Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 22/03/2025

Grinder!

Another great week for the Main Lake, a total of 24 fish came from all over the pond with the fish being very well spread out. Bite times have changed ever so slightly, Stock pond still catching in the hours of darkness but most came from early morning and even some around mid day early afternoon. Typical spring behaviour, you just never know when a bite is coming. Weather’s been up and down, warm In the day, then cold at night, not he best conditions but still plenty of bites.

We will start off with the man who managed the biggest fish of the week, Daniel Wilding who was fishing from Pole Position, dan started off the week fishing at 30 wraps but after three or four days off no success he ventured out that little bit further to 33 wraps. It was on the Thursday morning I could see him playing one very nervously from out long and rightly so to, he worked extremely hard for this fish, well after a 10 minute battle it was all over and the fish was safe in the net. But it wasn’t over, just as we was returning the lovely 34lber known as “Smile” his left hand alarm had a bobbin wedge into the roller. And this time I was a old original scaly known as “Epicano” at 45lb. After a tough start it was great to see Dan catch a couple, he was doing everything right, it was just a matter of time. After having a little chat with myself on the Wednesday he opted to take everything out of the feed bar corn and fed just straight corn from the tin, this is a great tactic if a swim is fishing tricky, for some reason it can ignite a swim and on this occasion it worked perfectly. Rig over the top was a spinner, size 4 wide gape, 5inches of boom section to a running lead clip and a little yellow pop up for a hook bait. 

Next up we have Adam Lewis who fished in Stock Pond, started of great for Adam landing a total of six fish early on in the week, but the fish had other ideas and done the off to the opposite side of the pond after a few days of success. But he made hay while the sun shined, and his six fish gave him the trophy for top rod. Amongst his six fish he had some lovely carp, commons and mirrors, with the biggest being “Butterfly” at 38lb 4oz, but for sure, his favourite was “Grinder” at 21lb, not only because it was a nice looking carp but later found out its also his favourite app! All of his fish came from the 26 wrap spot up into the far corner, the fish seem to be loving it up there at the moment, all bites coming at night from this spot so if your visiting us soon its worth getting everything set just after dinner ready for the night time action. 6inch German Rigs on a running lead clip system got him his bites with a bottom bait topped with fake maize as his hook bait. Adam wasn’t going wild on the baiting either, walking round to the spot and feeding by hand was keeping noise down, hemp, corn and crushed boilie. 

Ryan Harrison in Alcatraz also started of strong, the same script as stock pond, the fish done the off later on in the week to the other side. But still, Ryan managed five fish, fishing long and 31.5 wraps just to the right hand side of Big Southerly. Amongst the five fish was “The Guvnor” being the biggest at 38lb 14oz, “Corporal Punishment” at 37lb 12oz was also another awesome fish. To my surprise, and something I dont see very often  was how long Ryan’s rigs were, spinners with a 12inch boom, Ryan got a bit of banter thrown his way for this but how can we judge when he was clearly catching fish, he even put out the recommended 4inch spinner against his own 12inch and the 12inch would go first. Ryan was feeding crushed CCmoore Boilie with hemp and corn, also not going mad with the bait just 10-15 spombs to kick start things, and a little top up after each fish. On the end off Ryans ft long subway’s he managed to catch on two different colour hookabits, 12mm orange and 12mm yellow.

Ryan Holmes in Alamo ended his week very strong, totally opposite to Stock Pond and Alcatraz, Ryan started of struggling but when the fish moved over he certainly made the most of it, landing a total of five fish, with two of these fish coming on the very final morning, one after the other. But we will start of talking about his first bite and that came to a 18ft zig, black on black a fish known as “Titch” at 43lb 12oz. Then as Titch was sulking in the landing net, the rod on the bottom was away. It took until Wednesday for Ryan to get his first bit but once they turn up they turn up like busses, one from 18ft off the bottom and one from off the bottom, what a problem to have! The recommended 4inch spinners on running lead clips got him his bites, with his own goo’d up pink pop ups. Ryan worked the swim for the rest off the week and as I mentioned earlier he managed two from the 18ft zig again, so its definitely work packing the zig kits if your visiting us shortly.   

Stu Couper in Beach done a great job fishing effectively at 30 wraps and managed to land three fish, not bad going at all for beach at this time of year. He had two 42lbers with both being his biggest fish of the week, “Growler” being one and the other being “My Bait” both great stocky and ones to look out for in the future. 5inch spinners on a heli set up was used over a bed of DNA boilie and sweetcorn. Again, the ever faithful 12mm yellows held up by a bit of foam for extra buoyancy. 

Aaron Stocks next door in Treeline, managed a really old mirror known as “Stinger” at 25lb, fishing up along the treeline at 21 wraps, caught from the bottom of the shelf, still dont think its quit warm enough for them to be up the shelf just yet. A solid bag with two peaces of fake maize over the top of corn, cell and crushed cell.

Ben Weeks over in Big Southerly also managed just the one and what a fish to catch, “Ripper” at 30lb 8oz not far off being a tripple row linear. Fishing the go to spot’s, two out at 26 wraps towards Alcatraz and one down towards Alamo at 14 wraps. Ripper came from the 26 wrap spot. Spinners with yellow pop ups over a bed off cell, crushed cell and sweetcorn. 

Thats all for this week guys, the clocks have just changed so things can only get better, its so warm in the days this coming week with highs of 20degrees, we just need them night time temps to start creeping up, 4 degrees most nights. Its going to be a challenge on picking what to wear in the mornings, shorts and tees or hoodies and jackets. 

Until next time

Tight lines 

Ben 

Ohh I done two nights in scotties and blanked my arse off, but we wont talk about that!!!!