Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 05/07/2025

A Pair of Shoulders

 

A slight break in what has been persistent hot weather to start the week with, almost jumper temperatures, but with the warmer temperatures set to return towards the end of the week will the slight change in weather effect the fishing at all?  A lake full of regulars that know the venue well, let’s read on to see what happened this week.

 

To start off this catch report let’s start with probably the unluckiest and luckiest angler of the week, Ben Mitchell.  On his journey down to us on the Friday Ben was unfortunate enough to suffer total breakdown of his vehicle in the vicinity of Reims, and after some sorting manged to source a higher vehicle and just managed to get to us on time on the Saturday.  Not how you want your holiday to begin, but then on the draw his fortunes were completely changed when he drew ball number one and instantly put himself into The Alamo.

Having spent Saturday deciding on his option of where to fish Ben set up with one rods fishing out at 15 wraps to the tall tree to the right of the clubhouse as he looked and two rods out further in front of him out at 26 wraps to the left of Bob’s Beach, again as he looked out.

And with the cool refreshing wind pushing into him it was his short rod to the left that indicated his first bite on the Sunday evening.  This rod was fished with a solid bag filled with the Mainline pellet mix and a 12mm bottom bait cut in half with a small pink topper placed on top, with the area baited with just boilie.  

And with the above tactics Ben had managed to have a great start landing ‘Shoulders’ which weighed in at 65lb on the nose.  A great start to the week, which had now changed his fortunes it seemed.

From this capture it then wasn’t until the Tuesday when Ben started to get in on the action again.  With lots of fish showing on his spots it was no surprise when he started to receive bites.

Having lost a couple of fish, it was his longer spot that he landed his next fish at 27lb and named ‘Pumped’ straight after dinner service, and whilst there doing some photos for him his short rod was away!  A smaller fish at 19lb 12oz and called TM1 it was still very welcomed.  

It was a similar timed bite the following day for him, again a smaller fresher fish of 16lb’s was his prize.

With Ben’s short rod on the solid bag approach his rigs were made up of a soft braided section and tied to longshank hooks with a rig ring running free on the shank to a drop odd inline setup.  Ben’s longer rods were used with spinner rigs incorporated with small 12mm pink pop-ups for hook baits.

Both spots had been baited with a mixture of two different types of a fishmeal-based boilie and baited around 20 Spombs a day.  Luckily after some work Ben had manged to also get some safely, although probably a bit later than he had planned on the Saturday evening.  

Well done Ben, hope you get everything sorted out okay.

 

Darren Walker started off the week in Oblivion but found himself on the move into the vacant Big Girls on the Tuesday and with his rods positioned at various areas along the far tree line it was his 26-wrap spot tight to the reeds at the headland that gave him his first bite of the week.  And just like what we have spoken about above, Darren’s first fish of the week was also ‘Shoulders’.  Now this fish has a habit of coming out regularly over maybe a 3–4-week period but twice in two days is a new record for it.  In a little state of disbelief, photos done it was time to see it swim off again for the second time this week.  This was also a new personal best fish for Darren too, so well done.

Darren went on to land a couple more fish during the week, a 33lb 8oz fish on the Thursday evening called ‘The Fiddler’ and then during that night also another 30lb fish of 39lb 8oz.

Rig wise, Darren fished Multi Combi rigs including the new multi combi kickers and a shot on the hook to keep the fish coming to the net and these were baited with I.B. wafter boilies and the spots baited with Cell boilie, pellet and maize.

Well done Darren, see you again soon.

 

Another regular, who is again back with us in August, was Ben Oaks and his partner Gemma.  Ben had decided to fish from Alcatraz for the week ahead of him this time and spent a good amount of time of the Saturday leading around and learning his swim.  This is a great tactic and something everyone should do on the Saturday, as a week is a long-time fishing so get your homework done early on.

Homework completed Ben had opted to fish all three out to 32 wraps to the right of Big Southerly as this was an area that just felt cleaner and clearer of weed.  And it also turned out to be the right decision.  At around 1am on the Sunday Ben had landed his first carp of 40lb 8oz, a great opening to his week.  But then it was the Tuesday evening at around 9pm when he had landed an even bigger fish, this time ‘Mammut’ at a very spawned out weight of 52lb 4oz.  The evening light was just perfect for the pictures, and they came out amazing.

Another fish came his was during the night, this time weighing 34lb 8oz.

The next piece of action for Ben came through Thursday night and around first light on the Friday when he had managed a 30lb’er during the night and then two fish in quick succession, these being a nice mirror of 26lb called ‘Pump’ and followed up with another good sized common, ‘Tank’ weighing 46lb 8oz.  Tank is another amazing common that is set for good things in the future I feel.

