Just have a look at the face on this! And the fish is quite happy too! This is a very happy Tommy Dolan who used a secret bait to tempt this beautifully marked common carp from peg 75 in the penultimate round of the Summer League yesterday 9 October 2011. It weighed in at 13 Lbs 2 Ozs and took him 15 minutes to land. It was added to 3 barbel for a total weight of 30 Lbs 11 Ozs, which was good enough for second place in the match. Full match report to follow when I get it.

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WULAC have, once again, invited LAS anglers as guests to a match on their Norton Mere Pool on Sunday 1 May, draw 0800 Hrs fish 0900 - 1400 Hrs. There will be a £3 peg fee for non-members, so you need to make yourself known to George, their Match Secretary, as an LAS angler. This is the venue some members fished last year at a Charity match and has a good head of bream, some tench and some good carp as well as roach and perch.

Please let other LAS anglers not on the 'Net know about this, as all are welcome.

As the river had been over its banks for some days, the WULAC guys offered to fish the return match of this challenge on their Church Pool on 20 February 2011. So a team of 12 LAS anglers turned out on a dour morning to fish this match. There was a stiff and very cold East wind which really put the fish down, except for WULAC's Andy Wheeler, who had a sheltered spot where the carp fed close to the bank. He managed to bag 8 of them for a weight of 44 Lbs 12 Ozs, which would have beaten the LAS team total of 37 Lbs 1 Oz by itself! Although WULAC had 5 blanks to LAS's 2, they still amassed a total weight of 66 Lbs 15 Ozs to win comfortably. There was some consolation for the LAS team though, as Terry Thompson managed second place with 12 Lbs 12 Ozs, Ray Armstrong was fourth with 7 Lbs 6 Ozs (one carp taken first put in - then never had another bite!) and Bob Smith fifth with 5 Lbs 4 Ozs.

It is hoped that we can fish the WULAC team on our river before the end of the season - possibly combining it with the Scramble Match on 13 March.

After all the bad weather, we finally got to fish the postponed third leg of our Winter League series on Withy Pool, Telford. Despite the pool only having been completely ice free for barely 24 hours, the 12 members who turned out to fish this match on a really wet, mild day, had a good day's sport. Eventual winner was Nick Bastock with an impressive 14 Lbs 2 Ozs net of bream, skimmers and roach all taken on the long pole and red maggot. Second was yours truly with 8 Lbs dead, which consisted of 3 small bream, some cracking roach and rudd plus skimmers all taken on the tip with red maggot and a 2 Lbs carp caught on the long pole and a 22 hook to a 1 Lb bottom! Third was Ken Arnold with 7 Lbs 7 Ozs. Everyone caught on this new-to-us venue and were very pleased to do so after such a long enforced break. I think we will book the venue again - when its not raining please!

This means that Ken Arnold is now leading the League with just 9 penalty points, followed by myself, Dave Upton and Tony Randall all on 12 points.  Three matches to go and all to fish for!

Click on the link to see the full results so far.

Winter League 2011 - 3 WINTER LEAGUE 2010-11.pdf (37.99 kb)

Sunday, 10 October 2010 saw the penultimate match of the Summer league fished on a beautiful autumnal day. The river had been up to its bank tops the previous week, but had run off to a level about three feet above normal. The eventual winner was Dave Upton from peg 83 with 20 Lbs 13 Ozs. Reg (I like peg 103) Ford was second with 19 Lbs 6 Ozs, which consisted of two good barbel and a chub about 3 Lbs and third place went to Graham Jones with 16 Lbs 4 Ozs from peg 17.

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Carl Pavey got up very early on 16 June to start the new season on our river. He was fishing soon after 5 a.m. and managed this fantastic bag of 24 barbel to 8 Lbs, plus 1 chub for a haul well in excess of the magic "Ton". Carl's only disappointment was when "a torpedo" took his pellet bait and stripped off 25 yards of line without so much as a nod, then the hook pulled free! Must have been one of those hard fighting carp, methinks Carl - or was it one of the many double-figure barbel now frequenting our water? Anyway, a great start to the new season. Well done!

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Fished on a bright, but very windy, day the "home" team’s knowledge of the venue just edged out the LAS anglers in this first leg of this 2-leg match. The return leg will be fished on Cressage Meadow at a date to be fixed when the WUL guys Summer Sunday matches finish in October. Pole and pellet proved to be the winning method, which found mostly carp to 5 Lbs. There were a lot of roach to be had on the maggot, but averaged only 3-4 Ozs. However, we now know that if everyone had caught a couple of pounds of them first, then had gone for the carp, we could have won the team event. We all learn….!

Total weights:

• WUL 52 Lbs 7 Ozs 
• LAS 48 Lbs 7 Ozs

The top seven places were:

1. 1st J Rushton (WUL) 20 Lbs 9 Ozs 
2. 2nd R Mullinder (WUL) 15 Lbs 1Ozs 
3. 3rd B Smith (LAS) 12 Lbs 14 Ozs 
4. 4th G Stinton (LAS) 7 Lbs 12 Ozs 
5. 5th B C Jones (LAS) 7 Lbs 7 Ozs 
6. 6th P Nolan (LAS) 5 Lbs 4 Ozs 7th 
7. D Upton (LAS) 3 Lbs 9 Ozs