Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 28/06/2025

Storms & Technical Issues

This week at the Road Lake we had another group exclusive booking, with ten new faces for the venue who are all linked together by a carp fishing social group.  With only 10 anglers on again this week giving the fish plenty of moving space and signs that spawning is now beyond us for another year, the fish should be active and feeding well again after a couple of more challenging weeks.  Let read how the guys got on.

Let’s kick off this week’s catch report with the angler who managed to catch the largest fish of the week and that was Jordan Moulding who during the draw put himself to fish from the inform Birches swim.

Going straight out on to the “going spot” in here, fishing out towards Billy’s opposite him at 21 wraps, it was during the first night that he got off the mark straight away with a 23lb’er to get his account open with.  Jordan went on to land another smaller resident of 18lb on the Tuesday morning but then went on to have a double take during the early hours of Wednesday morning again from the 21-wrap spot first landing a fish called ‘Almost Leather’ weighing 25lb 4oz and then the seco d half of the brace was something a little more special.  Weighing done and confirmed at 57lb 8oz I was at first a little unsure as to which fish it was, knowing it was one of the A team that would normally be a low to mid 60, but with spawning just finished I didn’t expect it to be ‘Ron’s’, but it sure was.  A fish that had topped 70lb in the past it was well spawned out clearly!

Another fish followed the next morning for him, a low 20lb’er, but it was just after this fish that Jordan felt a move was on the cards and he was off on his travels to the vacant Poo swim.  The move didn’t work out in his favour in the end, but with a few fish under his belt for his first time here, I’m sure he was more than happy with what he had caught.

During the week Jordan consistently fed a mixture of boilie, corn, pellet and maize for his mix, and then fished a match the hatch hard bottom bait with a corn topper mounted to spinner rigs comprising of Boom and size 6 Krank hooks.

Let’s jump on over to a different section of the lake for our next report and that is Rob Hammond who was fishing this week from Shingles.

Now shingles is more known to be a swim that isn’t renowned for catching big hits of fish, but certainly the better average and size of fish.  So, it is normally a case of sitting tight and they will come and visit you at some point in the week, and that was exactly the case this week.  Having previously lost a fish to a hook pull his next bite that came early hours of Wednesday morning produced a fish called ‘The Wedge’ for him weighing 57lb 4oz.  A new top weight for this fish as well.  This was caught from the normally fished area at 18 wraps to the island.

What a result and well worth waiting for that one.  With the highs of catching that fish in the morning, it was the lows to come Rob’s way at dinner time that very same day when whilst everyone was around enjoying their dinner a storm of all storms came through the site.  From 40 odd degrees in temperatures to monsoon like rain, thunder lightening and hurricane like winds Rob had gone back to his swim to find his bivvy destroyed and one of his rod tips broken.  Certainly not ideal!  But everyone rallied around, and he had plenty of offers of help come his way to keep him fishing for the remainder of the week.

Just the one fish in the end but well done on the fish you did land.

Steve ‘Crammy’ Cram hit the ground running in Bacheliers this week, fishing out at 25 wraps, he managed to land five fish on the Sunday!  The first one landed of this bunch turned out to be his biggest of the day as well at 42lb 8oz and known as ‘Barrow’.  Other fish that day included ‘Golden Virginia’ weighing 35lb 2oz, ‘The Honeymooner’ just over 30lb’s at 31lb, another 30lb’er on top of these and ‘Mr G’ the smallest at 18lb 4oz.  A great way to start on your first visit to the lake.

The action continued steady for Steve over the next three days, managing to land another couple of fish per day including ‘Relentless’ at 29lb. 

On the final day of the week, Steve’s arm was twisted to make a move for one last go in the now vacant Decoy swim.  And what a decision it was to be in the end.  Shortly after midnight into the Saturday morning I received the phone call to inform me that he believed he had one over the 50lb barrier in the sling.  Weighing done and he wasn’t wrong.  ‘Nailed’ weighing 52lb 12oz.  This was caught from the right-hand margin out at 18 wraps.  Well worth the effort that one.  Well done Steve.

Rig wise for Steve during the week was the ever-faithful Spinner rigs, made up using size 4 Krank hooks to keep the fish coming and baited with a match the hatch hard hooker topped with a single grain of corn which was all then soaked into a matching bait dip.

Over in Dunkerque for this session was Matt Went.  With a good number of fish in front of him during the early part of his trip it was no surprise that he had some early action. And a nice brace of carp came his way in quick succession on the Monday morning at first light.  A total weight just shy of 100lb it was made up with ‘The Korda Social Common’ at 51lb 2oz and also ‘Quaver’ weighing a spawned out 48lb 6oz!  A very nice start to the day, and no surprise as I sat with him watching the water looking at the sheer number of fish showing and bubbling all around him.  

It was a similar story for Matt the following morning with another couple of fish being landed, a 31lb common and a 27lb 2oz mirror this time around.

After this the fish had seemed to have left the area in number, as it all went a lot quieter in this part of the lake.  But right at the back end of the week he did manage to land one more, ‘Mr Mison’ again spawned out at 38lb 4oz.

Matt went in hard to start the session with his baiting, introducing 35 Spombs from the off, which comprised of Essential Cell boilie in 15 and 10mm, our house Premium Pellet and corn.  After the initial hit of bait Matt reduced his feed to 15 Spombs until he got some action.

Rigs over the top were Spinners, baited with Essential Cell snowmen, comprising of a boilie out the bag and a small matching pop up on top.

Well done on your results Matt.

Up in Turtles Corner we had Danny Turner who had a slow start to his time with us managing four fish by the Wednesday up to 32lb 6oz identified as ‘V Rod’.  This fish came to a 14ft zig fished with a single piece of black foam out towards Tea Party 2 from his swim.

