Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 11/05/2019

Week Commencing 11^th May 2019

Monsoon style rain greeted this week’s anglers which had us all hiding under the lodge for a few minutes before it brightened up. With a break in the rain we set off on the walk round. With North Easterlies forecast all week it was due to be a tad cooler than recent times, but that didn’t stop the lads from knicking a few bites.

Golden boy and Korda Carp Academy 2015 graduate Lewis Deckx pulled out ball 1 and headed straight into Turtles Corner, after seeing fish in the area that had been pointed out by the bailiff he didn’t hesitate in getting the rods out. Fishing 21 wraps fanned out from the left of the dot island to the big tree Lewis started off really well, landing 5 fish in the first 24 hours! The biggest being ‘Inky’ @ 36lb. Baiting consistently is key at this time of year, keeping the fish in your swim for as long as possible! Lew approached this by feeding 10 spombs every 2 hours during the day, his spod mix consisted of BBR Gravity and White Banoffee boilies in 18 and 10mm, chopped and crumbed of the same boilie, pellet and maize. The rest of the week was just as busy with Lew smashing his P.B multiple times, landing ‘Not all about the hat’ @ 43lb 12, ‘Century’ @ 42lb, ‘The Grey’ @ 43lb and’ After Work’ @ 45lb 8oz. This was backed up by 4 30’s and some proper scaley bangers that are working their way up the weight brackets! Lew landed a total of 15 fish for the week whilst losing a couple as well. The soakings after every P.B were worth it mate! (pretty sure your Dad enjoyed every single one as well)! Lewis used a variety of rigs and hookbaits through the course of the week but the ones that stood prominent were a combination of Peaches and Cream and Essential Cell wafters, fished on a D-rig, he also had a few on a standard snowman set up fished on a Spinner Rig. 

Father and son duo Adam Deckx and Lewis were buzzing to be here and couldn’t wait to get started. Ads was absolutely made up with the week his lad had in Turtles, but he wasn’t going to let him have all the fun was he? Fishing in the often under estimated Double Boards, he concentrated his efforts fishing 15 wraps towards Bacheliers and fanning his other 2 rods left at a staggered distance of 13 then 11 R/L. Adam is an ‘old school’ angler and using simple blowback rigs fished snowman style. Using BBR hempex topped with BBR choc orange pop ups, he baited the spot with 30-40 baits every few hours using the throwing stick. The Wolf didn’t have to wait long for his bite. I received a phone call at 5am Sunday morning with a very excited Adam on the other end! “I’ve got a goodun in the net mate and its f****g MASSIVE” or words to that effect. A quick bike ride round to the swim and we soon found out it was a very special fish, one that is 100% on my list of ones to catch out of the Road Lake, ‘The Box Mirror’ at an absolutely staggering weight of 56lb 4oz. Last out in April 2018 this fish has put on 10lb in just over a year! Ads was on cloud 9 for the rest of the week and even though the action slowed up for him after that, he was more than happy seeing the young gun smashing it up in Turtles for the rest of the week! Top bombing mate!

Next up is Dan Walker who came out early in the draw and decided to fish in the ever consistent Tea Party 1. Dan fished all 3 rods at 19 wraps towards Turtles Corner, fishing fairly spread out he baited through out the week with 30 spombs of whole/chopped and crumbed up Essential Cell with a bit of hemp thrown through the mix every day. Sunday day came around and normally most people are still getting sorted out and getting prepared for the week, not Dan! As I was dropping breakfast off around the lake, I had seen he was into a fish, by the time I had got back round to his peg there was an absolute enormidon at the bottom of his net! ‘Amstel’ @ 58lb 8oz was the end product, what a fish! Emotions were running high and a few of the lads were on hand to share the buzz with him! Danny tempted the monster mirror on a simple Spinner Rig with a yellow Essential Cell Pop up! Dan continued to bait up consistently and had another 6 fish throughout the week with 3 x 30lbers, a couple of 20s and one of the 2018 stockies which was nice to see on the bank! All fish fell to the same rig as the ‘biggun’. Yellows seem to be the go-to colour at the moment on the Road! 

