Open Match, Woodside Pool

Ten (10) anglers attended this first open match of the 2025 season. With all of the pegs being replaced during the early part of the year, the usual open match period during the month of March did not take place, hence the late start with them this year. Conditions on the day were ideal with plenty of cloud cover making things in general feel much cooler coupled with a moderate breeze, which created a nice ripple. Despite the ideal conditions, however, the weights were a little all over the place with the majority of the carp following the wind, which resulted in the fish being shoaled up pretty tight.

Winner on the day was Dan Hart. Making a long overdue return to the fishery following a busy open match schedule, Dan wasted no time at all and got straight back to his winning ways. Drawing peg 11, Dan opted to fish paste tight to marginal cover down his edge to find a good stamp of fish averaging around 6lbs with bigger individuals to around 13lbs. Come the end of the five hours, Dan offered a lake record wobbling 189-05-00 to the scales to finish well ahead of the chasing pack and, once again, put himself in contention for next year's MAOTY final.

Finishing in second place was the equally consistant Dave Bowyer, who drew peg 1. Fishing maggot and pellet down his edge, Dave eventually found some quality fish, but they simply came in too late for him to make any real headway on Dan. Dave ended the match with 62-02-00.

Lee McKnight finished in third place from peg 20. Lee caught the majority of his fish up in the water on pellet, but his carp were of a smaller stamp than usual giving him 46-10-00.

POSITION	ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD
1st	D. Hart	11	189-05-00	Paste in the margins
2nd	D. Bowyer	1	62-02-00	Maggot & pellet in the margins
3rd	L. McKnight	20	46-10-00	Pellet shallow