Tuesday 14th October 2025.
The first match of the 2025/26 River Wye Winter League took place on Sunday. This year the league is being sponsored by groundbait giants Van Den Eynde who are making a financial contribution to the prize money awarded in each match. Twelve teams of 6 lined the riverbank on the Belmont match length, stretching from Breinton downstream to the Victoria footbridge. The river had dropped and cleared from the high water a week ago to around 0.3m and competitors were looking forward to catching some good weights of chub, roach, dace, perch and bleak and the occasional barbel. Temperatures were still mild for the time of year at around 14 -16C with plenty of cloud cover.
Although the fish had not fully moved into the deeper water at Belmont, there were only twelve weights below 10lb across the whole of the match length with plenty of weights over 20lb. Individaul winner on the day was Charlie Gooch (Woodys) who was on left bank peg 61 opposite Asda. He weighed in 67lb 8oz. Runner up was match organiser Dave Roberts ( Woodys) who weighed in 62lb 14oz from peg 50 on the left bank above the old railway bridge. Third was Joe Holloway (DH Angling) who weighed in 59lb 13oz from peg 52 on the left bank. Fourth was Mike Bedding (Cadence Bait-Tech) who weighed in 57lb 2oz from peg 84 on the right bank.
On the team front Woodys came out top with 64 points thanks to 2 section wins and a 2nd place. This was 5 points ahead of Cadence Bait-Tech who also claimed two section wins and a 2nd place. Third was DH Angling who finished with 53 points. Woodys again top the leader board with 12 points with the two aforementioned teams coming in 2nd and third with 11 and 10 points respectively. All in all some great weights throughout the match length which bodes well for the coming months once the fish have fully moved into the deeper water of Belmont. The next round will be on Sunday 2nd November, but before that we have the prestigious Wye Championship to come on the 26th October where the winner will be taking home £800.
