Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 01/02/2020

Cockney carper Gary pallen lands a very special bullseye.

(That a 50 pounder for those north of the river) 

The Cockney Carpers are back on the bank this week for their first trip of 2020 along with Nick Daffy (Snowy king of the North) returning to the main lake after fishing on the Road Lake last year he was hungry for a crack at some of the big girls. After the walk around, we got stuck straight into the draw and a quick refresh on the rules it was time to get fishing.

Barry Yeomans was of the mark early with a bite on the Saturday night after coming out 3^rd in the draw he dropped into Bob’s Beach after Andy and James had fished it the previous week and had managed to get amongst a few he was hoping they were still in the area and with an absolute scaly banger in the shape of Ripper at 22lb by 9pm confidence was high with his first bite coming to a solid bag of crushed manilla and pellet with a minilla dumbbell wafter as his hookbait. With a take so early on in the session all three rods were placed on the spot at 21w towards Alamo.

By the next morning Barry was on a roll and we are not talking bacon and egg this time he had bagged himself one of the super stockies The Pearly Linear at a new top weight of 42lb putting him up on the wall of fame just in time for his birthday.

His next bite came on the Wednesday morning during the early hours this time his middle rod fishing to the centre of Alamo slipping the net under a lovely clean looking mirror known as Lia tipping the scales to 30lb 8oz.

Wednesday evening was time for a little celebration as we had three birthday boys’ visiting us this week we laid on a little cheese and wine night with a few games of darts birthday boy Kev absolutely thrashing us all beginners luck possibly needless to saw Wednesday night passed with very little action from the fish and the odd sore head on Thursday morning…

Barry’s last fish came on Saturday morning with the heavens opening just in time for the pack up Baz managed to pull one last fish out of the bag landing himself Ladyboy at 22lb on the nose.

Next up is Gary Pallen 4^th out of the draw and with Alamo still in play after the previous weeks form with Steve French bagging Chunky over 80lb it was living up to its name as a big fish swim so Gary waisted no time deliberating over it and got his name up on the board and got set up.

After a bit of a lead around at the 27-wrap spot towards Baxters he found it pretty clean and big enough to fish all three rods in the same area making baiting up easier and keeping the concentration of bait to one area rather than spreading it over three different baited spots as with the huge amount of water in front of you it can be so tempting.

Gary was made to play the waiting game with the fish not turning up until late Monday evening with a couple of shows early on that night over the spot he was feeling confident but nothing could prepare him for what was about to happen Gary had one target fish on his list that meant more to him than any other fish in the lake it was a fish his dad had caught on his last trip to the big G before he had sadly passed and one Gary had been chasing for many years and just happens to be one of the most stunning looking scaly mirrors in the lake.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning with a beast of a wind blowing directly at him his middle rod sprang into life with a slow steady take all the signs of one of the big girls were there and with the fight being a slow plodding and no rapid shaking of the head Gary knew he was into something special when the fish finally surfaced about 15 yards in front of him he could see the line of scales running the entire length of the body and it was no stockie with only a few fish it could be and the tension started to rise along with huge relief as he slipped the net under her soon realising it was the one he had been chasing the one and only The Cheese an absolute stunning fish at anytime of the year but to have her in the winter with her winter colours and to top it off it was to be her first time being caught over 50lb tipping the scales around to 53lb emotions were certainly high it was fair to say. 

“As they say memories don’t die the only get bigger” well they certainly do here.

His next fish came on Wednesday morning this time a small common known as Hollett at 31lb 12oz again falling to the middle rod on an IQ-D rig tipped with a yellow Minilla Wafter his baiting approach was to bait every other day with 20 large spoms of crushed Minilla boilies and sweetcorn topping up with an extra 5 after each fish.

With the week slowly coming to an end Gary managed to sneak one more out on the Friday this time an old friend he had caught on a previous trip and named Sherbet a mega dark scaled mirror tipping the scales to 26lb on the button.

Week Commencing 01/02/2020

With the weather forecast to be pretty consistent with mild temperatures for this time of year and some more blustery weather shaping up to hit us in the middle of the week it was time to get started.

None of the lads on this week were comfortable dropping into the “longer range” swims, opting to fish within their comfort zone so they could fish accurately and effectively!

This meant James and I dropped into Co’s and Alamo respectively and continued with the form in both swims in terms of range and baiting approach.

James Jones consistently baited daily with 30 spombs of corn and pellet at 28 wraps to the ‘tits’ in Co’s Pointfishing Spinner rigs with 2 grains of SS I.B maize and ended the week with 10 fish…the biggest being Josh’s common at 43lb 8oz which is its first time over the magical 40lb mark! This was backed up by The Widling at 30lb and 8 others to high 20’s

Steve Bartlett dropped into Alamo and fished the same range as Gary the previous week, starting off with 25 spombs of corn and 10mm Essential Cell and fishing Spinners over the top. 48 hours passed and no action for Steve even though he was seeing activity in the general area, a change was definitely on the cards. Steve decided to switch over to solid bags and move the rigs off of the baited area…this proved to be a good move as all 3 rods went that night landing 2 2018 stockies and one of the new 2019 fish, another 48 hours passed with no action until Friday night when all 3 rods went again with the biggest being Bobs at 32lb, this fish has some serious shape and is definitely one to look out for in the future! This shows that if its slow in the swim and things aren’t happening but you think you should be getting bites then changing things will sometimes crack the code and start getting you bites!

It just didn’t happen for the other lads this week but they are already booked on for later in the year with a score to settle!! It’s the work party next week so we will see what that brings, lots to do and hopefully some whackers to photograph!

Until next time,

Tight lines,

Steve