Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 31/12/2022

Well, the end is here! The end of 2022 we welcomed 8 anglers onto the lake to celebrate and to see in the new year! The conditions looked as good as winter conditions go! Mild weather, consistent temperatures along with a steady wind. It was all to play for surely! Question is who banked the first carp of 2023… 

The answer to that question is the Gaffer! Settling into Alcatraz and jumping straight onto the productive spots from last week fishing 33 wraps. He wasted no time in getting amongst the fish! DF fished spinner rigs with yellow 12mm gigantica isotonic specials with the occasional fish coming to 12mm white pop ups soaked in squid goo. Kick starting the swim on Saturday evening with 23 spombs of boilie crumb and corn at a ratio of 50/50. Within a few hours he was into his first fish! This consistency continued throughout the week! Mid-week it quietened up but another influx of bait introducing 30 spombs on the Thursday morning soon kicked it off again! Also upping to more corn in his mix! Ending the week on 25 fish up to 43lb. Getting mainly daytime bites aswell it made for a pleasant start to the new year for the gaffer! 

Next up we have Bill Hodkins who ended up in Cos Point for the week, despite a slow start to the week and feeling disheartened as the days went on, perseverance paid off for bill as he ended the week on 4 fish with one of them being the largest mirror (Chunky) in the lake at a new top weight of 83lb 4oz!! Bill fished a similar approach to DF with a baiting approach consisting of mainly corn and boilie crumb. Fishing spinners with the gigantica 12mm isotonic pop ups done the deed for bill. Fishing the at 30 wraps to the left of the flat oak. 

Ben Keirle opted for Big Southerly, taking the approach to fish two spots. The main spot being at 25.5 wraps to Alcatraz and then 14 wraps to the left to the right of Alamo. The short rod to the left came alive Tuesday morning in producing 2 bites once he changed over from solid bags to spinner rigs with IB wafters soaked in isotonic. With the best one that morning being the Trans pretty one at 37lb 12oz. the following morning ben hit repeat and copied what he done the day before baiting with 10 spombs before dinner and 5 spombs after dinner when he would replace the rod. This resulted in one of the A team in form of split pec at 67lb 4oz! and a new PB for ben! On Saturday morning the long spot produced its first fish in form of a 36lb common. Bens bait mix consisted of 75% sweetcorn mixed with boilie crumb and hemp. Fished with spinner rigs over the top with IB wafters soaked in isotonic goo. 

What a way to go into the new year! 2 PBs broken and great company what fishing is all about! Will the lake continue producing through the winter and how many more PBs are going to be broken this year the venue? Only time will tell! 

Tight lines 

K