Winter League RD1, Woodside Pool

Ten (10) anglers attended the first round of this year's winter league series. With numbers being a little down on last year (13 fished in 2024), anglers were pegged across one lake with round one taking place on Woodside pool. This year's campaign follows the same format as last year's with carp also being included in angler's weights and cumulative points deciding final placings. The only change to proceedings sees competitors all fishing the same lake given the numbers.

Conditions for this year's opening round felt quite chilly and damp following a cold night and a heavy morning due. The resident carp were hard to find as a result, which in the main was reflected in anglers weights with the resident carp being shoaled up quite tight and showing little willingness to move or feed.

A SECTION

(pegs 1, 21, 20, 18 & 16)

Winner of a tough A section on round one, and securing a valuable point, was Josh Gaunt. Josh drew peg 21 and choose to alternate between maggot and caster hookbaits on his short to begin with, before switching to his edge for the final half of the match. Josh found mainly carp as well as a near double-figure roach catch to finish the day with 29-03-00.

Josh Gaunt with part of his section-winning catch from A section

Second in section was John Latham, who drew neighbouring peg 20. John fished maggot short and caught mostly carp to offer 26-05-00 to the scales scoring two points.

Finishing third in section A on the day was Stan Taylor. Stan drew peg 1 at the bottom of the path and, like most, caught on his short line with dead maggot to confirm a final 14-14-00, which was good enough for three points.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
J. Gaunt	21	29-03-00	Maggot & caster short and in the margins	1
J. Latham	20	26-05-00	Maggot short	2
S. Taylor	1	14-14-00	Dead maggot short	3

B SECTION

(pegs 14, 12, 10, 8 & 3)

Winner from B section and overall lake winner on the day was Lawrence Connolly. Loz drew peg 3 close to the point of the island and opted to concentrate on his short line for most of the match with maggot. Loz fished a tidy match finishing well clear of the rest of the pack managing a double-figure silverfish catch, which included some quality roach, as well as a decent number of carp to end the day with 63-02-00 and an all-important single point.

Finishing runner-up in B section was Chris Oakley from peg 12. Chris started his match on the cage feeder and managed odd fish before deciding it wasn't likely to produce enough sport so switched to maggot on his short line, which produced more bites to give him a final 21-07-00 on the day.

Finishing in third place in B section, and scoring three points, was Gasparo Russello (standing in for Ryan Walker). Gasparo drew peg 10 on the point of the island and fished corn short to weigh in 14-11-00.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
L. Connolly	3	63-02-00	Maggot short	1
C. Oakley	12	21-07-00	Cage feeder & maggot short	2
G. Russello	10	14-11-00	Corn short	3

OVERALL LEAGUE STANDINGS (AFTER RD1)

POSITION	ANGLER	POINTS	WEIGHT
1st	Lawrence Connolly	1	63-02-00
2nd	Josh Gaunt	1	29-03-00
3rd	John Latham	2	26-05-00
4th	Chris Oakley	2	21-07-00
5th	Stan Taylor	3	14-14-00
6th	Ryan Walker	3	14-11-00
7th	Ken Hayes	4	14-00-00
8th	Jason Bird	4	09-13-00
9th	Dave Bowyer	5	08-10-00
10th	Rachael Chebsey	5	07-14-00

As the weights above suggest, it was quite a tough opening round for most with Loz alone managing to find carp in any numbers. The remainder of the field had to be happy with mostly silvers with the odd better fish here and there. As the league progresses and the weather gets colder, it should even things out a little for the remainder of the series with the resident carp stocks expected to back off in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to both Loz and Josh on winning their respective sections and scoring a perfect single point each as well as each picking up £30. Congratulations also to John and Chris on finishing runner-up in their sections and picking up £20 each.

Well done to all other competitors on what was a difficult day. Roll on round two, which takes place on Saturday October 18th.