Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 08/06/2024

Don’t forget to smile

With it being every angler on Road Lake’s first time at Gigantica and the majority’s first time in France there were high hopes all round and a good buzz in the air with anticipation of what might happen for the week, however with the fish spawning upon arrival and seeing visible evidence of this on the walk round, we all understood that it could be difficult this week. 

Although fish were spawning during the walk round and the morning of arrival there were still chances available for the anglers and some real nice fish banked this week so it wasn’t quite the write off that some originally feared when the first see the fish chasing each other around and smashing up the reeds. One angler who really made the most of the opportunities that came his way was Jack Hughes who fished Turtles Corner. Jack stuck to his guns all week and kept the bait trickling in at 21 wraps with all three rods being fished in a line with steady baiting over the top, Jack’s main feed was Boilie mixed with the House Maize and Large tins of Corn bought from the onsite tackle shop, he fished an IQ D rig with 2 pieces of slow sinking Maize and this definitely worked for him. Jack managed the most fish of all anglers this week and also the largest, not only that but he absolutely smashed his PB by over 25lb with a fish called Two Tone which weighed in at 61lb 8oz. Jack kept steady bites coming all week with a finishing total of 14 fish including the Long Common at 44lb and a few good twenties and thirties so it was safe to say he was happy with his results, he also let his friend Travis have a go in his swim who was struggling in Shingles, and Travis also managed to bank a PB of 39lb using the same tactics in Turtles with a fish called Blowt Fish.

Next we have Darren who fished in the Goo, Darren’s week was tricky to say the least with the majority of the week seemingly having a void of fish in his swim. Darren started the week with a fairly heavy baiting of the house Maize to see if he could attract some fish into the area but this didn’t seem like it was working unfortunately, however the tide did change towards the back end of the week and he was definitely grateful that it did. With a few tweeks to his baiting approach the main one being the time he was baiting up, Darren was originally baiting in the morning and after dinner but after seeing fish around these times for a couple of days in a row and asking a bit of advice from the bailiffs he soon switched to baiting up in the mid afternoon when it looked less likely for a bite, and this definitely came good as not too long after switching baiting approach Darren landed a new PB of 53lb 8oz, a lovely big Common by the name of Nailed. Darren managed to continue this success with another upper twenty Common on the final morning so after a bit of a slog the first half of the week, Darren was over the moon to be coming home with a new PB of over 50lb. 

A week of PB’s being broken for Anglers on Road lake continued with James Morgan-Bolton who landed himself in the Beach, James fished the beach at 24 wraps and would walk round to the bund to apply mainly house Maize accurately to his spot, James fished a Spinner also with two pieces of slow sinking maize which led him to bank 5 fish including a new PB of 48lb with another big Common by the name of Porky, other than that James managed a few smaller fish including a 30lb Grassy and a couple of other little commons, but to add another person to the PB wall meant there were smiles all round. 

Next up we have Russ Baxter who fished in Bacheliers, which he wasn’t 100% sold on originally as this was where the fish were spawning during the walk round, due to the spawning fish Russ decided to fish out in the open water rather than target the margins but this definitely paid off for him as very early on in the week he was rewarded with yet another PB for the road lake at 45lb 4oz another one of our resident big commons by the name of Twin Patch, Russ caught this just 7.5 wraps out straight in front of him, an area that generally gets ignored in this swim, unfortunately for Russ this was the only fish he managed this week but seeing as it was another PB smashed by over 20lb he still expressed how happy he was with that fish and that the slowed action as the week went on definitely didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Then we come to Rick Bolton, Rick has very recently started fishing so was slightly apprehensive when he started to get going, with a few days passing and not much happening he definitely started to worry that it might continue for the whole week, but this definitely wasn’t the case. Around half way through the week Rick made the decision to switch to Solid bags and fish sightly shorter at 13 wraps as he felt his accuracy was better this way and that he would be fishing more effectively which definitely worked out for him. Rick arrived with a PB of around 20lb which he absolutely smashed by banking a fish called Lottchen at 45lb but thar wasn’t all he also managed 2 more fish one being a small common of under 20lb and the other narrowly missing the 30lb mark by weighing 29lb 14oz so Rick definitely went home a happy man and also was another face to add to the PB soaking on Friday afternoon. 

Last but not least we have Mike who fished in Tea Party 2, unfortunately for Mike he couldn’t quite seem to get stuck into the bigger fish for some reason but still managed to Bank 6 carp, the wights of these fish varied but none of them quite broke the 30lb barrier with the majority being upper doubles and mid twenties, Mike fished 23/24 wraps over to the far margin and worked at it all week with steady baiting going in just hoping a whopper might grace his rods, this wasn’t the case but he certainly didn’t let this get him down and he just seemed to be grateful to have a good week away with friends and a few nice fish thrown in also.

Until next time

Rob