Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 26/04/2025

The Immaculate?

 

A week full of regulars, mainly a lot of the guys that help us on an annual basis with work party’s around the site, it was sure to be a good week.  And we weren’t disappointed with the standard of the fish that were caught last week.  Read on to see who caught what.

 

Let’s kick off this report with regular visitor to not just the Main Lake but also the Road Lake, and that is Mr nice guy, Andy Lewis.  Andy had pickled ball number three in the draw and fancied a go in Alcatraz, a swim he had never fished before and more importantly another of the inform swims of late.

Andy did not waste any time in capturing his first of the week, with ‘Miss Davis’ at 21lb on the first evening after slinging out a zig at 18ft on a piece of black foam and a red aligner at 18ft in length.

Action throughout the week tended to come Andy’s way either early morning or in the evenings just after dinner until dark.  And this was very true of the first morning when he informed me, he had caught a couple at first light again both on the zig, but at 20ft this time around.

Telling me one was around 50lb’s we got in the water, as per the rules, to weigh it and on the lift, it felt to me a little more than 50.  We reset and went for another lift and when I asked him what he thought it weighed and he replied, “50 something”, well I informed him it was a 70, and 70lb 10oz. I opened the sling and instantly identified it as ‘Spotty Leather’, I should have looked first then I would have known what kind of weight we were dealing with.  Who say’s zigs only pick out the small ones?  

His other one caught along with this mighty fish was ‘Grinder’ weighing 21lb 8oz.

The week carried on this way, Monday came and another fish in the morning and this one being ‘Titch’ weighing 45lb and backed up with ‘Tobs’ at 43lb 8oz.  A nice brace of 40’s for the morning.  The first one this morning was caught off the deck at 31.5 on a snowman presentation mounted on a multi combi rig.  His hook baits were a match the hatch cured hook bait with a pineapple goo’s up hook bait to top it off.

Andy was away again in the evening and back on the zig for this one, ‘Stains Massive’ at 32lb 4oz.

A very hectic Tuesday evening came his way, when between dinner time and dark he had four bites, again all on the zigs at 22ft this time, and landed all four.  These were ‘Colgate’ at 19lb 12oz, ‘Old Water Boy’ 18lb, ‘StickyIcky’ 26lb and finally ‘Apostrophe’ at 34lb 8oz.

After not a lot happening on the deck Andy had opted to stop baiting over the last coupole of days but after putting just a little more out he had a bite in the shape of one of our characters of the lake, ‘The Runt’ at 38lb.  This time on a spinner rig with a small white 11mm pop up that had a milky creamy smell to it.  But back to it with the zigs in the evening produced another bite with a nice 31lb 12oz mirror being his reward.

More bites were now coming off the deck for Andy and on the Thursday, he started the day off with a scaly original called ‘Moroccan Sunset’ weighing 34lb 2oz.  More bites came that day in the form of ‘Gino’ at 30lb’s and an angry 23lb common.

Back on the zig in the evening produced ‘My Bait’ at 44lb, and then just as it was dark a lovely 41lb 8oz common followed by another of the lookers of the lake, aagain an original scaly banger ‘The Cheese’ weighing 55lb 8oz.  An incredible fish!

That was how it ended for Andy, and what a great week and an incredible stamp of fish.  19 fish landed this week, good going that!

Well done mate, was great to see you and to sit and spend the evenings with you chewing the fat about life.  Cheers bud, see you again later in the year.

 

With ball number two in his hand at the draw and a vacantCo’s Point, Cosmin Truta wasted no time in putting himself into here.

Following on from last week’s action in here it was no surprise that Cosmin was putting his rods out at 30 wraps in the direction of ‘the tits’.

And it was on the Monday that the action started hotting up for him, landing ‘Cosmos’ at 43lb 12oz.  A nice starting point.  

The week got a little more hectic from here on.  Tuesday would see Cosmin starting the day off with ‘Drop Scale’ at 35lb 2oz, ‘Lone Survivor’ at 39lb 6oz and one of our original scaly warriors ‘Little Plated’ first time over 40lb’s at 40lb 8oz.  He followed these up with ‘Han Solo’ at 25lb 4oz, then sadly lost another at the net and ended the day with another awesome looking original scaly, ‘Alcatraz’ at 60lb 12oz.  Another fish at a new top weight.  What a day!

Another four fish came the way of his net in Co’s on the Wednesday, landing ‘Epicano’ (yet another scaly one) 44lb and this was followed up in the afternoon with ‘The Rocke’ 42lb 12oz, ‘Gums’ at 48lb 8oz and finally ‘Pump’ at 29b 8oz.  Another red-letter day.

Action kept coming Cosmin’s way for the last couple days of the week, but it also certainly started to slow slightly as the fish seemed to migrate slightly right towards Bob’s Beach and the empty Tree Line swims.

Thursday Cosmin put the net underneath the incredible ‘Buzzin Fish’ at 67lb 14oz, and once netted called me to let me know and to also inform me that whilst playing this fish in the edge what he said could only have been The Immaculate Common came swimming past his hooked fish from the tree’s to his right and then headed out into open water.  He said it could not have been anything else; he was buzzin’ to have seen it that’s for sure.  

His capture was also backed up with another of our originals weighing 38lb’s.

Cosmin’s final fish came in the form of ‘The Artisan’ weighing 33lb’s on the Friday.

A great tally of fish for Cosmin this week, 20 bites and 16 fish landed for him.

