Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 05/03/2022

Hansen at the double!!!

With a fresh week on the horizon and the lads (and lady) at the gate ready for the walk around it was time to get cracking! With horrendous weather conditions forecast for the first few days of the trip it was going to be tough going…but everybody was prepared to battle through and get amongst them!

First off I’m going to talk about Jon Flanigan who fancied fishing a swim that hadn’t seen any bait the week before, so opted for The Goo. Jon decided to concentrate on a spot at 14 wraps just to the right of Shingles, starting the baiting off with 10 large spombs of maize, hemp and crumbed manilla and fishing combi rigs with two thirds of a boilie and two grains of floating corn as a topper... It didn’t take long for Bailiff Steve to receive a phone call from a very excited Jon saying “its F*****G massive!!! After a quick inspection it was clear it was indeed massive. Steve, Jon and a couple of others on hand to help weigh the monster which span the needle round to 60lb 8oz in the shape of “Hansen” which is another new 60 for the Road Lake……Pictures and a quick kiss goodbye and Jon was one very happy angler! But as we say at Gigantica “greed is good’ and he proceeded to land another 3 fish that morning, the first was a 32lb 4oz common which he cast a solid bag to a few rod lengths to the left of his baited spot, this was followed by a 34lb 8oz mirror and a small common which both came off the baited spot. Jon was topping the spot up with 10 Large spombs after each bite…There was very little action through the rest of the week for Jon as the weather took a turn and some serious cold nights settled in and it seemed to knock the fish off the feed, but on Friday morning with his mate Darby picking them up from Bachelliers next door he got in amongst them again and landed a 12lb stockie as a nice farewell present! In Jons own words he did not fish any different to how he would fish a lake in the U.K with a similar clean bottom. Top dangling mate 

Next up we have Michael Darby who came out last in the draw and somehow Turtles Corner hadn’t been picked yet! But we won’t talk about this swim in this section as Michael wasn’t feeling it after 24 hours and decided to make a bold move into Bachelliers after seeing fish showing in the top corner of the swim, after a quiet couple of days Darby picked up 2 mid 20 commons in quick succession, fishing at 29 wraps into the corner of the swim with D-rigs and 3 grains of SSM on the hook Michael was baiting up with the catapult from the bank with small amount of particle mix and some 10mm boilies. Fast forward to Friday morning and the weather had taken a serious turn for the better. Strong warm south easterly’s hacking into Bacheliers margin kicked off what was to be a bit of a feeding spell. Frankie at 51lb 8oz was the first bite and what a mega carp! Same tactics applied and P.B absolutely obliterated….after recasting this rod and popping round to see Jon’s fish in the Goo he had a bite 15 mins after the recast in the shape of Mysterio at 47lb!! Not bad for a Friday brace of bigguns! Well in mate!

Jimmi Glowacki and his better half Millie plotted up in Billys for the week…as mentioned before the weather at the start of the week was extremely bleak with freezing cold nights and cloudless bright days with high pressure it wasn’t ideal! Jimmi took advice from the bailiff and didn’t go mad with baiting and decided on fishing solid bags to fish for a bite at a time. Fast forward to Friday morning and he had one in the net!! Fishing at 18 wraps just past the overhanging tree on Billy’s margin with a pineapple dumbbell hookbait inside his very tidy solid bag he landed a 40lb 4oz common known as Riley. Im sure you can see that the back end of the week the fishing really picked up and Jimmi certainly went home a happy man with a new P.B to boot! 

We will talk about the next swim which saw 3 anglers grace its bank throughout the week…as previously mentioned Darby decided to move out of Turtles Corner after 24 hours and bailiff Steve Bartlett couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drop in there for a few nights as its probably the only time it will be possible this year, deciding to fish all 3 rods on solid bags with slow sinking corn on mini Spinner rigs tight at 22 wraps towards the dot island Steve managed to winkle out a couple of decent mirrors in the shape of “Bomb Head” at 45lb 4oz and “Digits” at 37lb 8oz. The bailiffs don’t fish Friday nights as Saturdays are very busy and packing gear down in the morning would not be the best time management! So after packing the bivvy down and moving out the swim it gave Ben Fenton a chance to drop into there for the last 24 hours of the session. Ben started the week in Birches and fished well but they just weren’t there. The proof was in the pudding when he moved into Turtles and fished exactly how he was fishing in Birches apart from introducing a bit more bait due to the fact fish were showing regularly in the area! Ben put 20 spombs of crushed DNA Bug and S7 boilie along with some hemp and corn at 22 wraps towards the dot island and proceeded to have 4 fish in 24 hours with his first bite being a 60lb mirror which turned out to be Hansen again!! After coming out 5 days prior in the Goo she decided to make another angler very happy before their time at the lake was up! This was followed up with a 36lb 4oz mirror and then a 40lb common straight after! Ben then had one last bite on Saturday morning at pack up which was another goodun at 39lb 12oz! All of Bens fish came on Spinners fished with size 4 Klors and 5 inches of 35lb boom with yep you guessed it, Slow Sinking Maize doing the business again!! 

Last but by absolutely no means least we have Darren Runnicles who dropped into Tea Party 1 for the week. After seeing and hearing absolutely nothing for the first few days Darren decided to slow down with his baiting approach and reel the rods in for a bit to rest the swim and have a breather. After a conversation at dinner with Steve the bailiff and a little bit of time spent going over the ins and out of solid bag fishing Darren decided to try an approach he hadn’t had much experience in, this decision paid dividend as on the second night of this tactic he saved a blank with a pristine 35lb 4oz common from his spot at 21 wraps towards Turtles Corner…I shall give you all 3 guesses as to what hookbait was enclosed in the solid bag! 1. 2. 3……yep Slow Sinking maize.

The fish are really switched onto yellow hookbaits right now due to the maize and corn being fed consistently… The back end of this week really got the fish moving about and feeding heavier than previous weeks….next week we have some much warmer conditions forecast and I don’t think it will be long until we start seeing some serious numbers of fish being caught!

17 fish for the week and a legendary bunch of lads (and lady) I really enjoyed looking after you all and really hope to see you again soon!

Until then,

Be lucky and catch a biggun…

Steve