Twelve (12) anglers attended round 4 of the Woodside Winter League with Pete Taylor unfortunately unable to attend due to bad health. Conditions on the day started off a bit damp with a fine wet mist in the air coupled with low level cloud cover. However, as the match progressed, the cloud made way for bright sunny spells before an unexpected downpour during the final hour of the match soaked everyone just in time for the weigh in.
Given how changeable the weather continues to be with the week leading up to the match being noticeably colder, it was anyones guess as to where the fish might be held up. Round 4 signalled a random draw with all anglers drawing their pegs irrespective of what lake they fished on the previous round in an effort to mix things up a bit and to avoid the same anglers fishing against each other for the entire series. Typically, mind, there was very little change with the leagues top anglers all remaining in the same section.
Anglers drawing on the Island pool still wanted to avoid the dam wall before the draw and those on Woodside pool favoured permanent pegs 1 - 16, with the island pegs not really having produced up until now. However, all of that was turned on its head with anglers pegged on the dam wall on Island pool experiencing better fishing than the opposite end of the lake and most of the fish coming from around the island on Woodside pool. Just goes to show, it's almost impossible to second-guess where the fish are going to be happiest at this time of year, which certainly keeps things interesting!
WOODSIDE POOL
Confirming a pretty emphatic victory on Woodside pool was Dave Bowyer from peg 13 (permanent peg 9) close to the point of the island. Fishing maggot over groundbait down his edge, Dave found carp in numbers to approx. 10lbs to weigh in a superb 105-09-00 and secure a valuable single point score to see him climb two places in the overall standings .
Finishing in second place on Woodside pool was Dan Bache from peg 14 (permanent peg 3). The ex-Maver man caught most of his fish on caster short, including over 16lb of quality silvers before a look down his edge on maggot saw him slip the net under some good-sized carp to offer a finl 55-10-00 to the scales. Dan added two more points to his total, which unfortunately, saw him lose ground on the other top placed anglers and fall from grace at the top of the league.
Finishing in third place on Woodside pool was the ever-consistent Ken Hayes. Ken drew peg 10 (permanent peg 16), which has had some pretty awful form in the league before now. Ken fished maggot down his edge to only a handful of carp, but they were of a good size to give him 38-12-00, which was enough for another three points on the day.
ANGLER | PEG | WEIGHT | METHOD | PTS |
D. Bowyer | 13 | 105-09-00 | Maggot over groundbait in the margins | 1 |
D. Bache | 14 | 55-10-00 | Caster short & Maggot in the margins | 2 |
K. Hayes | 10 | 38-12-00 | Maggot in the margins | 3 |
ISLAND POOL
Island pool also produced some good weights with the resident 'stockies' showing well alongside some quality roach and skimmers.
Winner on the day was Lawrence Connolly, who was standing in for Josh Gaunt. Loz draw unfancied peg 4 (permanent peg 9) on the dam wall but managed to find carp down both his edges at approx. five metres around midway through the match. Fishing doube maggot on the hook in slightly deeper water over fishery micros, Loz really got into his stride during the second half of the match putting plenty of room between himself and the next best man confirming 95-00-00 and a lake win. Despite a near miss with the net limit on one of his nets, Loz secured a single point and helped place Josh Gaunt as the new league leader.
Second place on the day was the in-form Josh Sutterby from unfancied peg 2 (permanent peg 4). Josh started his match taking a mixture of silvers and odd carp to maggot and caster fished short before a look down his edge during the second half of the match saw him really up a gear or two catching small carp in numbers on worm fished over fishery micro pellets. Josh enjoyed a great end to the match and offered 66-02-00 to the scales to finish just ahead of third placed Jeff Rush. Josh's last two outtings have seen him score just three points, which now sees him enter the top three. Awesome fishing!
Third on Island pool was Jeff Rush, who saw himself on peg 1 (permanent peg 2) for the second time. Alternating between maggot and caster hookbaits both on his short line and down his left hand edge, Jeff found a mixture of good quality silvers and small carp for most of the match, but endured a quiet spell midday before the carp returned upon the rain starting. However, despite the quiet spell, Jeff weighed in 60-11-00, which was good enough for three points on the day.
ANGLER | PEG | WEIGHT | METHOD | PTS |
L. Connolly | 4 | 95-00-00 | Maggot in the margins | 1 |
J. Sutterby | 2 | 66-02-00 | Maggot and caster short & Worm in the margins | 2 |
J. Rush | 1 | 60-11-00 | Maggot and caster short & in the margins | 3 |
OVERALL LEAGUE STANDINGS (AFTER RD4)
POSITION | ANGLER | POINTS | WEIGHT |
1st | Josh Gaunt | 5 | 227-06-00 |
2nd | Dan Bache | 6 | 313-15-00 |
3rd | Josh Sutterby | 9 | 184-11-00 |
4th | Dave Bowyer | 10 | 298-15-00 |
5th | Ken Hayes | 11 | 138-04-00 |
6th | Dan Hart | 12 | 233-04-00 |
7th | Jeff Rush | 15 | 220-03-00 |
8th | Jason Bird | 18 | 139-05-00 |
9th | Ben Hughes | 19 | 85-01-00 |
10th | John Latham | 20 | 57-01-00 |
11th | Nigel Hart | 21 | 99-11-00 |
12th | Allan Cox | 22 | 55-06-00 |
13th | Peter Taylor | 25 | 25-15-00 |
Round 4 saw league leader Dan Bache concede his top spot to Josh Gaunt after Lawrence Connolly's lake win on Island pool and Dave Bowyer's win on Woodside pool collectively put an end to Dan's recent run of form. A second place finish on Woodside pool means Dan currently now sits in second place just a single point behind but with a far superior weight advantage should the two tie on points come the end of the six rounds.
It was a bad day at the office for Dan Hart, who only managed to pick up five points from Woodside pool, which sees him fall out of the top three in to sixth place making way for Josh Sutterby, who climbs one place, and Dave Bowyer, who climbs two places.
Jeff Rush made the most of a good draw managing to hold on to seventh place after a disppointing round three result blotted an otherwise decent score card. Jeff sits ahead of a now extremely tight mid-table tussle between Jason Bird, Ben Hughes and John Latham. Jason remains top of said tussle thanks to a four point score on Woodside pool saw him gain ground on both Ben and John.
At the other end of the table, Nigel Hart leapfroggs Allan Cox and moves into eleventh place. Pete Taylor was unable to fish round four or find a suitable stand-in, which saw him collect maximum points plus a penalty point to remain at the foot of the table.
Well done to both Dave Bowyer and Lawrence Connolly on their respective lake wins.
Round five will take place on Saturday 30th November.
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