But a crazy Thursday was in store for Danny landing 16 fish in a day, up to 33lb 5oz!  What a busy day and a slight change of spot coming away from his left-hand margin and now fishing just 9 wraps out towards Tea Party 1 just before the water starts to get a little deeper.

Again Spinner rigs being the winning set up, using 2 grains of slow sinking maize to tempt these fish to bite and fished over a boilie and maize combination.

Danny ended his week having had 26 fish to his name, no real monsters in the mix but what a bit of action to keep yourself busy with.

Well done Danny, great tally of fish that.

Lee Berry started out fishing his week from Decoy and after sitting tight for the main chunk of the week he went on to manage a double take on the Tuesday morning, landing a nice 31lb’er and ‘Wilbur’ weighing 36lb 10oz.  These were both caught whilst concentrating his efforts down to his right-hand margin out at the usual 18 wraps, plus also out in the direction of The Cage at 17 wraps.  Lee introduced to his spots here a mixture of boilie, house pellet and maize.  Spinners rigged up with size 4 Wide Gape hooks and the Boom material done the magic here, baited with artificial ISO Fish hook baits.

Keeping with the same tactics, Lee moved on into the empty Goo swim on the Wednesday and it was in the early hours of Thursday that I had a phone call from him letting me know he had a ‘good un’ in the net.  And that it was, spinning his scales around to 52lb 4oz, and a lovely common it was to.  This fish this time around was caught from 14 wraps cast out towards the ‘lone tree’ set off on the opposite bank to his left slightly.

Very well done on the fish after the move Lee, well deserved.

Another angler to have a good hit of fish this week was Wesley Cole, who having started out in The Beach was on the move very early on over to the other part of the lake and into Double Boards.  Action soon followed his move, landing five fish on the Tuesday alone, during the night and the early hours.  But later, during the day, he landed a nice looking common known as ‘Snowflake’ and this one weighed 45lb’s this time around.

Wesley had two different areas rocking, one out at 15 wraps in the direction of Bacheliers and 12 wraps out towards the Poo swim.  It was his 12-wrap spot that he informed me seemed to have produced the better fish for him.  Both areas where baited with a fishmeal bait with the addition of corn and pellet in the mix and fished with a match the hatch wafter or two grains of slow sinking corn for hook baits.

Another 40lb’er came Wesley’s way this week in the shape of ‘Cage Fighter’ at 40lb exactly from his 12-wrap location.  But it was the Thursday this week that, like Danny in Turtles, Wesley had a big hit of fish.  Starting the day off with 6 bites around breakfast time landing fish up to 31lb 4oz.  A great start to the day and some more fish to his ever-increasing tally.  Ending the week on a double figure sum of carp landed from this swim was impressive, so well-done Wesley and again another angler on the move this week that made it work for him.

Over to Billy’s swim now, and again this swim keeps producing the bites for those fishing from its bank.  This week we had Andy Hutchins who also managed early action with a 19lb’er on his first night and a handful of fish during the next couple of nights.  Then on the Monday night and early part of Tuesday morning Andy managed a couple of better fish.  A 44lb 2oz mirror that he had done self takes of during the night and then just after first light managed an even better fish, this time a 53lb 4oz mirror know as ‘After Work’.  A nice result for Billy’s swim that is, as it has been good for numbers of fish of late but mainly the smaller residents.  His 40lb’er came from out in open water at 18 wraps and his largest from 21 wraps out along his right-hand tree line.  All taken on Spinner rigs with size 4 Kranks brining the fish to the net.  These again were baited with match the hatch flavoured hook baits and Andy fed just boilie, that was pimped up with liquids, salt and matching powders.  The boilies were also introduced with a throwing stick out to his open water spot.

Andy went on to catch more fish all at night during the remainder of the week, but with us currently not retaining any fish during the nights Andy managed to do self takes on all his remaining captures.

Well done on your fish this week.

Over in the Tea Party’s and firstly in Tea Party 1 was Billy Walker.  Billy was also one of the anglers to catch on his first night a nice 34lb common to get him under way.  This coming out from 21-wraps in the vicinity of Turtles Corner.

One of our nice scaley residents came and gave Billy a visit on the Tuesday, when he landed another spawned out resident ‘The BP’ at 29lb.  A 25lb fish during the early hours of Thursday and another during the day of 27lb 12oz was his reward, still catching them from the 21-wrap zone that has produced a lot of fish of late.

A handful of fish landed, including one of our Grass Carp at 46lb as well for Billy.  Well done mate.

Next door in Tea Party 2 we had an angler that shared his birthday with us on the Thursday, and that was Ben Atherton.

Ben stuck to his spot out at 21-wraps in the direction of the gap and dead tree but had to wait until the back end of the week before the action came his way.  But he started off his action when Steve in Bacheliers let him have the next bite on his rods as it was Ben’s birthday and from that he landed a lovely 37lb mirror.  A nice birthday gift not only from the lake but also from Steve for letting have his next fish.

Back in Tea Party 2 though he did manage to land one later that evening at 22lb.  This was caught over a bed of Essential Cell boilie and corn, then he placed Spinner rigs with Krank hooks over the top of this with a match the hatch bottom bait and a piece of corn on top for added attraction.

Another fish came Ben’s way on the Friday when he managed to net a nice looking 21lb fish in the evening.  

Well done this week and we hope you had a good birthday whilst here.

A funny old week this week, a slow start, a mad storm, which it the fished incredibly well off the back of.  Still a good number of fish landed, over 80 fish in total, and some of our better residents mixed in with all the others.  

But it certainly seems now that those match the hatch hook baits are the ones landing the better fish on short stiff aggressive rigs!

Tight Lines.

Gareth “Gino”