The Winter League is back! Our annual cold weather marathon is here again to give you all something to focus on during the tougher months of the year. 

In case you don’t already know what the Winter League is, it is a UK and Ireland based lure fishing species hunt. All lures are welcome, big and small, but you will definitely need to scale down to target the mini species to be in with a chance of winning. 

Last year’s totals will take some beating, with a monstrous 92 species being caught by anglers across the UK and Ireland in fresh and saltwater, all on lures, artificial baits and flies. Will Pender won the saltwater category with 49 species, and Matt Drake won in the fresh with 25, both ridiculous totals. The Junior winner was Will Birch with an equally impressive 37 species and our first ever King Of The North was Andrew Seywright, catching 6 out of the 7 designated species.

To sign up all you have to do is message The Big Lerf on Facebook or Instagram or comment on the Facebook group.
We are determined to keep this competition open to all, but we cannot deny it is very time consuming for us to run over the winter months. So we have decided that the competition is still free entry, but if you could spare five pounds to ‘buy us a ko-fi’ on our website, that would be hugely appreciated and would go a long way to covering our time spent logging each catch, completing spreadsheets and sourcing prizes. You can find that website here –

https://ko-fi.com/thebiglerf

If you cannot afford that, we completely understand but are still happy to have you on board!

On Thursday 30th November, we will announce your individual numbers. You can then print off the Winter League Card (shared beforehand) and write your number on it. The League runs from 1st December 2022-31st March 2023.

So what are you fishing for? We are lucky to have some incredible sponsors and once more we are able to bring you an awesome roster of prizes!

Those sponsors are:
HTO
Berkley Gulp!
Tacklewave LTD UK and Ireland distributors for Majorcraft, Keitech, IMA and Geecrack 
Streetfishing London
Todber Manor
C.A.N Fishing Lures
Jonny Lerfer
On The Drop
Tanago Max
Sjors Waterschoot

Most Species Saltwater UK & Ireland
All winners 1st-5th will receive a bundle of Berkley Gulp! Lures

1st – HTO Nebula Light Gamer | 2.18m | 3-15g + Nebula 2000 Reel – £262.98 RRP
And two fish species posters from Sjors Waterschoot.
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail, 3 inch Paddletail, 2 inch Crabby, 2 inch Sandworm

2nd – Bundle Of Lures/Tackle from Tacklewave LTD UK and Ireland distributors for Majorcraft, Keitech, IMA and Geecrack £50 RRP
And two fish species posters from Sjors Waterschoot – £80 RRP
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail, 3 inch Paddletail.

3rd – Shimano Sedona 2023 £69.95 RRP from Jonny Lerfer
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail

4th – £50 goody bag from On The Drop
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp and 3 inch Curl Tail

5th – Lure and Jig Head bundle from C.A.N Fishing Lures
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp and 3 inch Curl Tail

Most Species Freshwater UK & Ireland

1st – HTO Nebula Light Gamer | 2.18m | 1-7g + Nebula 1000 Reel – £260 RRP
And two fish species posters from Sjors Waterschoot. £80 RRP

2nd – Bundle Of Lures/Tackle from Tacklewave LTD UK and Ireland distributors for Majorcraft, Keitech, IMA and Geecrack £50 RRP
And two fish species posters from Sjors Waterschoot. £80 RRP

3rd – Stanley Classic Peter Perch Legendary Bottle 1L £59.99 RRP- Provided by Todber Manor

4th – Lure and Jig Head bundle from C.A.N Fishing Lures

5th – Lure and Jig Head bundle from C.A.N Fishing Lures

Most Species Junior Salt & Freshwater Combined UK & Ireland
All winners 1st-5th will receive a bundle of Berkley Gulp Lures

1st HTO Nebula Rock Rover | 6’11 | 1-7g + Nebula 1000 Reel – £199.98 RRP
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail, 3 inch Paddletail, 2 inch Crabby, 2 inch Sandworm

2nd – Bundle Of Lures/Tackle from Tacklewave LTD UK and Ireland distributors for Majorcraft, Keitech, IMA and Geecrack £50 RRP
And one Medium Pro Marine Viewing Tank from Tanagomax 
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail

3rd – £50 goody bag from On The Drop 
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp, 3 inch Curl Tail

4th – Lure and Jig Head bundle from C.A.N Fishing Lures
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp, 3 inch Curl Tail
And one Medium Pro Marine Viewing Tank from Tanagomax 

5th – Lure and Jig Head bundle from C.A.N Fishing Lures
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp, 3 inch Curl Tail

LRF King Of The North
HTO Aikido 1-5g + Aikido 1000 Reel – £121.98 RRP
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail
The winner will be the first angler who catches these species – 
Dab, coalfish, cod, short spined sea scorpion, butterfish, eelpout, lumpsucker, tadpole fish and three spined stickleback. 

