Wednesday 28th February 2024.

On Sunday the fnal round of the 2023/24 ABC Baits Winter League match was fished on the River Wye match length at Belmont and the Tennis Courts. The 72 anglers were faced with another relatively high and cold river which was falling, having dropped from over 4m  to around 2m at the start of the match. With air temperatures on the mild side around 12C and colour in the water, bleak  were likely to feature strongly along with chub, dace and barbel.

Individual winner on the day was Shane Harvey (Alan’s Tackle) who weighed in 76lb 15oz of chub from peg 92. on the Asda bank Runner up was Lee Edwards (Woodys) who weighed in 71lb 5oz of small chub and a few roach from peg 95. Third place went to Hadrian Whittle who caught chub, bleak and dace  from peg 61 on the rowing club bank to weigh in 56lb 4oz. There were several other good weights of fish caught with a futher 22 weights of over 30lb.

On the team front Wizards took the honours on the day with 51points, 2 points clear of  joint runners up and league leaders Woodys  and Cadence Superteam, both on 49 points.  Their 2nd placing on the day enabled Woodys to retain the league title with 66 points, comfortably ahead on 2nd placed Cotswolds, who finished on 52 points, with Cadence Superteam taking 3rd place with 50 points. Woodys only dropped 6 points in the 6 matches fished with their lowest score being 9 points in round 6.

Altogether another great Winter League series with some fantastic catches in a lot of the matches despite several high and cold rivers. Our thanks go to match organiser Dave Roberts and his team for running a faultless league and congratulations to Geoff Brierley for winning the Milo Trophy for best individual performer and for providing a profesional set of results for each match and for the stats shown below. The stats show what a fantastic winter river we have on our doorstep with a total weight of 11,467lb of fish caught by the 72 anglers equating to an averarge weight per angler per round of 26.54lb. We eagerly await the 2024/25 Winter league matches when hopefully there will be some more great catches.