Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 29/04/2017

It’s been a rather unsettled week, turning cooler and wetter as the week went on, with daytime temperature around 14 degrees and the night time temperature around 8 degrees. We had eight anglers on this week and despite the horrible weather conditions, spirits remained high all week and a few fish also got caught. The water temperature remains around 14 degrees.

Overall, it was a hard week on the Road Lake and quite a slow start, but the lads persevered which resulted in them catching some nice fish.  Small amounts of bait, little and often, fished quite tight on a small area seems to be the key to getting a few bites at the moment.

Dave Evans was set up in Tea Party 1 over the course of the week he had a total of 17 carp. Dave had a cracking 50lb 4oz Mirror called Amstel, a 43lb Mirror, 42lb Mirror, 6 x 30s to 39lb8oz, 6 x 20s to 28lb and a double; not a bad week at all. He was using the IQ D-Rig with a Sticky Baits Krill Wafter as his hook bait. Dave had two rods at 20 wraps towards Turtles Corner and his other rod was cast at 11 wraps towards the shorter trees between shingle and turtles corner, over the week Dave used 20kg of boilies. 

Alan Liddington decided to go into Turtles Corner and he had an impressive week with a haul of 13 carp: 4 x 30's to 38lb 4oz, 5 x 20s to 29lb and 4 doubles. His first rod was cast towards the left hand margin at 16 wraps, his middle rod was cast in-line with the island at 20 wraps, and the right had rod was in-line with Tea Party 1. The IQ D-Rig with a Banoffee Wafter did the business for Alan. Over the course of the week he used 20kg of boilies, baiting up after every fish to keep them in his area, a great tactic.  

Rory Baylis went into Double Boards after seeing a couple fish show in the swim on the Saturday morning. He had two rods cast at 25 wraps towards The Poo and his other rod was cast 19 wraps towards Bachelier's. Rory had a 27lb Mirror and a nice 34lb 4oz Mirror using the IQ D-Rig with a Wafter as his hook bait. Throughout the week he used 15kg of boilies.

Alex Rippon fishing in Dunkerque started the week on a high, landing “The Beard" at 51lb 8oz, it fell for a simple knotless knot rig fished at 4 wraps out to a small weed bed in the margin. These big fish have a habit of coming close into the margins, certainly a tactic to conside in the future. Active baits did the job for Alex, and during the week he used 15kg of boilies.

Macky decided to go into Billys, he was fishing two rods along the tree line and the other rod was in-line with Birches. On Monday morning Macky smashed his PB with a beautiful 33lb Mirror, and then followed that up with 3 x 20s to 25lb. A simple KD-Rig with a Savoury Crab Wafter did the job for Macky.

Keith Potter went into Bachelier's, and it wasn’t long before he was into his first carp of the session, a nice 41lb8oz Mirror. This came from the left had margin at 18 wraps where he baited the area with a couple kilos of the Sticky Baits Krill boilies. Straight after that he landed a 24lb 8oz Mirror, then on last knockings Saturday morning he had a cracking 47lb mirror called “Rons”. The IQ D-Rig with a Krill Wafter proved to be the downfall of his two chunks. During the week he used 20kg of boilies.

Paul went into Brambles where he was fishing all three rods onto the bar at 20 wraps. Paul was spodding every day with a couple kilos of boilies and it wasn’t long before he was into his first carp, and what a carp it turned out to be. A 42lb 8oz Mirror which smashed his PB by a mile. The fish came on an IQ D-Rig with a wafter as his hook bait, and over the week he used 10kg of boilies.

Steve Hebdon was fishing in Tea Party 2 where his first rod was cast at 20 wraps towards the far margin, the middle rod was cast just left of the island at 18 wraps and his third rod was cast 16 wraps right of the island, Steve decided to bait up with a kilo of Atlantic Heat boilies over each spot. After suffering a couple of losses a belting 47lb mirror called Pin Scale more than made up for it. His next fish was a nice 32lb mirror, and he continued to catch steadily for the rest of the week, evening sneaking a 32lb Mirror out whilst packing up on Saturday morning. Steve was using the IQ D-Rig with an Atlantic Heat Wafter.

Well that’s it for another week here on the Road Lake, and we are now into our first week of May and surely the warmer weather is on its way.