After debating whether to fish the final round of this year's Winter League on the river or not, it was decided to switch to Bayliss Pools as the river was bank high and rising. So you can imagine how I felt when I arrived at Bayliss Pools on Sunday morning only to find that it was frozen over! After a few hasty 'phone calls, we managed to get in to Dave King's Fishery off Junction 1 of the M54. The pool here was not frozen and the 13 of us who turned out were pegged as evenly as possible round this small pool with an island in the middle of it and the match got underway by 1030 Hrs.

It was a disaster for 10 of us who did not have a bite between us! But Nick Bastock managed to winkle out 6 Lbs of small roach and rudd on the long pole to take first place, with Will Carr finally getting into the money using similar methods taking a bonus carp plus small roach for 3 Lbs 1 Oz and the only other man to catch was Adam Barsby with a small carp and a skimmer for 12 Ozs.

The all important winner of the league came down to Nick Bastock and Adam Barsby finishing with the same 9 penalty points each, but Nick edged the win with a weight advantage (no pun intended Nick!) with 30 Lbs 11 Ozs 8 Dm over Adam's total of 20 Lbs 11 Ozs. In third place with a very consistent performance was Craig Cope on 13 Points. Well done to you all. For the final positions please see the attached table.

Winter_League_2013 - 6 WL 12_13.pdf (39.69 kb)

At long last the dreadful weather throughout January finally abated and allowed us to fish the fifth leg of our Winter League 6 match series on Aston Eyre Pool. 15 of the 17 man league turned out on a windy but dry day with temperatures around the 10C mark. The big carp in this pool put in appearance, especially for the winner, David Leary, who trounced the rest of us with a massive winning weight of 75 Lbs 4 Ozs! Second with one decent carp of 15 Lbs 9 Ozs was Nick Bastock and in third place was that man again, Adam Barsby with two carp for 11 Lbs 3 Ozs. This now means that, with the best 4 from 6 results to count, Adam moves into first place with just 12 penalty points, Craig Cope is just 2 points behind in second and then it's a tie for third place between Nick Bastock and myself on 15 points, Nick edging it on weight. For the complete results so far, click on the link below.

So, with the last match due to be fished this coming Sunday 10th February on our river, with a back up venue of Bayliss Pool if the river is not fishable, it looks like being a nailbiting finish! Read all about it here first.

Winter_League_2013 - 5(Corrected) WL 12_13.pdf (39.14 kb)

After being postponed twice due to the ice and snow, the 4th round of the Winter League finally was fished on the Shropshire Union Canal north of Norbury on Sunday 27 January 2013. After the huge snow melt overnight and torrential rain the day before, a lot of water had found its way into the canal. This made the colour rather akin to cold milky tea, which did not look inviting. After a hearty breakfast at the Junction Inn and a team effort to push Eric Rimmer's car off a big hump in the car park, 16 of us got onto the towpath. After the amount of cold water that had gone into the canal, it was always going to be hard. But 10 of us caught and the eventual winner was Adam Barsby with small roach and a perch for 14 Ozs, second was Carl Pavey with more, but smaller, roach for 10 Ozs and third was yours truly with 7 ozs (one good perch and small roach).

This now means that Nick Bastock has moved into the lead after 4 rounds with just 20 penalty points. Second is Colin Morris with 21 and third is Craig Cope with 22. The next round will be on Aston Eyre pool on Sunday 3 February and with the best 4 results from the 6 match series to count, it's anyone's league for the taking. For the complete results to date, click on the link.

Winter_League_2013 - 4 WL 12_13.pdf (38.72 kb)