Tuesday 15th October 2024.

Sunday saw the start of the 2024/25 River Wye Winter League matches sponsored by ABC Baits.Twelve teams of 6 anglers took part with each angler from a team fishing a different section of the match length at Belmont. The river was fining down nicely with the colour dropping out and a height of 0.76m at Old Wye Bridge. With a recent overnight frost and temperatures around 3C on the morning of the match, it was difficult to know what to expect as the mass migration of fish to the deeper Belmont stretch was still in progress.From recent matches it was clear that there were plenty of bleak in the section, but had the chub, dace,roach and perch moved up in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile fishing for them?

Individual winner on the day was Charlie Gooch (Woodys) who was pegged on famous peg 96 between the bridges. He put together a catch of mainly small chub  with roach and some big dace to weigh in a match winning 60lb 14oz. Runner up was Ian Hughes(DH Angling) who was on peg 61 on the left bank. He weighed in 41lb 1oz. Third place went to Tom Boulton (Wizards) who weighed in 40lb 8oz of mainly perch with a few roach and dace. from left bank peg 65 next to the rowing club. The river fished harder than most thought it would although there were still several 20 and 30lb weights.

On the team front Woodys won the day scoring 59 points ahead of Cadence Bait-tech with 56 points closely followed by DHAngling with 54 points. As this was the first match, Woodys topped the league with 12 points with Cadence Bait-tech and DH Angling finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively with 11 and 10 points. Next Winter League match is on Sunday 3rd November with the eagerly awaited Wye Championship coming up next on Sunday 27th October.

Full results from Round 1 below :