg 17 as the clear front runner.
Luke was catching on a method feeder cast tight to the island.

Pete Upperton had started his edge run of fish, pole fishing down his margins with meat.

Neil Colcombe was on peg 19 and pushing Pete Upperton hard, also catching down his margins.

The last two hours also started to put Artur Hilmi in a strong position on peg 11.
Artur was catching good carp short and down his edges.

The only other finalist pushing hard was Lee Riley on peg 27 on the Burr bank.
Lee was catching well down his edges.

With 30 minutes remaining, our money was still on Luke Bamford, and we estimated he had a weight of around 120lbs. Artur Hilmi was still catching well from peg 11 and our estimate at this point was 90 -100lbs.

Peter Upperton was still finding some lumps down his edges and we put him at around 80lbs.

Lee Riley on peg 27 was still catching good carp down his edges, but we still thought Luke Bamford was leading the way.

With 10 minutes to go, the three front runners were clear, Luke Bamford, Artur Hilmi and Lee Riley.

At the whistle the scales would decide who the 2022 champion was going to be.

Artur Hilmi weighed in at 115-14-0, Luke Bamford 132-11-0. We thought that was enough to lift the trophy.

Then came peg 27, Lee Riley, who weighed in a level 140-0-0 to lift the crown and a £35,000 cheque.

So the final itself didn’t have a run away winner with only 8lbs separating first and second.

A huge congratulations is extended to the new champion Lee Riley.
Lee suffered a horrific industrial accident falling 30’ whilst renovating a building and to this day is reliant on walking sticks.
What an achievement, Lee is currently moving house and need to change facilities to help him move around his new property due to his condition.

We sincerely hope that his massive Golden Reel cheque helps him to achieve the comforts and life style he needs and deserves.

Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in another final because his angling ability is remarkable.

Also like to congratulate second placed Luke Bamford who led the competition all the way.
Also Artur Hilmi for his superb performance and a lesson on edge fishing.

Last but not least, congratulations to all the finalists. To reach the final itself is a remarkable achievement.

Phil Briscoe
Event Organiser

Pictured – Phil Briscoe presenting the Golden Reel Trophy to Lee Riley.
(the hat was donated by Severn Sports & Leisure, Larford Lakes.)

Lee is known to us now as the Viking!

Top 6 Overall

Section Winners – 

Winning Blocker – Mark Skidmore 114-13-0 £100

All qualifiers – 

Sections were 1-7, 8-13, 14-20, 21-27 Sections winners are in Bold

Final Result

Winner Jamie Hughes

Jamie Hughes

Winner Jamie Hughes

Winner Jamie Hughes with his bank runner.

Golden Reel Grand Final
Saturday 14^th September 2019
Larford Match Lake.

Saturday, September 14^th presented the third Grand Final at the incredible Larford Lakes complex in Stourport on Severn.
24 qualifiers held at many of the UK’s finest fisheries gave the opportunity to pocket £50,000 and the prestigious title of Golden Reel Champion 2019.
All 24 qualifying events fished extremely well with many of the finalists needing more than 200lbs to qualify for the September final.
The draw for the winning peg took place on Friday 13^th September at the very polished Gala night held at the five star Stourport Manor Hotel, where the competitors enjoyed a 3 course meal, entertainment and luxury bedroom accommodation at no cost to the finalists and their partners.
9pm the draw for the pegs was completed, but no one really knew which peg was the likely winner as permanent pegs 28, 30, 36, 38, 44, 46, 48, 14, 16, 18 & 62 were all potential winning pegs.

The weather on the day was superb for the public viewing with highs of around 22C, a gentle breeze and bright warm sunshine.
Conditions like this however, did not favour the anglers on the day.
Furthermore, Friday evening there was a massive ‘Harvest’ moon, which is something we only see every 18-20 years.
Big moons – hard fishing!!

Defending his Golden Reel Championship 2018 title was Andy Power who drew Golden Reel peg No 8 (permanent peg 22) which was not a fancied peg on the day.
Mick Bull, returning for the second year running drew peg 4 (permanent peg 14), a strong bomb & pellet peg, Andy Bennett also a 2018 finalist drew peg 9 (permanent peg 24) which had been producing big weights in previous matches.

Other returning 2018 finalists were Dan Hull, drawing peg 15 (permanent peg 44) which was the end peg on the Match Lake Burr bank and potentially a match winning peg, Mikey Williams peg 21 (permanent peg 56) and Jamie Hughes, peg 24 (permanent peg 62).

The start of the final produced early fish for many of the competitors but as the match progressed, the fish were clearly backing off with many of the resident carp swimming shallow and spooking easily.

The front runners after the first hour were Peter Upperton from peg 24 (permanent peg 62), Jordan Holloway, Andy May, Andy Bennett and Andy Power.

Most of the competitors started short with pellet, some on bomb and pellet and some down their edges.
It became evidently clear, that Peter Upperton was stealing a march, catching quality carp on meat down his edges and at the halfway point of the match, we were scoring Peter at around 65-70lbs.

Andy Bennett was catching carp long with pellet, as was Andy Power but no one other that Peter Upperton was bagging up.
As the match progressed, Andy May started to find some big carp short to pellet from peg 19 (permanent peg 52) and next peg to him was Jordan Holloway also finding big carp short and down his edges.

Peter Upperton at this point was well clear of the field and well in front of his neighbour, Jamie Hughes on peg 23 (permanent peg 60).
That being said, with around two hours to go, Jamie started to put together a string of quality carp from his edges.
Landing carp to 10lbs on corn, both Jamie and Peter Upperton were going fish for fish producing an epic last hours fishing.

With thirty minutes remaining, the scorecard was very tight with Peter Upperton in front, Jamie Hughes in second place and Andy May clear third.