In the event that no one manages to catch all of these by March, the winner will be the angler who has ticked off the most. The Big Lerf Team will give this to the angler who catches the most of these species but doesn’t finish in the top 3. That will be at our discretion depending on how well everyone does. 

BRAND NEW CATEGORIES FOR 2023/2024!

This winter, we have decided to include a side competition for those who simply want to target specimen fish. This is focused on two classic winter species, the perch and the flounder. The winners of these categories will be the angler who records the three largest individual fish over the course of the league. All measurements must be clear and we can only accept accurate large measure mats with all of the numbers visible or measuring tapes on top of the fish. Landing mats with measures on them can’t be used because they aren’t consistent. The Big Lerf team reserve the right to reject any entries that do not meet that criteria. The lure the fish was caught on must be in shot, as well as the Winter League card for catches to be accepted. We will also accept clear videos.

For both perch and flounder the measure is from the tip of the snout to the point of the tail.

Each time you catch a large perch or flounder, upload it to The Big Lerf Group or send it to us on Instagram, and we will record it, as you catch larger specimens we will replace your previous catches until the 31st March when we will announce the angler who has caught the longest combined three perch, and the angler who has caught the longest combined three flounder.

Three Longest Perch –
Winner will receive a bundle of high end perch tackle from Streetfishing London 
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail, 3 inch Paddletail,

Three Longest Flounder Winner will receive a bundle of JDM flounder lures, soft plastics and jigheads from Jonny Lerfer
Plus Berkley Gulp 2 inch Shrimp x2, 3 inch Turbo Shrimp x2, 3 inch Curl Tail, 3 inch Paddletail, 2 inch Crabby, 2 inch Sandworm

Rules – 

All angling must be shore only in any fresh or saltwater location in England, Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland & The Isle Of Man. 

For your entry to count it must have a clear photo with your number card next to it. All catches must be either uploaded to The Big Lerf Facebook Group or directly messaged to The Big Lerf Instagram account. We cannot accept catches that are posted in stories or disappearing messages as these can be easily missed. 

This year we are introducing the rule that your photos must include the lure in shot, preferably in the mouth of the fish but we will accept it alongside the fish.

This competition is catch and release only. 

Lure and selected artificial baits only. All metal, hard plastic, soft plastic and hybrid lures count and you can use scented artificial baits such as Marukyu Isome, Berkley Gulp, Ecogear Aqua, Fladen Vermz and similar. Fake sweetcorn, bread etc does not count as a lure in this competition, it is quite easy to replicate these food items with the artificial baits such as Isome though and that is allowed. No live/real bait can be used and gluten or gelatin baits do not count either. 

All rigs must be single lure only, so no sets of sabikis or feathers, or two hook Dropshot rigs. You can have multiple hooks on hard plastic lures or metal jigs. Stinger rigs are allowed but the stinger can’t be longer than the lure.

As trout are out of season for most of the Winter League’s duration, no trout, salmon or char species will count. 

Mirror, leather and common carp all count as one species as they are varieties of king carp, crucian and grass carp are separate species so will count. Brown/ornamental goldfish will be accepted this year, although we need clear photos to accept these.

Ornamental and hybrid species/breeds such as orfe, koi carp and F1 carp will not be accepted. Colour morphs such as golden tench, golden rudd etc do not count as separate species. Invasive or naturalised species such as bitterling, topmouth gudgeon, prussian carp, pumpkinseed, wels catfish and similar all count, although please check your venue rules in regards to returning these species. 

Certain saltwater species can only be accepted in a viewing tank or with all fins in view, these include, but are not limited to, sprat and common goby.

We cannot include the following protected saltwater species:
Giant goby, couches goby, allis shad, twaite shad and european smelt.
To make it fair we also will not include any of these species caught in the Republic Of Ireland, despite some of them not being protected there. 

The decisions have been made to try and keep the rules simple and fair for all anglers. 

At all times it is up to The Big Lerf admin team whether an entry meets the rules and we reserve the right to deny any catches where we suspect the angler may have used bait or the photo is not detailed enough to ID the species. We recommend taking many photos of your catch from different angles and if you catch an unusual species on a lure, try and take many photos from different angles. It helps us judge whether the catch is genuine. 

Most importantly have fun and we hope you catch plenty of fish!