Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 10/08/2024

Get Ziggy wit it! 

With the previous couple of weeks fishing being quite difficult on the road lake it was always due to change, and a good go on a different tactic definitely worked this week for the anglers, Zigs were definitely a game changer this week with high temperatures the fish were spending a lot of time off the bottom and the anglers made the most of this. 

Starting off we have Mark Hewitt who fished in Turtles Corner, Mark started the week strong the first fish he banked himself being a new PB and actually the biggest fish out this week. Fishing at 21 wraps to the tree line margin and scattering a mix of Boilie and House Maize over the top, this did the trick this time banking him 2 Scale at 56lb, but from then on the bites seemed to not quite continue for Mark and as there had been a few out elsewhere around the lake on zigs Mark felt this was the tactic to go forward and he seemed to be correct, with 7 fish total for the week and 6 of them coming to zigs fished at 12ft off the bottom he kept the bites coming and was fairly consistent throughout the rest of the week, although none of these fish were comparable in size to 2 Scale as the rest seemed to fall within the 20 to 30lb bracket he was still over the moon with his weeks fishing as he should have been.

Next up we have Jamie Wilson who began his trip in Birches but quickly made the move in the scorching heat into the Goo, very quickly this move paid off for Jamie landing two in his first morning after setting up both falling to a zig cast towards the middle at showing fish, the black foam was definitely doing the business. The first fish to fall to the Zig for Jamie was a lovely 45lb 4oz Common called the Grim Reaper which hadn’t been seen for getting close to two years, the other fish from that morning was another Common weighing in at 35lb 4oz. Jamie kept the bites coming this week after his move also nicking a couple from the same area but this time fishing on the bottom, overall Jamie finished the week with 6 fish total which also included Mia at 44lb 8oz and another 40 weighing in at 40lb 8oz with a fish called Pac-Man, the other fish banked were also 30’s for Jamie so overall his average weight was very good, but that swim is known for throwing up some units so it wasn’t particularly to my surprise. 

Next we have Jason Hewitt son of Mark in Turtles, Jason was the real hauler of the week landing 37 fish in total from Tea Party 2, Jason started off the week fishing on the bottom at various distances up and down his far margin, however once a few came trickling out on the zigs he realised this tactic would work well for him with the amount of fish traffic he had in the area, at first he left 2 on the bottom and roved his zig around which very quickly started producing fish, so after not much time he reeled his other two rods in and just attacked the swim with the Zig, fishing at 12ft off the bottom and regular recasting he really began to get stuck into them, before no time he was racking the numbers up and it seemed he was struggling to keep his rod in the water for longer than 10 minutes. Jason did have to play the numbers game to a certain extent but he still got stuck into some really nice fish including a nice old looking 44lb Mirror, a 42lb Common known as Miss Daisy, Castro at 42lb on the nose which actually got caught from Tea Party 1 the day prior, and Big Scale which weighed 40lb 12oz, other than that Jason’s haul was made up of a lot of twenties and thirties but he didn’t mind, I don’t think he ever expected to back up quite like he did, but due to the work he put in he definitely deserved it. 

Then we have Lloyd Wheeler who picked Tea Party 1 for his week, Lloyd’s week began fairly slowly due to a lot of the fish being up the end of the Beach, however around 3 days in the fish got on the move and ended up in front of him to which he really made the most of his opportunities, Lloyd finished the week with 6 fish in total which all fell to the Zig fished at 12-14ft off the bottom, but once again Lloyd really seemed to be having a good average stamp of fish, with 3 of his 6 caught being 40’s, the biggest of the week we referred to as the Communal fish due to the way it got caught, I believe Lloyd brother Lewis set up the rod at the time, Lloyd was in the toilet so he let Tom cast it out, and as it was in Lloyds swim and on his rods they decided no one could really claim it and decided to go with a group photo, this fish is considered as one of the best looking Mirrors in the lake, a fish known as Darky which tipped the scales at 44lb on the nose. Lloyd did manage to beat his PB this week with the other 40’s he felt more comfortable claiming, the first time he beat it was with a fish called Vouvray weighing 40lb 2oz but then roughly an hour later managed another 40 in the name of Castro which weighed 41lb 5oz so he was also over the moon with his weeks totals. 

Next up we have Lewis Wheeler, Lloyds brother who began his week in Decoy which at the time was definitely a wise choice as early on in the week the fish were definitely held up along the bund in his right margin, Lewis made the most of the time he had with fish on him but landing 11 fish within his first couple of days on the bank, Lewis was catching with a mix of Zigs and also off the bottom, using a spinner rig cast 17 wraps down the right hand margin and was walking around to the life buoy to spoon in a large amount of House Maize mixed with Boilie, Lewis’s most notable captures that week were a PB in the shape of one of our large resident Grass carp weighing in at 46lb, he also had a lovely looking Grey common called Snowflake weighing 43lb 12oz and also another mirror called the Boxer which came in at 37lb on the nose. Lewis did eventually make the move into the Goo as Jamie left a day early but unfortunately didn’t manage to make it happen in there. 

Tom Brown began his week in the beach like Lewis he chose this swim with an early draw because the fish were clearly there on arrival, Tom managed to winkle out 3 fish from the Beach while the fish were there but within a day or two they had disappeared and his swim seemed void of all signs of activity, Tom managed 2 thirties out of these 3 fish, a 33lb Common and 35lb Mirror which he was happy to have caught but of course as the week dragged on he wished he could have got stuck into a few more and of course something bigger. 

Lastly we have the remaining anglers who all managed to still catch but unfortunately never got stuck into the units, Ryan in Billy’s had 5 fish up to 28lb all from the over hanging tree fished at 18 wraps, Ian Ockwell one of our regulars began in The Cage to which he had 2 fish under 20lb he then made the move to the Poo and landed to upper twenty’s so it definitely was a move worth making and lastly we have Squib who managed 2 fish from Bacheliers one being a mid double and the other a low twenty.

All in all it was a good week for Road Lake with no blanks and a few PB’s broken which is what we love to see.

Until Next Time, Tight lines.  

Rob