Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 06/09/2025

Monsoon 

Well a bit of a different outcome this week, if you’ve read last weeks catch report you would have seen it was a absolute blinder for many but this week was a different story. We defiantly had a touch of autumn over the week with temperatures going down to as low as 12 degrees at night and plenty of heavy rain. After such a dry summer this defiantly effected the fishing but luckily the fishing did get stronger towards the back end of the week and the boys managed to scrap together a total of 36 fish with only a few loses. A great bit of angling was seen so read on to see how they got on. 

Lets talk about the biggest fish of the week and not only the fishes name you will be familiar with, you will also know the anglers name’s. Both Chris Irving and Scott Hesling had the idea on the walk around, if one came out high and the other low at the draw they would both go in Alamo and invite either other in to double up, well with Chris being a draw bag of late he picked out ball 3 and our lake record holder Scott coming out 12th, so both to Alamo they went. First things first was to make a plan, with both being regulars they both knew if you are to double up In this swim its best to work together, so they both opted to fish four rods on one spot and the 5th and 6th rods short each side of the swim and instead of having three rods each they would take bites in turn on all six rods. The four on the long spot was 20 wraps towards Bob’s Beach but after a few days of seeing the fish longer they went out to 28 wraps left of beach towards the dome tree. Short rods on the left was 16 wraps towards the lodge and on the right was 9 wraps towards Co’s Point. With Chris having first dibs on the rods he was up for the first fish and it took time in fact it took until Wednesday to catch but it true Chris style it was a absolute unit by the name of “Shoulders” at 68lb 8oz (this came from the short 16 wrap spot towards the lodge). Now Scotts turn and on the same day only a few ours later one of the long rods was away this time with a scale perfect 40lb common named “Lone Survivor”. And that was it for the rest of the week up and down just like that but the boys were still happy and done well for a tough week. And of course hemp and boilie still doing its thing for the boys!

Moving on to the man with the ponytail, yes thats rite Chris Clarke. Chris has been on for a back to back trip and after doing terrible in the draw last week, this week was no better with ball 9, but luck was on his side because he managed to get into Alcatraz. This swim suits Chris down to T, with being in this swim many times before and being a out and out caster it suited him down to the ground. Close to top rod with 9 fish but he did manage the 2nd biggest fish of the week “Robs Rig” with a top weight at 58lb 8oz. He also had a lovely back up fish known as “2 C’s” also at a new top weight of 55lb 4oz. There’s a love hate relationship between Chris and 2 C’s, Chris loves it that much he’s caught it four times so that fish must hate him! As mentioned before Chris loves a bit of long rang fishing so he opted to fish 33 wraps towards the scary tree and the plan was to give them some bait, plenty of it! A couple of 17l buckets was soon on the spot with combi rigs over the top, it didn’t take to long before he had his first fish, first evening in fact. 36 hrs soon drifted by without a fish but once the rain had eased he then started to build the swim. All his fish bar two came in the day so putting bait out and casting rigs at the rite times was key.  

Top rod Gary Morrison managed to land himself in Pole Position, after fishing in this swim on the recent CarpFix social and done fairly well with 6 fish back then it was certainly up there in his top 3. But coming out high in the draw the doubt was kicking in but to his surprise it was still on the board with no name written in the box. With no hesitation he got to the swim and was keen for a few, Gary wanted to keep leading about to a minimum so with the spots already in the locker from the last CarpFix trip, it was just a case of a few cast to make sure they were still clean. 27 wraps towards stink with two rods and 19 wraps towards the scary tree with a single rod. Again the same as Chris next door, Gary caught one very quickly but 36hrs past with no carp. But when they turned back on it was just a case of building and keeping the bites coming, finishing with 10 carp for the week with some nice ones amongst them. “Lennie’s” at 52lb was his biggest with a nice back up “The Exclusive” at 48lb 8oz. Same as the rest at the moment bait wise, you just cant ignore how many fish hemp and boilie are producing at the moment and with combi rigs over the top with match the hatch wafters, its a deadly tactic. 

Ben Milnes over in stink didn’t manage loads of fish, only four but the stamp was good. A 50 known as “Mammut” 50lb on the button, Paroaody at 41lb 12oz and a perfect common at 42lb 4oz and a mid 20 chucked in for good measure. It was a tricky week for Ben though, first bite came on the first night then it took all week until he managed another and his last two coming on the final evening/night. Just goes to show keeping to spots and a bit of bait trickling in will produce in the end. Two spots for Ben 26 wraps to the right of Baxters and one at the popular trees at 12 wraps, both spots produced! Hemp and boilie once again doing all his bites and combi rigs with match the hatch wafters over the top. 

Scott Larman was also up there near top rod to with 9 fish in Oblivion. Scott is also a regular here and knows his way around a few swims, he’s also one of our customers who has managed to put the immaculate in the net back in 2020. But from my memory he’s never wet a Line in Oblivion so finding spots was the plan first off all and after plumbing about for a hr or so he found a nice spot just infront of a band of weed at 27 wraps with the weed being at 28 wraps. He did catch all bar three fish from this spot, he did manage one at 19 wraps towards Alcatraz where he saw a fish show a few times and on his final evening he managed two fish from a very short spot at 9 wraps down the right hand margin. Fish went to 45lb 4oz for Scott and that being “Squeaky Clean” Im starting to sound like a parrot but a good helping of hemp and boilie got him his bites! 

First timer Kevin Murphy done his home work before coming and fancied a go in the consistent “Stock Pond” and although it was a tough week for Kev he did manage a nice mirror known as “Matrix” at 44lb. This was all for Kev but a very happy angler indeed, the first Gigantica carp is always a special one! After listening to myself and showing him where the bar is in this swim he had a couple of options, fish before it, on top of it or behind it. Well after a few days fishing his side of the bar at 19 wraps and with nothing happening he decided to go a little further to get on top of it at 24wraps. The following morning after the move is when he landed the fish, a very nice move! 

And thats all folks, the weather is certainly on the change and my weather app is telling me its very cloudy next week with plenty of rain. So who knows what will happen, hopefully some A Team carp will show up, fingers crossed!

Until next time

Tight lines

Ben