Craig ‘Wooly” Woolaston ended up in Billies and it started off pretty slowly for him. Not seeing much activity for a few days would fry some peoples brains but taking advice from the bailiff about sticking to your spots and keeping the bait consistent, also having a confidence in your own angling paid dividends when he received a slow steady pick up on Wednesday afternoon. As soon as he hit into it he knew it was a good fish and after a beast of a battle there was another absolute CHUNK of a mirror in the net. When I got round to do pics we were all certain it was a high 50 at least but it went 1 step better and the scales swung round to 60lb on the nose! ANOTHER NEW 60lber for the road lake which is a fish known as “Rons”. The beast was tempted by a Spinner rig with a Baitworks Atlantic Heat pop up infused with the Sherbert GOO, baiting up with 20 spombs everyday with a mixture of crushed and whole Cell boilies and a bit of our hemp and maize mixed particle. Patient angling rewarded with an absolute cheese mate! Well done!

Shingles went fairly high in the draw this week and Shane Farrellywas its occupant! Taking advice from the bailiff after the bites that been produced the week before, he decided to focus his efforts fishing 3 rods at 18 wraps towards the big tree right of the dot island. Shane’s baiting approach was to feed 6kg of Mainline Link and Essential cell soaked in hemp oil and dusted with GLM powder the day before use, mixed with 1kg of Gigantica Pellet and ½ kg of maize, finally finished off with essential cell and link stick mix liquids! Shane topped up after every fish with 25 spombs and also baited up with 25 spombs before and after dinner every day. Shane managed 5 fish for the week with the biggest being ‘Lee’s Common’ @ 45lb 12oz, another new P.B! this was backed up by ‘Elevenareef’ @ 37lb 4 and a couple of lovely scaley 20lbers. All of Shane’s fish fell to combi rigs tied with 20lb IQ2 down to a braided section of 20lb dark matter incorporating a size 4 Kamakura wide gape topped with an essential cell wafter. 

Ben Kurtzfound himself in the Beach and didn’t hang about getting off the mark, landing a unit of a common in the early hours of Sunday morning. ‘Golden Virginia’ @ 42lb 4oz was the result, which was another new P.B for the week! Ben tempted the golden common using a blowback rig with a 15mm UK Carp Colours anchovy and garlic bottom bait topped with a grain of corn, fished of 4kg of matching freebies. Ben had the bite from 20 wraps down to the left corner of the bund. Baiting up round on the bund made life a lot easier than spombing all the way across! Great result.

Fishing in The Poo this week was Gary Durant, it was a slow week for Gary but he kept at it and kept the bait going in consistently and keeping to his spots. He lost a real goodun at the net on Wednesday which was absolutely gutting, but he didn’t let it knock him down and he got another chance 24 hours later landing a lovely 37lb mirror that goes by the name of ‘Andromeda’. Gary fished staggered rods at 10, 12 and 14 wraps from turtles corner fanned to the left. Using Sticky Pineapple and Nbutyric pop ups over whole and chopped Cell boiles, Gary baited with 3-4 kg every day. Another P.B and massively deserved.

Jake Perryfished the last couple of nights in Eastwoodsand managed to knick a bite when the fish really weren’t in there that often, a very full up and big bellied 36lb common that was named after his twin brother ‘Phil Mitchell’. Jake landed the fish on an Essential Cell pop up fished on a spinner rig at 10 wraps towards Turtles Corner. He baited with a kilo of whole and half matching Essential Cell boilies, the odds were against him this week but he worked hard and grabbed a bite. Well in mate!

I dropped into the empty Bachiliers for a couple of nights and managed to land a couple of the lake’s smaller residents. Fishing D rigs with half a Link bottom bait and half essential cell pop up at 19 and 22 wraps either side of the big tree on the left margin. Baiting with 3kg of Link and Fyber mixed every day from the bank.

Everybody bar 1 caught this week and the lad who didn’t catch thoroughly deserved to moving onto fish when there was no activity in his swim. Sometimes it pays to stick it out on your spots and keep at it, other weeks he would have had a couple by moving to the fish. We have 7 lads going home with new P.Bs some of them being broken multiple times! I really enjoyed this week with a great bunch of lads, looking forward to catching up next year!

Until next time,

Tight lines,

Steve