Ben set himself up fishing Combi rigs set up with a rig ring sliding along the shank for the hook, and this was baited with a match the hatch bottom bait and again a match the hatch fish flavoured dumbbell wafter on top of this to create a snowman style set up.  The area was baited with a boilie and hemp approach soaked in liquid goodness for added pulling power.

Well done Ben and Gemma, see you in August.

 

No stranger to the venue Chris Smith had a good draw and couldn’t resist the view from Co’s Point for the week.  With the swim being slightly out of form of late, Chris approached it slightly differently to how it’s been fished of late and set out at 18 wraps towards the flat oaks.

Despite a wait until the early hours of Tuesday for his first fish, it was worth it.  ‘Smartie Pants’ was his reward at a weight of 51lb 8oz.  Not a regular visitor to the bank this one and one of the original scaley ones as well!  Nice fish.

Chris also went on to land a 21lb 12oz mirror at around 3am on the Wednesday morning and then had to wait until the very last night when he landed ‘Potsey’ (the second time this fish got caught this week as well) at 39lb 12oz.

All of Chris’s fish came from fishing out at 18 wraps and was baited with Cell boilie, pellet and maize.

Enjoy your new Kaizen Green’s when they arrive and we will see you later in the year.

 

Jeff Maskell and his partner Michelle had the view from The Stink this week and Jeff was one of the early ones off the mark when on the Sunday around lunch time he landed a fish called ‘Snapper’ at 30lb.  This one was caught from 14 wraps in the direction of the two poplar trees in the corner towards the Tree Line swim.  A nice start for the pair.

In the evening, just as it got dark on the Tuesday, Jeff hand landed his second fish of 28lb 8oz and this one was called ‘Hard Graft’.  This time his longer spot of 28 wraps towards the gap to the right of Baxter’s Hole had done the bite.  And it was this same area that also accounted for his next two fish.  ‘Chippy’ at 26lb and then Michelle getting in on the action with ‘Biscuit’ weighing 16lb.

Jeff approached his spots with his trusted IQ D rigs and a match the hatch approach of a fish-based boilie where he had baited with a boilie only approach with a little maize put in just for a fleck of colour.

Well done this week.

 

Alex Taylor had put himself in to fish Baxter’s Hole this week and it was a very frustrating time for him, having the fish regularly show up on him during the hours of darkness but had to wait until the very early hours of Wednesday when he managed to land his only fish of the week in the shape of a nice 44lb common, also a new personal best for him so well done on that achievement.

Alex baited and fished out at 25 wraps towards the marker pole to the left of The Stink and used a spinner rig baited with pink corn over the top of a bed of boilie and pellet.

Well done on the new PB again Alex.

 

No strange to venue was Chris Clarke, who after having a tough draw put himself into Pole Position for the week ahead.

Setting his stall out at range it was just after lunch on the Monday that he landed ‘Potsey’ weighing 39lb 12oz, a fish that came out again later in the week from Co’s as we have already mentioned above.

This was caught on a snowman style presentation fished over mainly boilie and a little hemp and maize.

Chris is on a back to backer, so fingers crossed you will get to read about some action for him in next week’s report.

Good luck for the next week and again will see you back here in August.

 

James Edwards found himself again fishing from Big Southerly this week, a swim that he had caught from previously.  

And despite a very tough week for him James did manage to land one late in the week in the shape of a nice 37lb’er, caught from the long spot out at 26.5 wraps.

Well done James, your patience paid off in the end.

 

Another regular visitor to us is Aaron Metcalff and having come out last in the draw fished from Stock Pond.

Aaron again spent his early time investigating the swim hard and managed to find a small gap in the weed out at 25 wraps towards Oblivion so stuck with this spot and early on with the 9-wrap gap to his right.

And it was his short rod that he got his first fish from on the first night, a small 20lb mirror at around 3am.  But then his longer spot started to do bites, with a brace of 20lb’ers through the night into Tuesday followed up with his biggest of the week a 31lb fish late in the evening.  As with this swim it is known for its bites, but mainly the smaller stamp of fish another low 20lb’er was his prize on the Thursday evening just before dark.

Well done on the fish and keeping at it all week.  Like many others this week, see you again soon.

 

A couple of single captures came the ways of anglers Chris Irving in the Tree Line and for Tim Trapnell in Bob’s Beach.

Chris in Tree Line managed to land a low 20lb mirror on the Tuesday evening from his 18-wrap zone fished out towards The Stink.  Chris baited the week with a boilie and hemp approach.

Over in Bob’s Beach, Tim left it late to get in on the party when on the Friday at breakfast time he landed a near scale perfect 25lb common.  Time also fished out at 18 wraps in the direction of The Alamo this time and used solid bags with pink wafters and feed a boilie only approach during the week.

 

Well done all during a challenging week, when fish had been very active over most of the anglers all week with bites being hard earned from them.

Tight Lines

Gareth “Gino”.