Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 26/03/2022

Spring has finally arrived…

Saturday morning saw 12 keen anglers arrive who were all eager to get going. After a walk round the lake with the bailiff everyone had an idea where they wanted to set up for the week. The draw happened, and the swims got chosen. The weather forecast for the first part of the week was high double day time temperatures with it dropping down to 7 degrees at night. Come Wednesday, the temperature changed massively with strong winds and cold days up to 7 degrees with some frosts during the nights. Let’s see what it produced… 

First up was Adam Smith who chose to fish Tea Party 2. This was Adam’s first trip to France, so catching a biggun was definitely on his list. He started off fishing 3 rods at 14 wraps towards the big tree in the corner. Simple spinner rigs with SSM were fished over a big bed of Mainline Cell boilies mixed with maize and hemp. The first few days were quiet and with Adam spotting some fish in the far margin he decided to cast single towards them. An hour later and his rod ripped off with a 19lb 8oz mirror. A few hours later and the same rod was off again, this time with a 15lb common. After this quick success he chose to move all 3 rods towards the far margin and started baiting it up. Wednesday morning saw him landed another 2 smaller fish. Unfortunately not the biggun he was after. After a quick chat with the bailiff he chose to put 2 rods back in open water in the hope of catching a bigger one. Thursday came and so did a fish from the open water spot. He straight away knew it was much bigger than the ones he had before. It definitely was!! “The Tish” at 45lb 4oz was the culprit. Awesome Adam!! 24 hours later and I was taking photo’s again. Possible 30lb he told me…. The scales went to 40lb 4oz…. Just a bit bigger then you thought it was mate hahah. Well done mate, you fished hard all week long!! Nice meeting you and see you soon. 

In Tea Party 1 we had Adam’s good mate Christopher Bassett. Obviously they were here to catch fish but with Tea Party 1 and Tea Party 2 being so close to each other they were definitely going to have a social week. Plan for the week was to fish all 3 rods at 22 wraps towards Turtles Corner. Spinner rigs with SSM were fished over Mainline Cell mixed with maize and hemp. Morning day morning saw his first fish of the week being landed and straight away he smashed his PB, “The Archer” at 44lb 8oz… Well done mate!!! He had to wait until Wednesday for his next action, a 17lb mirror. A few hours later and he playing another one, this time slightly bigger “Midiot” at 25lb. Wednesday evening in the poring rain his left hand rodded ripped off, It felt heavy from the start…. “Missing Link” at 41lb. Christopher ended the week on 4 fish with 2 of them being above the 40lb mark. Good angling mate!!! See you soon.

Down in New Beach Danny Hill had set his bivvy up for the week. Danny chose to fish the main spot in the swim, all 3 rods at 21wraps towards the bund. Mainline Cell and Link mixed with some maize was spombed out at 20 ½ rods lengths. (Half a wrap shorter to allow the swing back of the lead in this depth of water). The fish didn’t seem to be feeding on the bottom so with some help from the bailiff a 12foot zig went out at 21 wraps. It only took 10 minutes for it to rip off…. “Lester’s” at 36lb8oz was the result. Thursday saw him land 3 fish, all to the zig, the biggest one being 37lb. On his last day he managed to nick one more bite “Covid” at 29lb. Nice one mate!

All the way from Wales we had Chris Dyke in Brambles and his good mate Rhys Evans in Birches. Plan for the week was to fish like a team (same distance, spombing at the same time,….). Chris opted to use multi-combi rigs with wafters over a big bed of boilie mixed with maize and hemp. Rhys was on the spinner rigs with SSM. It took a few days for the fish to turn up but in the early hours of Wednesday morning Chris was into his first fish of the week, a lovely 27lb common. With Decoy being available Rhys made the choice to move into it. 2 rods went down the margin at 14 wraps with his 3^rd one at 18 wraps just to the left of Cage (name of a swim). The move paid off when he landed when he landed a 29lb mirror at 3am. Unfortunately this was there only action for the week…  It was my pleasure looking after you guys!!! See you in august!! 

20 fish got caught this week with the biggest one being 45lb 4oz. PB’s were broken, people got soaked J It was a very enjoyable week, meeting some lovely people. The lads definitely deserved a few more fish but I’m putting it down to the weather, it hasn’t been consistent for the last few weeks.. 

Tight lines,

Jason