A very windy and overcast day on Sunday 22 January was braved by 13 anglers to contest the 5th and penultimate round of the series at Bayliss Pools. Drawn on the favoured high bank, local tackle dealer Bob Smith showed everyone the way to do it by banking 37 Lbs 7 Ozs of bream and roach. Bob used a maggot and groundbait feeder approach, which left second placed Eric Rimmer over 20 pounds behind on 14 Lbs 4 Ozs. Third was Carl Pavey with 13 Lbs 2 Ozs. Both Eric and Carl used the favoured maggot and groundbait feeder too.

With 4 results from 6 to count the league could not be much closer. There are just 4 penalty points separating the top 6 anglers. So the last leg, to be fished on the river on 5 February, should prove to be a close fought contest. Read about it here!

For the full result, click on the link.

Winter_League_2012 - 5 WL 11_12.pdf (37.35 kb)

This time last year we were desperate to get the 4th round of the Winter League fished, as everywhere had been frozen solid for weeks. But the Withy Pool was a completely different venue this year on Sunday 8 January, with mild temperatures (10C) and a mostly dry day. However, the match fished poorly compared with last year when Nick Bastock won it with 14 Lbs. This year's winner was Adam "expander pellet" Barsby with just 6 Lbs 10 Ozs who amassed most of this weight in the last half hour with some good sized skimmers on the expander pellet fished closer in on the pole. Second was Nick Bastock who fished the long pole and maggot for most of the match for a weight of 4 Lbs 7 Ozs of mostly roach with one specimen that went 1 Lb 12 Ozs. Third was Ray Armstrong just 3 Ozs behind his travelling companion and son-in-law Nick, with 4 Lbs 4 Ozs, caught on the feeder.

This means that Ken Arnold still leads the league with just 16 penalty points, but his lead from second placed man, Carl Pavey, has stretched to 3 as Carl now has 19. Third is still Gary Stinton, who had a poor result at the Withy and is a distant 23 points now. But with just the 4 best results to count and 2 rounds to go, things start to get interesting. Will Adam Barsby, who missed the first round, but has now won two since, steal the trophy? Or will Ken Arnold maintain his consistency and just nick it? Then there could be any of half a dozen anglers who could "pull one back" at the next round on the Priory Pool at Woodcote Hall on 21 January. Read about it here! For the full result just click on the link below.

Winter_League_2012 - 4 WL 11_12.pdf (36.99 kb)