Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 08/03/2025

Two Seasons, One Week

Following off from last week’s glorious spring like feel we started the week bathed in glorious warm sunshine, plenty of blossom starting to appear on the bushes and trees around the site, then to end the week on more winter like conditions with bitter cold north easterly winds blowing, minus nighttime temperatures and freezing fog like conditions.  Very much two seasons in one week!

With this being week number two of the year so far for the Road Lake and still just the eight anglers on this week, lets read on to find out how this week’s group got on.

First up we have Neil Disley, who managed to get himself set up in Decoy this week, and if you know the lake you will know that this is a good swim to end up in.  And it sure turned out this way this week as well.

Neil started out the week fishing out 18 wraps to the usual fished zone out in front of him and down the edge towards the bund, as many people do.  A couple of frustratingly slow day’s passed by, despite some good morning chats with us both coming from similar areas and reminiscing about days past no fish had graced his net as yet.

Keeping a close eye on the lake in front of him, Neil made a couple of changes that worked in his favour.  Firstly, by putting a rod out 7 wraps in front of him towards The Beach swim as he had seen some activity in this area, and it didn’t then take to long for him to land a couple of fish from this spot.  Okay a couple of smaller fish weighing 17 and 19lb but it didn’t matter, he was under way.

A slight adjustment also on his right-hand marginal rods would see him place them at similar range but this time further into the pond (approx. 7 wraps off the bank).  A spread of 10mm Cell boilies in and around this area with the trusty old catapult would see Neil go on to have a very busy Wednesday’s angling.  Landing a nice 24lb 12oz common, a fresh 16lb mirror now known as “Never Catches”, A very nice scally called “Bobby” 27lb 10oz, another common of 31lb 8oz, and just on dark “After Work” and a new PB at 53lb!  Not a bad day’s sport.

Another fish and another PB came along on Thursday for him, this time “TJ” and this one boosted his PB up to 59lb 8oz.  But that wasn’t all, with the icing on the cake and yet another new PB set on the Friday, “All About the Hat” weighing in at a mega 64lb and 4oz!  Three new Pb’s in as many days for him.  Totally made up for Neil, a lovely guy to be around and chat to.

Neils tactics for the week was as simple as it comes.  Inline leads along with a coated braided material and Krank hooks being baited with two grains of slow sinking yellow IB corn, and as mentioned above baited with a scattering of 10mm Cell mixed with 15mm Cell later in the week as his stock of 10mm ones ran low.

Massive well done again and hopefully look forward to seeing you back here in April next year.

Pep joined us all the way from Holland this week, and despite having a high ball number in the draw managed to eventually find himself in the new Bund swim.

Started fishing this area as it ended last week at 6 wraps and having three fish up to mid 30lb’s on the first full morning Pep moved his rods to just 3 wraps out after seeing fish much closer to him.  A move that didn’t affect his catch rate as he went on to catch next “Scaley Reg” weighing 31lb 11oz and another fish of 20lb’s before on the Thursday he had messaged to say that he had a fish in the sling bigger than anything he had caught before.  Going around to the swim and having a quick weigh, it spun the scales around to 51lb 4oz and a new PB for him as he had expected.  Photo’s done and it was confirmed that it was “Le Flair”.

Pep had another couple of fish on the final day in the freezing fog, “Zippy” at 31lb 12oz which is an amazing looking carp and another smaller common of 23lb 6oz.

Solid bags were his go to tactic this week, using Dark Matter braid for hook link and Longshank hooks baited with 2 grains of slow sinking corn, one white and one yellow.  Pep baited with crushed Cell boilie and corn with plenty of Smart Liquid over the top and a boosting of Pineapple Goo inside the bags for added pulling attraction.

Well done this week Pep, and well done on another PB on the lake.

Jamie Wilson was with us for a second week, after having the previous week on the Main Lake.  Jamie managed to pull ball number one and headed straight to Turtles Corner.

Jamie was off to a great start, continuing from last week’s captures from 21 wraps out towards the island.

Sunday morning at around 5am and 7am Jamie had landed two fish of similar weight, 23lb 4oz “Charlies Mate” and “Lottie” weighing 23lb 8oz.  Caught using very neat and tidy solid bags baited with fake slow sinking corn and baited over the top of these with again boilie crumb, corn and hemp.  Very precise numbers of Spomb’s went out, 11 to start with and 11 after ever fish.  There is a story behind why everything Jamie done was in 11’s.

Unfortunately, this is where the action began and ended for him.  After a flying first morning I believed that more fish were going to follow, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Thanks for the two weeks, hopefully see you again in the future.

The last of the anglers this week to get amongst some action was Dan Foggin, who had travelled all the way from Newcastle to be with us and manged to get himself into Bacheliers.

It took until mid-week for him to get under way and his first one in the net.  At 21lb 8oz it was a nice way to get under way and after a few tweaks with his positioning he was off the mark.  The following day another two fish came his way in the shape of mirrors weighing 22lb 2oz and 18lb respectively.  

The fish were being caught at 31 wraps more towards the corner of the far margin where he had spotted fish holding in the warmer weather at the start of the week.

Baiting with corn, boilie crumb and a Metamino liquid attractant Dan deployed 6” Spinner rigs on a helicopter set up baited with yellow pop ups glugged in the ever-popular Pineapple and Isotonic Goo combination.  A great combo at any time of the year and one that works especially well here at Gigantica. 

 20 Fish out this week for the guys, despite it now being spring the lake is yet to spring into action, but let’s hope that this isn’t too far around the corner.

Tight line all.

Gareth “Gino”