Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 20/04/2024

Proper Food

With the weather so up and down once again bites were always going to be hard to come by, but with all the anglers happy to share information and tactics most of them were able to get at least one fish on the bank.

First of all we have Nick who came out early in the draw and managed to secure The Beach, a swim that was clearly holding a lot of fish. For the week Nick managed to Bank 7 fish with the Biggest being Big Shack at its largest ever weight of 63lb, Nick started off fishing the tree line margin as the previous week this was the area to get bites, however Nick made the decision to start fishing short, twelve wraps towards Decoy as he had been seeing several fish showing and fizzing in this part of the lake. For some reason the fish seemed to switch off from the beds of bait this week and the going tactic definitely was fishing for a bit at a time mainly through the use of solid bags, many of the anglers started off Spombing and feeding bait but quickly changed to solid bags as the few doing this early on in the week were the ones banking fish. Nick fished small pellets in a bag with slow sinking Maize as the hookbait and minimized the free bait he was offering. Alongside Big Shack Nick also managed to bank The Grey at 52lb 10oz, aswell as Pac-Man at 44lb so he definitely made the most of his opportunities.

Next we have Dan who originally chose to start in The Poo who’s willingness to be mobile really aided in his final catch summary. After one night in the Poo Dan felt he couldn’t ignore the noise of the fish boshing throughout the night in front of Billy’s, so come Sunday morning he packed his gear up and moved round. Unfortunately this particular move didn’t pay off, but once again using his eyes and ears though the night Dan soon realised he wasn’t quite on the fish as he’d have liked, he heard some fish showing down to his left so once again come Monday morning he was packed up and on the move, he finally settled on Dunkerque. For all his efforts Dan finally started getting stuck into some fish, Dan managed to bank 6 fish in his stay which included Eddy at 52lb 8oz, not only a new top weight for this fish but also another NEW 50 for the Road Lake. Dan started off by feeding boilies as freebies while fishing a Spinner rig with an Orange pop up as the hookbait, as the week went on like many of the anglers Dan reduced the free bait going in and switched to Solid Bags while keeping his orange pop up on the hook. Other than Eddy Dan only managed to bank twenties but these did include a cracking 25lb Common which looked like a miniature version of The Jackal.

One of the memorable captures of the week was landed by Joe fishing in Turtle’s Corner, Joe maybe got a bit ahead of steam at the early stages of the week by putting in a large amount of bait along the Tree Line margin which for some reason this week didn’t seem to be the way to go, Joe plugged away at his baited areas with regular feeding hoping that they would at some point switch on to it.  As the end of the week drew closer Joe realised maybe a change of tactics was needed and was willing to ask for advice from bailiffs and other anglers and put this advice into practice, following this advice Joe moved over to a Solid Bag set up and came off of his baited spot into open water which really paid off for him, on his penultimate night Joe managed to smash his PB with Huckleberry at 49lb 8oz which was a lovely way for him to end his week.

The last 40 to mention fell to Mawill fishing in Tea Party 2, across the week Mawill landed 4 fish all falling to solid bags fished across to the far margin. Mawill was happy to be getting bites catching some nice scaly fish including Apple at 28lb but of course he was hoping for a larger fish to eventually come along. With the week edging to an end Mawill was finally rewarded with a new PB Common of 47lb which came in the shape of Riley a fish that really made his trip worthwhile.

Although that was it for the big fish, there were still plenty of bites to be had, Greg fishing in The Decoy managed to keep the bites fairly regular through the week landing 5 fish to 28lb by fishing Spinner rigs and minimal baiting 16 wraps down his righthand margin. Sticking with the margins Mike managed to land himself 3 fish with the biggest being a lovely 29lb Common, all his bites came from Nine wraps down his righthand margin. Last but not least we have Weeman who unfortunately didn’t see any fish over the 30lb mark, Weeman kept active during the week by moving swim twice after repeatedly hearing fish in swims with no anglers, the moves definitely worked as he caught out of both of the latter swims.

Until next time 

Rob