Multi combi rigs working well for him set up on a lead clip arrangement.  Cosmin began the week feeding mainly boilie with a little pellet, hemp and corn but soon after catching just opted for the boilie only approach with a match the hatch hook bait enticing the fish to pick up his hook bait.  5 or 6 spombs every now and then kept the bites coming, or if he felt he was due a bite and nothing had happened another couple of spombs went out and this produced bites not long after.

Great angling this week, well done.

 

The first of our work party group is Anthony Lloyd, who put himself in to fish from The Stink for the week ahead.

And Ant got himself under way on the Sunday when fishing out on the deck at 26.5 wraps he put the net under a fish called ‘Pablo’ that weighed 35lb.  This was caught on a fishy garlic based wafter boilie mounted on a spinner rig comprising of boom and a longshank x size 4 hook fished as a single hook bait on its own.  But it was the end of the week when his prize was to come.  After seeing the fish show in the same area that they was caught from the previous week in this swim, around 40 yards towards the two tall popular trees in the opposite corner of the lake, Ant decided to flick a rod in this area, this time using a spinner rig with a pineapple flavoured pop up as a hook bait and landed ‘La Boheme’ at an incredible weight of 56lb 4oz.  A lovely common to have caught.

Well done this week Ant, you kept at it and the goods came your way.

 

Over in The Alamo we had two anglers fishing here this week and one of these being another of our work party group “Clutch”.  

With several fish showing out in front around the 80-yard range a zig was deployed amongst them and the Sunday morning he was rewarded nicely, firstly with ‘Movie Star’ (another original scaly) at 41lb and this was braced with another just under 40lb’s at 39lb 12oz.  A fine first morning’s angling.

Clutch then had to wait it out until Wednesday when he landed a new PB in the shape of ‘Jayden’ weighing a healthy 46lb 2oz.  Lovely fish that one.  Another smaller one visited him on the Thursday evening, ‘Tumble’ weighing 23lb.  All his bites this week fell to zigs, unfortunately he just could not seem to get a bite off the deck from here this week.

Doubled up with Clutch was Jim, first time visitor to the Big G and like clutch couldn’t seem to get a bite off the deck but did manage one of our babies on the Tuesday in the form of ‘Noo Noo’ at 19lb and an ounce.  Again, this one coming to a zig approach cast towards the showing fish fished at 21ft.

Well done the boys.

 

In the in form Big Girls this week we had Constantin, and after deciding to keep disturbance to a minimum and doing all his baiting up from the edges and not cutting the swim off with lines going out to the “head land” he was rewarded early on for his efforts on the Sunday morning with ‘Lauren’s lips’ at 25lb 12oz and also ‘Milky Nuts’ again at 25lb 12oz.

It wasn’t until late on the Monday when more action came his way, ‘The Murth’ at 38lb and then followed up by ‘KonKave’ at 32lb 4oz coming his way.  Two nice quick bites.

Thursday would see his biggest capture of the week being landed, ‘James’ at 44lb this time and then Constsntin’s final piece of action fell to him on the Friday with ‘Little Toperooni’ weighing 37lb 10oz coming his way.

A great bit of angling this week, baiting quietly from around the edges where he could see it and letting them feed during the day and putting rods out later after dinner time. All the bites this week came at fishing 11 wraps more to the left of the swim and like I said above in shallow water where he could observe the fish’s feeding habits.

Constantin caught his fish on spinner rigs with a small 11mm brown wafter to match the pellet and boilie he was feeding.

Well done this week, maybe a 50+ next time?  

 

Stevie P (Steve Poll) fished out of Bob’s Beach this week and manged a 30lb’er the first night taken on a zig, but then had to wait until Wednesday when he managed to catch ‘The Arrow’ a lovely common at 36lb, this time off the deck and caught at 27.5 wraps out towards the left of The Alamo swim and again like many others on a multi combi rig and a fish meal and garlic based boilie with a match the hatch 12mm wafter over. A spread of 10 and 15mm baits mixed with pellets.

Another came his way the following morning, an again another scaly original in the shape of ‘Folded Tail Scaly’ weighing 25lb.  Again, using the same tactics as before.

Well done this week Steve, pleasure to have met you.

 

Last but by no mean least we have Bazza, who started the week in Tree Line but didn’t stay here long as a move to Baxter’s Hole was on his mind.  

And sticking at it on the Thursday he was rewarded nicely with a cracking looking, again another, scaly banger.  ‘Wood Carving’ weighing 40lb 4oz.  An incredible looking carp again.  This one was caught out in the pond at 26 wraps towards the ‘marker pole’ in the far horizon.  Spinner rigs with longshank x hooks deployed with a pineapple pop up doing the business over a baited area of house pellet and a cream-based boilie done the business on this capture.

Well worth the wait for this one this week, well done mate, and again pleasure to meet you.

 

I also managed to nick a fish between work as well.  Fishing in Stock Pond I landed 'Drop Scale Lin' weighing 39lb 6oz from along the tree lined margin at 18 wraps.  This was caught on a spinner rig and a Krank hook with a fruity dumbell wafter fished over 5 scoops of pellet and 3 scoops of 10mm Essential Cell boilie.

 

What a week for incredible looking carp, and a great average of weight as well.

Great week lads, well done everyone.

After a very hot and summery week, the weather is due to change next week, much cooler and cloudier so let’s see if that effects the recent good run of form from across the site. 

Tight lines all.

Gareth “Gino”.