Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 01/07/2017

Week Commencing 24th June

At last, we're back up and running on the Road Lake. Following the documented closure of the lake for five weeks, we were all eagerly anticipating how the lake would fish when we reopened. During the closedown we have continued to feed a central strip down the entire lake every day with pellets and maize to keep the carp on the hunt for food. There were two anglers booked on for the week, so they would have plenty of options on the swim selection front! The weather forecast for the week was showing daytime temps of mid twenty degrees with low pressure and south westerly winds. We couldn't have ordered better weather!

Peter “Stan” Staniszewski decided to go into Tea Party 1 and after a bit of work with the marker rod, selected to fish two rods at 15 wraps to the left of Turtles Corner, the other one he placed to his left at just 6 wraps where he had seen a few fish show. Sunday morning heralded the first bite of the week from his close in spot and a 26lb Grassie was soon thrashing away in the net. Following that first fish, Stan had a bad run of five lost fish to hook pulls from his open water spot. This was being caused by the fish kiting round to the right and getting to the bottom of the very steep marginal shelf between Tea Party 1 and 2. We advised Stan to always keep the pressure on the fish and keep them moving all the time, which he took on board and that was the end of the lost fish. He baited regularly throughout the day to keep the area fresh and topped up after every fish, which is essential to build a good hit. During the week he used 20kg of Mainline Cell and 20kg of Gigantica particle mix. Stan’s aim for the week was to beat his PB of 34lb, which did in style on Tuesday evening when he landed the the mighty Hammer at 50lb 4oz! His final tally for the week was 1 x 50, 4 x 30’s, 5 x 20’s and a pretty double.

Richard Stansfield had opted for the popular Turtles Corner swim and also went with Mainline Cell, along with Gigantica pellets and particle mix. He started off fishing two rods along the treeline and one very close in to his right. It was this close in spot that produced his first fish after only a couple of hours fishing. Richard chose to bait fairly lightly at first and with the fish being so hungry they were cleaning him out fairly quickly and then moving on. He upped the anti and moved all three rods straight out in front at 16 wraps, baiting with 5kg of boilies, hemp and maize. This did the trick, and he started picking fish up on IQ D-Rigs with Banoffee Wafters soaked in Buttercorn Goo. Whilst none of the monsters paid him a visit, he ended his week well with a very creditable nine fish consisting of 1 x 40, 2 x 30's, 3 x 20's and three doubles.

Due to the head of fish in the lake being large it is more difficult with only a couple of anglers on, as there is very little pressure to move them round. In these circumstances, a big bed of bait will certainly pull them in, but it takes a monumental effort with baiting up to hold them in front of you.

Week Commencing 01 July

A complete contrast with the weather this week; the air pressure climbing quickly, fairly hot sunny days with light winds. It looked like it could be a bit more of a struggle to get the fish feeding……or so we thought!

Jeffry Hendrikx made his second trip to the Road Lake from the Netherlands, and had the entire Road Lake to himself! After having a walk round he decided to go into Tea Party 2 as he could intercept any fish which were moving through from one side of the lake to the other. After discussing the baiting strategy he was going to adopt, he got stuck straight in and spombed out 5kg of maize and 5kg of boilies to get things underway. His first bite came only a few hours after baiting up and he took two fish in quick succession on Saturday evening. The bites came to a rod fished to the right hand side of the island at 16.5 wraps on standard bottom baits. He was using Blowback Rigs incorporating Korda N-Trap Semi-Stiff and Size 4 Korda Curve’s.

Jeffry went on to catch fish consistently throughout the week and his approach was key to his success. He continually tweaked his terminal setup when he went through a lean spell, in order to unlock the code, and continue his run of bites. This may have been a change of hookbait, or a change to a Pop-Up, or a change of Rig. This flexible approach certainly added to his fish tally throughout the week. Jeffry ended his week with a new PB 44lb Mirror known as Frankie, along with 7 x 30’s, 9 x 20’s and 3 doubles. During the week Jeffry used a total of 35kg of boilie and 25kg of Maize. A great weeks angling.

The baiting approach that anglers adopt on the Road Lake can turn an average week into an amazing week. During the warmer months the fish have voracious appetites and will quickly clean up a baited area and then move on. Anglers who bait-up in a tight area may well receive a quick bite but the bait will disappear quickly, along with the fish. The key is to bait up a larger area with boilie and throwing stick, then Spomb a smaller area within this patch with a heavily flavoured mix consisting of boilie and particle. This will give you a dinner plate within your baited area to pull the fish into your hookbait. The wider spread of boilie will hold them in the area as they search out all the available food. Topping up the baited area after every bite is essential, as the bait going in the water is like ringing the dinner bell. This tactic is often overlooked and anglers will just bait up once a day in the middle of the afternoon before coming over for dinner. This approach can seriously impact on results, as the fish have a large quantity of bait to get through and this extends the amount of time it takes to get a bite.

Total fish captures for the three anglers over the course of the two week period were 1 x 50, 3 x 40’s, 13 x 30’s, 18 x 20’s and 6 Doubles totaling 41 fish, making an average of number of 14 fish per angler, per week. We have just taken delivery of the new Mainline Prototype Fishmeal at Gigantica and we’re really excited about what we think will be an excellent bait. If you would like to secure some for your trip, just drop Mark a line in the booking office and we will have it ready for you on arrival.

Until next time....Tight Lines.