Little more than 10lbs seprated first and second with both anglers losing some big fish and top kits being trashed.
The last 10 minutes, Peter had played a big fish but lost it right at the net, which proved to be very costly as Jamie Hughes had landed two big fish during the same 10 minute period.

So on the final whistle, no one knew the result as it was so tight between 1^st and 2^nd.

At the scales, peg 20 recorded Jordan Holloway with a weight of 86-4-0 securing 4^th place.

Third place was taken by Andy May with a weight of 112-6-0 from peg 19.

Second placed Peter Upperton was gutted to say the least. The lost fish in the last ten minutes of the final had certainly lost him the Golden Reel Championship 2019 title, weighing in 146-11-0.

A new champion in Jamie Hughes with a weight of 151-8-0 from peg 23.
Jamie’s late run of fish rewarded him the title of Golden Reel Champion 2019 and a massive first prize cheque of £50,000.

Afterwards, Jamie Hughes commented, “this is a brilliant match and Phil Briscoe has helped me to cement my position in the match angling all time greats.”
“What he does for angling and the high profile of angling events he organises is remarkable and we should all get behind him at every opportunity.”
“I’ll be back next year to hopefully defend this prestigious title.”

The long hard road of nationwide qualifiers finally concluded with the September 15^th final at the popular Larford Lakes complex.

The Draw

24 finalists attended the polished Gala Evening at a five star hotel in Stourport enjoying a 3 course meal, live entertainment and of course the all-important peg draw on the Friday before the final.

In terms of fancied pegs, Larford’s Match Lake was on fire in relation to the form guide.
Clearly, the lake had its fancied pegs but the form book was saying it could be won from literally any peg.

So the draw was concluded as below-

Dale Shepherd drew with fancied peg 4 (permanent peg12) as did Jake King, peg 5 (permanent peg 14) and Andy Power peg 6 (permanent peg 16).
Mikey Williams, Ross Harold and Dave Roberts all drew well fishing the pegs in the channel facing the island and end peg 28 drawn by Dave Roberts.

On the opposite burr bank, Richard Bond, Les Marshall, Pemb Wrighting, Jack Danby, Danny Bache and Adam Major had drawn inform pegs.

So the stage was set for a showdown like never before.

On paper, it was seen as one of, if not the strongest field of commercial match anglers ever to fish a major European final.

With £50,000 up for grabs to the eventual winner, £5,000 to second and £3,000 to third, plus £4,000 in section prizes, a massive £62,000 was the overall prize fund.

Match Day

Fishing commenced at 12pm concluding at 5pm.

Conditions on the day were near perfect.
The match started with a stiffish S/W breeze, overcast with highs of around 22C

Early fish were caught in particular on the burr bank with Les Marshall taking an early lead from peg 14. As the match progressed, the shallow bank, pegs 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 all started to catch well on both pole and bomb & pellet.

The peg that was most fancied was 28 but Dave Roberts found it difficult to get the fish feeding even though his peg was black with carp.

Dale shepherd, Jake King, Andy Power & Dan Hull were all clearly pulling away from the field but on the opposite bank, Richard Bond, Les Marshall, Pemb Wrighting and Jack Danby were finding quality carp on the short pole with hard pellet and paste tactics.

At the half way point, it was close between Andy Power, Les Marshall and Pemb Wrighting.

As the match progressed, the class of Andy Power became evident.

A string of quality carp to bomb and pellet clearly put him in the lead but was being chased hard by Pemb Wrighing, Les Marshall and Jack Danby on the burr bank.

To Andy Power’s right was Dan Hull and Mickey Williams catching well and Ross Harold was also pulling back lost ground.

With an hour to go, it really was a gloves off competition with at least 10 of the finalists in  with a chance of lifting the trophy.

That all-important last hour produced some brilliant edge fishing.
Andy Power was taking advantage of the carp feeding in numbers down his edge and at one point, probably had too many in his peg making them difficult to catch.

Dan Hull was catching well short and Mikey Willams was sacking down his edge and looking very dangerous.

Ross Harold was fish for fish with Mikey with nothing between them.

On the burr bank, Richard Bond was catching well down his edge as was Les Marshall, Pemb Wrighting and Jack Danby.

On the whistle, it was a hard one to call. We all thought Andy Power had done enough and true to form, the Power returned a superb performance weighing in with a very impressive 77-000Kg

But had the other anglers done enough to overturn the master of modern day commercials?
Well Jake King on peg 5 had fished a very tidy match sticking with the simple bomb and pellet approach.
Jake weighed in a very impressive 52,500Kgs to secure second place overall.

Third to the frame for big money was Jack Danby from peg 16.
Jack’s run of big edge fish boosted his weight to a superb 51-925Kgs.

Fourth overall was Andy Bennett from peg 20. Not such a fancied area and we let Andy B slip under the radar to a degree.
Although we new he’d caught steadily, we didn’t realise the quality of the fish he was landing and at the scales, he weighed in a very impressive 51-375Kgs.

So a brilliant weight of 77-000Kgs was recorded by Andy Power, 25Kgs in front of his nearest rival. That being said, look how close the chasing pack were.

So in all, 10 weights over 100lbs were registered from a field of 24 of the finest anglers in the country.

Well done Andy Power, richer by £50,000 and so well deserved.

Very well done to Jake King, 2^nd overall & collecting £5,000, Jack Danby, 3^rd overall & collecting £3,000.

Section winners were –

Dale Shepherd £1000
Mikey Williams £1000
Pemb Wrighting £1000
Andy Bennett £1000.

Next up is the Golden Rod Feeder Championships with £26,800 prize fund up for grabs with several qualifiers already sold out!!

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