Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 22/07/2023

Seeing Double

 

With much fresher temperatures here on the Road Lake at the Big G for the coming week and a week of mixed weather including thunderstorms, sunny and rainy days with mainly westerly winds we were keeping our fingers crossed that after the spell of hot weather that the carp would start to get their heads down and get on the feed at last.

The carp didn’t play the by the rules and continued to frustrate us and the anglers fishing this week by showing over the baited areas but with very little to show for all the angler’s best efforts.

On a more positive note those fish that were caught have been of a better average size and we also had two recaptures during the week as well, which is mad as we are unlucky to get one recapture the same week let alone two!

 

First angler to get amongst the action last week was Mark Birchmore who had found himself plotted up in Brambles for the duration of his stay with us.

Just before midnight on the first night he had called me to say he had one in the net and looked to be over 40lb……What a great start.  It turned out to weigh 41lb 12oz and was a fish known as ‘Percy’.

After a good start like that I believed Mark would then go on to steadily catch, but sadly it was not to be until the early hours of Thursday morning when Mark managed to land a 28lb mirror and then later phoned me to tell me he had caught yet another which he said was looking over 40lb again.

Coming out and helping Mark with the weighing it turned out to be ‘Missing Link’ and weighing in at 44lb 12oz.

Well done Mark, he took our suggested area to fish in the swim during the walk around and then had a good lead around and found a slightly different spot to where anglers normally fish in that swim and was rewarded with his thinking out side of the box mentality, good angling Mark!

Hook bait wise mark caught on a mixture of tactics including catching on fake maize and krill wafters coated in Kiana Carp Goo.

Mark fed a mixture of maize, hemp, pellet and boilie during the week.

 

A quick mention to Charlie Taylor who travelled here with his dad (Nigel) and after having a late ball in the draw picked to fish in Billy’s for the week.

Charlie also got amongst the action on the first night having lost one fish and managing to land another, a 22lb common during the early hours.

Throughout the week the carp just didn’t want to play by the rules and even tormented poor Charlie by one swimming past right underneath his rod tips.

Charlie caught his fish from fishing straight out in front of him at 20 wraps range and fed a mixture of maize, hemp and boilie to tempt this one onto his mat.

Well done Charlie for plugging away all week and keeping at it.

 

Kyle Potts after the walk around and a good draw found himself picking The Beach as his swim.  A swim very high on almost all the anglers list of swims, I’m sure.

Kyle fished two areas of the swim, 23 wraps into the corner to the left and 21 wraps out in front towards the middle of the bund area.

It took a day for Kyle to amongst the action, but it did eventually come for him on the Sunday evening from his 21-wrap spot and managed to net himself a common carp called ‘Cooper’ weighing 34lb.

Kyle then sat it out until the Wednesday when again in the evening slid the net underneath ‘Sausage’ and with the fish weighed in at 41lb 7oz he was pleased to have broken the 40lb barrier.  This one like the last being caught from in front of him towards the bund.

Thursday evening, I had the call to come and photo a fish for him and on my arrival was greeted by two fish awaiting their pictures, which was great to see.

The first turned out to be one of the smaller commons at 17lb and then the slightly bigger one was a fish known as ‘Raddler’ and weighed 31lb 14oz, and this fish hadn’t been recorded as being caught for two years.

These two fish were caught from his 23-wrap spot into the left-hand corner of the swim.

Both areas were baited with a mixture of Cell boilie, maize and a good helping of Mainline Cell Smart Liquid.

Rig wise, Kyle used spinner rigs to good effect with double slow sinking maize and Kamakura Wide Gape size 4 hooks.

 

Now the stories of the recaptures we had this week.

 

Let’s start with Nick Warburton fishing out of Bacheliers.

It was a very frustrating time for Nick, as it was for many others too, but he had fish repeatedly showing in his area most nights and not just the odd show but many shows by the carp.

But on Tuesday night after a bit of a nightmare with a fish going through one of his other rods managed somehow to slip the net under a good-looking fish.  After this Nick popped just up the bank to where I was fishing myself and came and told me the news that he had caught one.

Giving a helping hand to assist him with the weighing etc of the fish I later identified the fish to be known as ‘Quaver’ and a good-looking fish to weighing in at 46lb 4oz.

Pictures done and the fish returned I stayed and helped where I could with his tangled lines.

Nick was baiting with just out and out Mainline Link boilie in a mixture of sizes, and tempted this fish from along his left hand margin at 21 wraps.

Nick now has a second roll of the dice as he is staying on for another week on the Road Lake so fingers crossed for some more action for him.

 

John Goldsmith again having a good draw ended up selecting to fish Decoy for his session.

Again, having to wait a little time for the action to start he got on the way on Monday evening landing ‘Castro’weighing 41lb 4oz and then a second fish that evening called ‘Grant Mitchell’ spinning the scales around to 36lb 10oz.  Two nice carp and both being taken from his right-hand margin at 16 wraps.

The early hours of Thursday morning John managed to land one of the smaller residents of the lake and a 20lb fish and then at first light netted a mid-forty mirror.

Whilst taking the photo’s it occurred to me that I had recently seen this fish and flicking back on my camera pictures and my memory to two nights ago it was again ‘Quaver’ that Nick had caught at the complete opposite end of the lake.  Nice to see it this time in the day light though I must be honest.

This flurry of fish for John this time came from his 18 wraps spot out in front of him.

John had been baiting with maize and boilie during the week.

 

Fishing from Tea Party two this week we had Phil Russell and he fished two of his rods at 23 wraps towards the far margin to his left and a single rod wrapped up at 8 wraps towards the small dot island in front of him.

Baiting with maize and boilie during the week it took until around 4am on the Friday before Phil managed to put the net under a nice 39lb 8oz mirror.

Once the pictures were done and I got around to processing the pictures later that morning I was amazed to find out it was ‘Percy’, the fish Mark had to set the week off just 6 days before.  Just like with Quaver another recapture for the week!

His fish came from his 23-wrap spot, and he was mad up and over the moon to finally get this one in the sling. 

 

One of our late arriving guests on the Saturday was Will Beamount, and with limited choices of swims to pick from I advised him to drop into Shingles, as it was still free and puts him in a good area.

Fishing two areas, mainly concentrating on his 18 wraps area towards the dot island and after watching the Masterclass when Spooner fished that swim opted to also try “Spooner’s area” at 16 wraps straight out in front of him.

And it was this spot that produced his first bite on the Sunday night, all be it a grass carp weighing 29lb, but he was happy with his capture.

Monday evening would see Will have a fish from his 18-wrap spot, this one spinning the wheel of fortune around to 34lb 8oz and was identified as ‘Trigger’.

This one was landed on a solid bag tactic fishing with double fake maize as his hook bait.

 

Will’s friend in tow was Sam Watkinson and dropped into the swim next door, Double Boards.

Sam was a little new to this style of carp fishing, having opted in the past to just fish short summer sessions mainly floater fishing in his local area so this was a big step in his carp fishing journey for him.

After a mini masterclass lesson one evening showing him a couple of rigs and tidying up his set up he put this new knowledge to good us that night and managed to catch one, a 22lb common caught short down his right-hand margin.  He was delighted with his capture and his new chunk of rig knowledge.  Hopefully you will put it to good use going forward.

Well done Sam.

 

Another very tough week’s fishing on the Road Lake.  Let’s just hope that it all kicks of soon and we are back to seeing 80 plus fish a week caught!

 

Tight lines, until next time.

‘Gino’.