Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 15/06/2019

Week commencing 15/06

With more hot weather on the horizon, it looked very possible that the carp would spawn again but with only 5 anglers on the road lake this week, at least it gave the guys the option to move onto feeding fish if the opportunity arose. With a smaller number of anglers than swims available, hopefully everyone would get a chance to catch.

James Newton plotted up in T1 for the week and chose to fish the spot that most people usually go for in this swim. He fished all 3 rods tight together at 19 wraps towards Turtles Corner. It took a couple of days for James to get his spot going but he baited consistently with a mixture of whole 18mm Link and some 15mm Essential Cell mixed with our Gigantica pellet. Using roughly 10 kilos a day, 50/50 mix boilies and pellet he was baiting with 15-20 spombs every couple of hours. When the fish started to feed, he was also baiting up after every bite. James’ first fish landed was ‘The Submarine’ @ 44lb 4oz which was a great start but this was soon to be eclipsed by a new lake record common and the Road Lake’s first 60lb common was ‘Moomin’ @ 62lb. What a fish! Showing an impressive weight gain of 9lb since it last made an appearance on the bank almost a year ago, it truly was a magnificent specimen. After this the bites continued to come fairly steadily throughout the week resulting in a further 8 fish with 2 x 30’s, 5 x 20’s and a cracking little 14lb Mirror. All of these fish were landed on ‘D ‘rigs incorporating a size 4 Kamakura Krank, 20lb N-trap in Gravel Brown and 15mm Banoffee Wafters soaked in Buttercorn goo at the business end. Considering the fish weren’t keen to play all week, it shows that patience and persistence pays off, good angling James!

Andy Parfitt settled in The Poo as we had seen a lot of fish in this swim on the walk around and Andy couldn’t wait to get stuck in! Andy sat up late on Saturday night, listening to ‘symphonies of carp’ who were teasing him and showing him where they were but without a bite. At 1am a change of tactic was in order and Andy reeled a rod in and tied a high attract solid bag and cast to a showing fish. This pro-active angling resulted in a bite at first light in the shape of ‘Darky’ @ 44lb 4oz which ended up being his only action in The Poo!! After 3 uneventful nights, Andy decided to up sticks and relocate to Shingles to try his luck there as he had seen activity in that area. Andy decided to fish at 18 wraps towards the big tree, right of the dot island, deciding to bait heavily to begin with as he had seen the activity here putting out 10kg of Link and Gigantica pellet. Sticking to his solid bag tactics, he landed two fish on Wednesday and Thursday in the shape of a 23lb mirror and a 25lb common. The fish continued showing over the spot but no pick ups were occurring so another change of tactic was applied, bringing one rod in and switching it over to an 11ft zig which produced 3 more fish in quick succession on Thursday evening, the best being a 40lb mirror named ‘Dylan’. Friday morning, Andy invited Nigel Matthews into his swim to share the zig rod. Nigel had been fishing in Bacheliers and had only had one bite which came on the first night. This soon changed as the bites kept coming on Friday with a 34lb and 38lb for Nigel and one lost fish. Andy had three more fish, ‘Inky’ @ 34lb 8oz, ‘Hobnob’ @ 40lb and a mega last day result in the shape of ‘Fosters’ @ 55lb! In Andy’s words ‘this finished off a perfect holiday for all of us’, what a way to end the week guys!

Richard McCartney dropped into Eastwoods for the week and fished 3 rods staggered at 10, 8 and 6 wraps, directly in front of him. Baiting up from the bank, he used 10kg a day 50/50 Main Line Cell boilies and Gigantica pellet, every day just before dinner which landed him 7 fish for the week. The biggest of the bunch was ‘The Korda Social Common’ @ 49lb 12oz, so close to breaking the 50lb barrier! This was backed up by 5 x 20-29 and a 19lb mirror. All of these fish were landed on simple Blowback rigs, using straight out the bag Cell bottom baits, topped with plastic yellow sweetcorn.

John ‘The Resident’ Allen switched over from the Main Lake for his first experience on the Road Lake. John came out number 3 out of 5 and managed to get in the swim of his choice, Turtle’s Corner. Sticking to his guns and fishing how he approaches all lakes he fishes, John found a shallow spot at 17 wraps and decided to fish all three rods there. Baiting up from the margin, he used crushed and chopped boilies and various sized Gigantica pellet, scattered in a wide area. This looked to be a going tactic as he landed ‘Frankie’ @ 53lb on Sunday morning @ 7am. Frankie was tripped up by a hinge rig with plastic corn for a hook bait. Alas, this was to be the only action of the week as the fish decided to move off the spot and John decided to persevere with the same spot that he had started baiting. Interesting chat with a very knowledgeable and experienced angler about state of form and fish behaviour. Maybe John will consider a different approach next time he visits the Road Lake as in his words ‘ they know what they want and if you don’t give it to them, they don’t visit and move on.’ Wise words John!

Another fantastic week, although fishing still fairly slow and more very hot weather predicted for next week (wouldn’t surprise me if they spawned again.) Everyone caught and several PB’s smashed. The highlight of the week for me was photographing an ecstatic James, holding ‘Moomin’. Gets the mind wondering just how big the other big girls are that are yet to make an appearance this year. Look forward to seeing you boys again, thanks for making it such an enjoyable week. Until we meet again.

Tight lines

Steve