Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 02/09/2023

A Week Of The 40’s

This week we saw 12 anglers battle the road lake and what a battle it was. All 12 anglers caught and 10 out of the 12 had fish over 40lb, a brilliant week with some of the big 60’s showing a appearance as well. 

First, we have Michael who fished in Dunquirk, it was Michael first time to France, and he done extremely well to catch the biggest fish of the week in the name of “Mabel” a perfect common at 61lb 8oz. He also had others including “Vouvray” at 40lb 12oz. Michael was fishing two spots in his swim, a gravel bar at 14 wraps towards the over hanging tree on Billy’s bank and a short spot towards Decoy at 9 wraps. The 9-wrap spot was where he had most of his fish from including the two bigger ones. He was feeding Sticky Active Krill in 12mm and 16mm with house pellet, 3-5kg each day after dinner and 5 spomb’s in the morning before leaving the swim to rest all day. Rigs, he was using Spinner’s on all rods with match the hatch wafter’s. 

Mike Cater came out 11^th and ended up in the Beach and with all the fish Infront of Turtles on the walk around the swim did look bleak! But after a day or two the fished moved back in and he ended up having a great week. Landing 1x 60 “Two Tone” at 60lb 4oz, 1x 50 “Eye-Q” at 54lb 8oz. 3x 40’s “Hobnob” at 47lb, “Fraser” at 45lb 4oz and “Leslie” at  42lb 8oz plus many more 30’s and 20’s! Mike was fishing 21 wraps towards the three tits spombing regularly with Boilie house pellet and maize. Solid bags with little yellow wafters done the damage. Not a bad week for 11^th! 

Will Kingston came out 1^st in the draw and with what we saw on the walk around he made the correct decision by going in Turtles Corner. It wasn’t long before he was into a couple by casting solid bags at showing fish, a couple of low 30’s within a hour or so. The fish did end up moving on to other parts of the lake but that didn’t stop Will from trying. He ended up finding a spot at 25 wraps towards the dot island and putting 2 rigs on it with the 3^rd going over to the left-hand margin at 14wraps. Will was picking up the odd fish through the week, but he was truly rewarded on the Thursday with “Two Tone” at 60lb 4oz, yes twice in the same week! Will was feeding Boilie, maize and pellet with dumbbell wafters in solid bags over the top.

Jamie Taylor came out 3^rd in the draw and also made a great decision by going in Poo with the previous week’s performance. After giving the Jamie the spots from the week prior he spent no time in getting his rods out and on the first night he caught my personal favourite common in the lake “The Wedge” at 53lb 6oz a very good start and one to take the pressure of straight away. The next 4 nights went slow for Jamie, but he did manage one more on the Thursday night a nice 46lb 8oz mirror in the name of “The Archer”. Jamie was fishing at 14 wraps towards the tree between the two building in the far distance and one at 12 wraps towards Turtles Corner. Both fish came from the 14-wrap spot. Feeding Sticky Krill Active with match the hatch wafters on spinner rigs. 

Barry Finch fished in Tea Party 1 started of slow for Barry but on the Tuesday night he was rewarded with the best-looking mirror in the lake and rare one “Fully Loaded” at 50lb 10oz. He then went on to catch not the best looking common in the lake a fish known as “Mr Massive” at 41lb 12oz. Barry had The Fully Loaded at 10.5 wraps towards shingles and Mr massive at 17.5 wraps towards turtles corner. Feeding house pellet, Maize, and monster red boilies in 15mm. 25kg of this mix was fed through out the week. Rig wise Barry was using DM tubing to a led clip with a 9inch boom to a spinner D set up, monster red wafter with slow sinking maize on top. 

Jason Bedwell in Birches had a steady week, caught most nights with 3 40’s amongst them “Big Scale” at 44lb “The Whistler” at 44lb 2oz. Jason was fishing two spots, he started of fishing all 3 rods towards Billy’s at 18 wraps and that’s where his bigger fish came from but half way through the week he pulled one short at 11 and a quarter to a gravel bar and managed a couple of smaller ones from there. Jason was feeding 20mm Blakes Baits Fish Meal Pro with a match the hatch wafter on stiff D-Rigs. Jason got through approximately 40kg of boilie for both spots. 

Simon Gill came out 12^th in the draw, before he put his hand in the bag, he called ball 12 and that’s what he got, this is apparently standard for Simon every time he comes to France. But this week it served him well he managed to land in Decoy and had a steady week landing 10 fish in total but three of them being over 40lb! “ Charlie “ at 47lb, “O.G” at 40lb 4oz and “Walkers” at 40lb 4oz. Simon started the week of fishing 18 wraps towards Cage and managed most of his fish from there but as the week went on it slowed up. His right-hand margin spot never produced at 18 wraps close to the bank so he moved it left more into open water and caught a few from there. 12mm DNA SLK and S7 soaked in Hydrolysed Fish mixed with house Mixed hemp and maize. After each fish Simon would introduce 15 spombs of his mix. Combi rigs with double home-made wafter and S7 wafter got him bis bites.  

Scott Hugh’s went into Billy’s and it was a tough start for him with everyone around the pond catching he was itching to get a fish. The fish wouldn’t come into his swim but instead swim just past the boundary towards beach. A change in tactics on the Wednesday was needed and he opted to fish 25 wraps left of the tot island hoping to intercept them as they come through and this payed of, he managed a fish each night after that with the biggest being “Bomb Head” at 44lb 11oz. Scott was feeding Link Boilie whole and chopped with a coating of Smart Squid. Solid bags with match the hatch wafter on a Slip D.

Darren Walker was in Shingles, a swim that has been on and off this year, but Darren did manage a nice 40 on his first night “Yoda” at 41lb. Darren kept to his spot at 17 wraps towards the dot island but sadly nothing else came his way, can’t say he didn’t put the effort in though! Darren was fishing Boilie and sweetcorn keeping it steady. Match the hatch wafters with D- rigs got him his fish.  

Chris Smith came out 10^th in the draw and fancied Double Boards knowing this swim is a big fish swim! Started the week of with an 18 lb mirror on the first night. On the 2^nd night he managed “Porky” at 45lb, it then went quiet for a couple of nights but on the Wednesday, he manged two more a 39lb 10oz and a 28lb 10oz. Fishing to the bar that is straight out Infront at 12 wraps and the margin spot at 10 wraps both spot produced fish for Chris. German rigs with two peace’s of slow sinking maize was his choice of rig. Chris got through 25kg of Handcraft Herb boilie mixed with sweetcorn. 

As you can see a fantastic week all round with good average of 40lb plus! May it continue.

Until Next Time 

Tight Lines 

Ben