Winter League RD4, Woodside Pool

Saturday 15th November saw eight (8) anglers go head-to-head for this latest round of the 2025 Winter League series held on Woodside pool. The day before saw extreme weather conditions with storm Claudia bringing a months worth of rain in just 24 hours, so the fishing was not expected to be great. That said, the carp still showed for a decent number of competing anglers, which resulted in a fairly decent round all things considered.

A SECTION

(pegs 21, 20, 18 & 16)

Winner of A section, and picking up his first section win of his Winter League campaign to date was Stan Taylor. Stan drew peg 10 on the far point of the island and opted to fish maggot down his edge for most of the match to find carp willing to feed in the shallow, clear water. Stan fished a tidy match catching steadily for the full five hours to offer 42-00-00 to the scales.

Stan put in a match-winning performance for round 4, which did his points tally no harm at all!

Second in A section on the day was Rachael Chebsey. Rachael draw peg 8 and returned her best score of the series so far fishing maggot short to find a handful of silvers plus a few small carp to give her a modest 13-02-00. Despite being a long way behind Stan, Rachael's effort rewarded her with a useful two points.

Taking third place and three points in Section A was Jason Bird from peg 14. Jason was up against it from the off having drawn a notoriously difficult peg but fishing maggot long to depth, Jason managed to put a hard earned 09-02-00 on to the scales to minimise the amount of damage done to his total tally.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
S. Taylor	10	42-00-00	Maggot in the margins	1
R. Chebsey	8	13-02-00	Maggot short	2
J. Bird	14	09-02-00	Maggot long	3

B SECTION

(pegs 14, 12, 10 & 8)

Winner of B section was Lawrence Connolly from peg 20. Loz alternated between maggot and caster hookbaits on his short line to begin with to find quality roach and skimmers in numbers before switching to his long line late on to find four carp. Loz ended the match with 40-03-00 to earn himself another section win and a single point in the process to maintain the pressure on league leader, Josh Gaunt.

Loz put in another fine display of silverfish fishing and also managed a few better stamp carp to win his section

Finishing runner-up in B section was current league leader, Josh Gaunt. Having drawn in the same section as Loz, it was going to be an interesting tussle between the two, but on this occasion at least, it was Josh that had to settle for two points. Josh drew peg 18 just to the left of Loz and fished a very similar match alternating between his short and long lines with casters to end the match with 29-03-00. The only difference separating Josh from Loz were the silverfish with Loz weighing in a little over 16lb compared to Josh's 8lb.

Finishing in third place in B section was John Latham. John found himself in a difficult area on the dam wall with both Loz and Josh also in his section. Fishing 2mm expanders short and down his edge, John struggled to find the fish to weigh in 09-00-00 to finish ahead of Ryan Walker for three points.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
L. Connolly	20	40-03-00	Caster & maggot short, long & in the margins	1
J. Gaunt	18	29-03-00	Casters short & long	2
J. Latham	16	09-00-00	Expanders short & in the margins	3

OVERALL LEAGUE STANDINGS (AFTER RD4)

POSITION	ANGLER	POINTS	WEIGHT
1st	Josh Gaunt	5	152-00-00
2nd	Lawrence Connolly	8	159-13-00
3rd	John Latham	8	86-04-00
4th	Jason Bird	12	68-08-00
5th	Chris Oakley	12	45-15-00
6th	Stan Taylor	14	74-10-00
7th	Ken Hayes	14	65-12-00
8th	Rachael Chebsey	15	37-04-00
9th	Ryan Walker	16	24-00-00

After four rounds, there has been some movement at the top of the table. Josh Gaunt remains in first place having extended his lead to three points despite finishing second in his section behind Loz. John loses a place and drops into third on weight, but has a decent amount of room between himself and Jason Bird in fourth.

After good performances in round two, both Stan and Rachael gain places with Stan moving from eighth up into sixth and Rachael climbing from ninth to eighth. Ken Hayes, on the other hand, concedes a couple of places after being unable to attend round four picking up maximum points plus a penalty point in the process.

Ryan Walker is yet to find his mojo falling another two places and now occupies the bottom of the table. However, he is only a single point adrift with two rounds still to go.

Dave Bowyer has unfortunately had to pull out of this year's campaign due to family commitments, which has also had an effect on league standings with section points now being distributed accordingly taking into account his absence.

As always, it is worth noting at this stage that the above league table does NOT take into account the result each competing angler is allowed to drop with only five rounds out of the six contributing towards final scores.

Congratulations to section winners Loz and Stan who each picked up £25. Congratulations also to Rachael and Josh on finishing runner-up in their sections and picking up £15 each.

Round five will take place on Saturday 29th November.