Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 28/06/2025

The Jarman Social

This week we welcomed Dan Jarman and friends for their social. With some very hot weather coming, let’s see how the fish react.

First up the man himself Daniel Jarman who got himself in The Alamo this week and paired up with his mate Chris. Working as a team they fished four rods at 26 wraps towards the left of Bob’s Beach and chose to fish their remaining third rods shorter. Fishing a mixture of Mainline Cell and Essential Cell in a variety of sizes they were spombing together at the same time to cause the least amount of disturbance. Fishing snowmen on combi rigs on a lead clip setup, it was Monday morning when the crowd was gathered in their swim and Dan had a big girl in the net. Coming off his longer spot Dan had managed to land ‘The Clean Fish’ at 66lb, bagging himself a new PB. With the fish slowing down on his side it wasn’t until later Wednesday when he watched them show shorter for the majority of the day he decided to put a rig short and put just a few spombs over the top, when he was rewarded with one of our most recent stockies which he then named after his son, ‘Alpha Maffa’ at 13lb 4oz. Dans third and final fish came on the Friday when he again, had one of the new stockies coming in at 14lb 12oz. As for Chris this week he was fishing the left-hand side of the swim again with two in between Bob’s Beach and Baxter’s and one shorter at 15 towards the clubhouse, it was a very slow start to the week and he had to wait until Thursday for his first fish where he had ‘Merang’ at 24lb and followed it up early Friday morning with ‘Bailey’s’ at 32lb coming off his short spot. Not as productive as I’m sure he would have liked, but I’m sure he will be back for revenge. 

Next door in The Stink, we had Rich Lofthouse who was fishing 3 spots one in his margin tight after seeing them on the walk round, one at 17 wraps towards the two poplars in Tree Line and one out long towards the right of Baxter’s Hole. Rich was the first off the mark, having two on the first morning in the shape of ‘Honky Honk’ at 29lb and ‘Hard Graft’ at 25lb, both coming from his margin rod. It was frequent morning bites from then on for Rich landing ‘Bazza’ the next morning at 36lb, ‘Poppy’ at 20lb and ‘Golden Scaled Lin’ at 18lb 8oz and rounded the week off with 10 fish with the biggest being ‘Titch’ at 44lb 8oz on the Thursday after having his first 40 of the week being ‘Cosmos’ at 41lb. Rich was fishing Iso Fish boilie with match the hatch hook baits topped with pink slow sinking maize. 

Over in Tree Line, we had Andy Shepherd who was here with us for his second week after spending his first over on the Road Lake. Andy started the week fishing two rods up the tree line one at 16 in the first hole and one at 21 in the third, with his other rod out towards The Stink at 20 wraps. Andy’s first bite came on Monday morning where he landed one known as ‘Ryan’s Riches’ 31lb 8oz and followed that up with ‘Barcode’ at 25lb catching both fish from the tree line spot at 21 wraps. Andy was using a great technique for fishing Tree Line whereby he was using a baiting pole, casting over it then dropping his rig tight in the margin under the trees, with the margins being so undercut and the trees overhanging in Tree Line, this is a great way to get your rigs into an area you can’t cast to. This proved to be the winning way this week for Andy as he went on to catch several more fish leading him to pull his other closer tree line rod out into open water. Andy continued to catch and ended his week on 7 fish with his biggest being a pair of 40’s one known as ‘Bullet’ at 41lb and his biggest coming on the last morning, an original called ‘Ugloe’ at 42lb. Andy was fishing spinners with match the hatch wafters or slow sinking maize over a couple of scoops of Mainline Cell and Essential Cell.

Andy Cook is next, who ended up in Oblivion after getting ball 12 this week. Andys week started off really well managing to catch the first night when he had a cracking common known as ‘Dennis’ at 36lb, coming from 9 wraps down his right-hand margin, a spot in form of late and always a good shout this time of year. Andy then went on to lose one the next night before having his next fish on Tuesday where he had one of our recent stockies named ‘Beluga’ at 12lb. unfortunately the fish then seemed to move out of Oblivion’s water and that was it for Andy this week.

Across the pond in Alcatraz we had Jens, who was fishing 32 wraps towards the scary tree to the right-hand side of Big Southerly. Fishing a creamy nut based boilie along with some house particle, Jens was fishing spinners over the top with snowmen and was into his first fish on the first night, but being under 50lb we didn’t managae to get photos during the night, but come Monday morning at breakfast time Jens was into a fish known as ‘Short Dorsal’ at 39lb who fought hard and long for a good 45 minutes before slipping in to the net, an old original. Jens then went on to catch another 3 fish during the nighttime throughout the week but again being under that 50lb barrier we didn’t manage to get any photos. 

Next up Adam Dyer who started his week off in Big Girls and was another one who managed to get off the mark quickly and after losing one but this time he had ‘Ched’ at 12lb another recent stockie, this fish came from the 11-wrap spot down to the left tight in the bay. Then after a quiet couple of nights, and the view of the famous Co’s Point being empty, Adam had to make the move, and it paid off as he caught ‘Solid Scales’ at 28lb 8oz coming on a match the hatch Cell Bottom bait over a bed of cell boilie and house maize. Unfortunately, that was it for Adam but as it was his first trip, and on what seemed to be a tough week, he was happy to go away with a couple of fish under his belt. 

Pete Beaven rounds us off this week, who was also here for his second week after a successful first week over in Tea Party 1 on the Road Lake last week. After seeing a lot of fish in Scottie’s Corner before the walk round, Pete had the swim in his top 3 and managed to get in there. With this style of fishing being new to Pete he was excited to give solid bag fishing a go and go away with a new tactic under his belt. Fishing solid bags in Scottie’s Corner can be a great tactic, just setting small traps in the weed and not spooking the fish out of the swim with a lot of bait and we would all say don’t even get your spod rod out of the bag. Pete was fishing slow sinking maize in his bags and filling them with buttercorn goo then fishing the going spot at 17.5 wraps towards Alcatraz and 15 towards the reeds. It took a few days, but Pete managed one of our stockies from 2023 which didn’t have a name, and it was only right we called it ‘The Hoff’ a name quite suiting for Pete rolling round in his robe. Unfortunately, that was it for Pete though as when the wet weather and lower temperatures came in the fish seemed to move out. 

So, all in all a tough week for some with not many fish coming out but with the weather going from one extreme to another and a horrendous storm passing through, the fishing was going to be tough. We look forward to your next trip.

Tight Lines,

Greg.

Team Gigantica.