Winter League RD5, Woodside Pool

Saturday 29th November marked the penultimate round of this year's Winter League series. Conditions on the day were tough, which was to be expected given the arrival of the year's first frosts resulting in a lot of colour dropping out of the water. That said, there were still a decent number of carp caught from around the lake on angler's longer lines as well as more decent silverfish nets made up mostly of good quality roach. The weather on the day was generally quite miserable with a few showers throughout the day, which got quite heavy at times.

A SECTION

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

Winner of A section, and picking up his second consecutive section win was Stan Taylor. Stan found himself on peg 16 on the dam wall and opted to alternate between maggot and caster hookbaits on the long pole to find a handful of silvers, as well as some bonus carp, to boost his overall weight giving him a final 19-08-00.

Stan continued his late charge on the leagues top three with another section win on round 5

Finishing just 2oz shy of Stan's winning weight was current league leader, Josh Gaunt. Josh drew peg 20 and fished caster short to put together another fine bag of roach, which tipped the scales to over 15lbs, but found just one rogue carp to end the match with 19-06-00 and a rather bitter tasting two points.

Taking third place and three points in Section A was Ryan Walker from peg 21. Fishing maggot on the long pole over dead maggot and groundbait, Ryan managed a fairly even split of both silverfish and carp to weigh in 10-09-00 to record his best result to date.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
S. Taylor	16	19-08-00	Maggot & caster long	1
J. Gaunt	20	19-06-00	Caster short	2
R. Walker	21	10-09-00	Maggot long	3

B SECTION

(pegs 14, 12, 10 & 8)

As has been the case for most of the campaign, B section produced the better weights on the day with round five being no exception. Winner on the day, and winning the lake overall, was Ken Hayes. Ken drew peg 8 and fished maggot long to find a handful of silvers before coming down his inside edge late on, again with maggot, to find carp willing to feed to end the match with 31-13-00 and a very welcome single point.

The smirk says it all! A very well earned lake win on a difficult day keeps Ken in contention for a mainframe finish

Like A section, the difference between first and second placed anglers in B Section was decided by mere ounces! Settling for two points on the day was Shropshire Anglers AC rod, Chris Oakley from peg 10. Chris opted to fish a cage feeder with maggot on the hook over to the willow tree on the point of the island to begin with, then later, switched to the waggler, again with maggot, to end the match with 31-04-00.

Finishing in third place in B section was Lawrence Connolly. Loz made the most of an unfavourable draw after pulling peg 14 out the bag - the very same peg that saw him finish last in section on round two. Fishing both 4mm expanders on the long pole, occasionally switching to maggot, over fishery micros Loz found roach, skimmer bream and three carp to offer 22-12-00 to the scales.

ANGLER	PEG	WEIGHT	METHOD	PTS
K. Hayes	8	31-13-00	Maggot long & in the margins	1
C. Oakley	10	31-04-00	Cage feeder & waggler	2
L. Connolly	14	22-12-00	Pellet & maggot long	3

OVERALL LEAGUE STANDINGS (AFTER RD5)

POS	ANGLER	PTS (1-5)	DROPPED RESULT	PENALTY PTS	FINAL PTS	CUM WEIGHT
1st	Josh Gaunt	7	2	-	5	171-06-00
2nd	Lawrence Connolly	11	5	-	6	182-09-00
3rd	John Latham	12	4	-	8	90-12-00
4th	Chris Oakley	14	4	-	10	77-03-00
5th	Ken Hayes	15	5	1	11	97-09-00
6th	Stan Taylor	15	6	1	10	94-02-00
7th	Jason Bird	16	4	-	12	76-05-00
8th	Rachael Chebsey	19	5	-	14	47-03-00
9th	Ryan Walker	19	5	-	14	34-09-00

Please note the above league table now takes into account each anglers individual worst score over the five rounds fished to date. With the final round still to go, the above table is subject to change and final positions are TBC

After five rounds, Golden Maggot AC rod Josh Gaunt remains on top albeit by just a single point taking into account Loz's permitted dropper from round two. It's worth noting that despite being a point behind Josh, club counterpart Loz does take a slight weight advantage into the final round of 11lb 3oz meaning that Josh must finish ahead of Loz on round six to secure the overall league win.

Despite a disastrous round five, John Latham remains in the mix despite losing a bit of ground over the last two rounds. After his allowed dropper from round five, John is just a couple of points behind Loz, but will have to rely on Loz having an off day to have any chance of finishing above him given the weight differential between the two.

Elsewhere in the table, there's a really interesting three-way tussle underway for the fourth and final overall pay-out position with just two points separating Chris Oakley, Ken Hayes and Stan Taylor. Stan has really upped the anti over the last couple of rounds scoring a perfect two points, which has seen him climb four places from eighth to fourth taking into account his dropper from round three and his 16lb 15oz weight advantage over Chris Oakley. Ken's lake win on round five also keeps him in strong contention for a mainframe finish with him sitting just one point behind Stan and Chris, but with a superior cumulative weight.

At the other end of the table, Rachael and Ryan continue to slug it out with the two being tied on points with just a little over 6lbs between them after five rounds.

Congratulations to section winners Stan and Ken who each picked up £25. Congratulations also to Josh & Chris on finishing runner-up in their sections and picking up £20 each.

The sixth and final round will take place on Saturday 13th December.