Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 24/01/2026

No beer for me, but maybe a Fosters

Just a single pair of anglers fishing on the Road Lake this week, which made the choice of swims easy as they both had separate swims in mind where they wanted to start from.  So, without the need for a draw for swims, the boys where off nice and early to settle into their chosen pegs.

First time visitor to the Gigantica complex was angler Neil Jones, who began the session off from Turtles Corner after a handful of fish being caught from this area of the lake the previous week.  After just one night in Turtles and spending a good amount of time up and about walking the bank to his right he had soon made the decision to make a move further down and settled into Bacheliersfor the remainder of the week.  A wise move I feel after the fish activity he had seen and heard that first night.

It was the Monday evening when he managed his first fish of the week, only small but he was more than happy to be off the mark.  

But it was into the early part of Wednesday when Neil’s week really came good.  Kicking things off with a unique looking common called ‘Tatty’ that weighed 26lb 2oz, but what lay in his other sling was something a little more special.  A much bigger fish for sure, and once up on the scales it spun them around to 67lb 8oz.  Certainly, it was one of the A team that was laying on his unhooking mat and later was identified to be ‘Fosters’.  A new top weight and a new personal best for Neil.  Could this fish become our next 70lb’er?  I’m sure it will be.

Photo’s done Neil was a very happy bunny and really enjoyed the whole experience that he had experienced.

Another smaller resident came along to visit Neil on his final night, leaving Neil on a four fish total for his work during the week.

All the fish came on Essential Cell wafter hook baits and mounted onto simple rigs, comprising of a stiff coated hook length and a size 4 hook with a shrink tube kicker mounted to a lead clip arrangement brought the fish safely to his awaiting net.

Washed out Cell boilies where crushed down and mixed in a bucket along with hemp, maize, sweetcorn and the liquid from the cooked hemp and baited with around 15 Midi Spombs just before coming around for dinner to encourage the fish to feed.

Rigs and bait were deployed out at 25 wraps to the left-hand marker pole and just to the right of this pole is where he picked up the largest fish of his week, just off the main baited spot.  Neil fished with fluorocarbon mainlines and fished them really slack to keep his presence to the fish a bare minimum.

Neil also certainly done his homework before he came out to fish here.  He showed me his notebook where he had compiled pages and pages of information on where certain fish had been caught from, what on, when etc.  Some real in-depth information had been collected by Neil from the information we provide from these catch reports.  Really really well impressed with how much effort he had gone into before he came out.

Neil was the only angler to catch last week this week, so well done on your result.

Another tough week on the Road Lake.  Roll on the spring.

Until next time, tight lines

Gareth “Gino”