Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 22/08/2020

To beard, or not to beard.......that is the question.

After brilliant last week with over sixty fish landed, the boys and girls were itching for the off. We had a group of regular returners, who all knew the score, so we were expecting some good results. The weather was set to be good, with mid-twenties in the day and high teens at night. The air pressure was fairly low with mainly south westerly winds. Basically.....no excuses, it looked bang on for a few bites.

Barry “Bazza” Edwards has been coming on the work parties for the last three years and was in search of a new PB from Big Southerly. With a mid-forty being the target, he had promised to shave off his Grizzly Adams “Lockdown” beard if he was successful.....little did he know what the beasts of the lakes had in store for him. As there was nobody in Scottie’s, he set his stall out fishing one rod across to the weedbed at 25.5 wraps and two rods out to the hump at the same distance. He baited with CC Moore “Specific Tuna” and started off with Carp Freak Pop-Ups over the top. Within half an hour of getting the weedbed rod out he had a take, which resulted in a facial hair changing 46lb 8oz Mirror known as “Apple Slices”. Whilst waiting for Andy the Bailiff to come and take some pics, one of the open water rods went off with a new fish which was duly christened “Sweeny Todd”. The dream start!

Once his beard had been shaved off, Baz was concerned that, like “Samson”, he had lost his powers. After four quiet days, when he just stuck with the plan, it kicked off in fine style. He had changed his hookbaits over to some supercharged Mainline Link Wafters (Andy the Bailiff’s top secret recipe) with a yellow topper. Mid-afternoon on Thursday he had a steady take and a typical slow ponderous fight which suggested a good fish. There was much whooping and hollering as he slipped the net under “Robert’s Fish” at 72lb; a great reward for the patient angling. In the next 24 hours he had two more bites and they were both big fish. Firstly, he had “The Clean Fish” at 55lb 12oz and followed that up with the “Big Bollox Common” at 65lb 4oz. What an incredible run of fish.

Rowan “The Badger” Hill was on a roll, but suffered a pants draw, and got number nine out of nine. He chose the often left (wrongly) Oblivion and set about fishing at 29.5 wraps over the back of a strip of weed. He was using Mainline Cell and Essential Cell and baited the spot with around 8kg of boilie and maize each day. Having had a social in Big Southerly to celebrate Bazza’s PB he didn’t cast out and bait up till nearly midnight on Saturday. It only took until 10am the next morning before he had a double take on his Link Wafter hookbaits and landed a twenty and a thirty almost simultaneously. He repeated the same thing the next day and was nicely into his stride. Rowan is a very tidy angler and always sticks with the plan. On Thursday the plan properly came good when he landed the rarely caught Baby Cluster at 60lb 4oz! He ended the week with 11 fish.

Chris Clarke was on his second week, and got another good draw, this time moving from the Beach into Co’s Point. He set about fishing a spot at 30 wraps towards the “Tits” and baited with 8kg of Baitworks Cremino and Sticky Krill mixed with plenty of maize. On Sunday morning he was off and running with a nice mid twenty, which couldn’t resist the Cremino Wafter hookbait on a D-Rig. Chris also fished with one rod on a solid bag, which brought him quite a few bonus fish, including his biggest of the week, a 48lb 8oz Mirror known as “Shakey”. Chris fished very tidily all week, ending with a brilliant 17 fish total. 

Dan Schneider was in Bob’s Beach for the week and chose to fish at 25 wraps towards The Stink. He baited each day with Bait Service Straubing Enzyme HD boilies and maize; fishing matching Wafters over the top. He had the best start possible on Sunday morning when he landed a 51lb 4oz Mirror known as “Secret Sundaze”, which settled the nerves. Dan followed that up with a couple of thirties, then it went quiet for a few days. A little despondency started to set in towards the end of the week; but there was a really special reward waiting on Saturday morning, when the “Spotty Leather” made a late appearance at 63lb! It certainly brought a smile to Dan’s face and his new PB was duly celebrated with a few buckets. We told you not to bother wearing the Sprayders Dan!!

Radu “What’s he Say” Mitrea was next door in the in-form Baxter’s Hole and continued to fish the going spot at 22 wraps towards The Stink with two Rods and put one at 14 wraps towards Alamo. Bait for the week was DNA Baits boilie mixed with some maize. Being familiar with the lake and a tidy angler, Radu wasted no time in picking a few fish off. He got bites from the 22 wrap spot most days, with the highlight being “Soliid” at a new top weight of 52lb and a PB to boot. By the end of the week he had taken eight fish including the beautiful “Pearly Linear” at 41lb 12oz. Multi-rigs and Krill Wafter hookbaits did the job. 

Gaz “Bigfoot and the Henderson’s” Harrison was installed in Alcatraz and had a busy week. He chose to fish at 27.5 wraps towards the wonky tree and was using a mix of Sticky Krill and Cremino boilies mixed with plenty of maize. The tactic was to bait during the day on a little but often basis, topping up after each bite with another ten Spombs. Running leads and the Noodle Rig baited with a Cremino Wafter got things running nicely with bites coming regularly throughout the day. As the week progressed, the size of the fish began to increase and on Thursday he managed to slip the net under his biggest fish of the week called the “Snags Linear” at 48lb. Although none of the absolute monsters came his way, he finished with 17 fish and gave a fine display of getting the swim rocking. Well done Gaz.

“Digger” Dean Cullen fancied a crack at The Alamo and settled on fishing the right-hand side at 27 wraps towards the big tree left of Beach. He started off fishing with maize hookbaits over Mainline Link boilie and maize. Surprisingly, no bites were forthcoming, even though there were clearly fish in the area. It took a change over to a boilie hookbait (Mainline IB Wafter) to crack the code on Monday. From then on, the bites came with a bit more frequency. The first couple were smaller samples, but then he landed “Nelson” at 42lb and capped off a great week with “The Clean Fish” (two captures in one week) at 54lb on Saturday morning.

Anthony Lloyd was on his first break of the year and it would be fair to say he has a relaxed angling style, which he planned to use in The Stink. We usually run a sweepstake on how many days it will take him to get three rods out (it only took till Tuesday this time)! He fished at 27 wraps towards Baxter’s Hole and baited with Mainline Link and maize. Andy the Bailiff provided a pot of supercharged Link Wafters and they did the business as usual. Anthony ended the week with three fish, the biggest being “Baby Pawprint” at 35lb 4oz. 

Jeff Maskell was in Pole Position for the week fishing the 27.5 at Stink mark. He used Sticky Krill boilies mixed with maize and fished with Krill Wafters on D-Rigs over the top. The swim has been fairly consistent of late, but for some reason, the fish weren’t particularly cooperative for Jeff. He managed to pick off three fish during the week, the biggest being a thirty pounder which hadn’t been caught for four years.

All in all, it was an amazing weeks fishing. Everyone caught fish and there were some beautiful big ones in amongst them. The final tally for the week was 78 fish, including 1 x 70, 3 x 60’s, 4 x 50’s and 9 x 40’s. Until next time

Tight Lines and Bonne Peche 

Andy

Team Gigantica