Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 15/11/2025

Frosty Nights

It seems like winter has hit us hard at the end of the week, with nights down around the -4c at night and barely getting into positive numbers by day.

With bivvy heaters ablaze and multiple layers on the anglers, let’s read how they got on.

Over to Big Southerly first this week, and first time visitor to us here, we had Steven Vanden Bulcke.

Steven couldn’t of had a much better first night on the banks of the Big G, when in the early hours he managed his first bite and landed his first fish.  And what a fish it turned out to be…….’Pip’s’, and at this time of year we were hoping for a big weight, which it certainly gave us.  A new top weight for it spinning the scales around to exactly 81lb!  What an amazing account opener on your first night.

After this it was a patent wait until Wednesday night, when Steven managed to land his second and last fish of his trip, ‘Strokey’ at 21lb 8oz.  Steven was more than made up with just the one big fish, which I’m sure we would all be happy with.

Steven baited for the first three days of his session, and despite the first night bit of action he stopped baiting his swim after the Monday, as he didn’t want to be in a place where he was just putting bait on bait.  Sensible!

The bait mixture he did introduce was Cell 18mm boilies, some crushed Cell, hemp, corn and a good helping of matching Cell Smart Liquid.

He caught Pip’s on a spinner rig using 25lb Boom and a size 4 Krank hook baited with a boilie out the bag and a corn topper.  His second fish fell to a solid bag using the same hook bait combination.

Both fish came from 25 ½ wraps cast to the usual area to the left of Alcatraz as he looked out from his swim.

Well done this week Steven and well done on an incredible personal best.

Moving along just one swim and into The Stink we had angler Tim Janssens.

After trying his efforts where most anglers have of late, out long, it was his shorter-range rod that gave him his first fish of the week.  And this was also on the first night.

‘Double Gill’ weighing 40lb exactly was his prize and was caught on a standard hair rig baited with a double match the hatch boilie. 

But it was the Tuesday night that he caught another of our special fish here…..’Wood’s Common’ at an equalling top weight of 66lb.  This also came from the same zone as his previous fish, which was at 20 wraps straight out in front of him.

Well done on the captures and like above a big well done on the personal best fish too.

Coming over now to Joeri van Garnbeke who had chosen to fish from Pole Position.

Joeri also got in amongst the action early in the week when on Sunday night his alarms gave him the news of his first bite.  Fished out shorter than usual for this swim at 16 wraps towards Stink, was where he managed to land ‘Dawson’ weighing 42lb 2oz.  A great start!

This was caught on a multi combi rig baited with a squid wafter and fished over a light amount of hemp, maize and a squid boilie.

It was then on Wednesday night when his next fish came along, ‘Poppy’ at 24lb 8oz.  This time coming from 18 wraps out to the right of Big Southerly and caught on a single solid bag.  This spot and rig approach also produced one more fish for him just before packing down and heading off to home on the Friday night.  A top weight for this fish at 54lb, ‘Half Moonscale’ was his prize.

Top rod this week, well done Joeri.

Steven Stockman had ball number two in the draw and couldn’t resist having a go in Co’s Point.

Despite sticking to his spots and keeping at it, Steven also baited for the first three days and then stopped and then after a couple of days after stopping two fish came along at once for him on the Friday.  And also on solid bags with a single grain of slow sinking maize onto a size 4 Wide Gape hook.

His reward was ‘Proper Job’ weighing 37lb 2oz, which hadn’t been recorded being caught for a couple of year and this was also backed up with ‘Alfred’ at 42lb.

Both fish coming from 30 wraps out towards the “Tit’s”.

Well done, it was certainly worth the wait and not chopping and changing your spots.

Moving to his right and into Tree Line we had angler Koen de Troyer.  After having the last choice of swim, Tree Line was a fair shout in my opinion and after keeping his eyes fixed on what was happening in front of him he spied a little bit of bubbling, which turned out to be around 16 wraps out towards The Stink.

After placing his trusty hinge stiff rigs out on this spot with a fruity citrus pop up keeping it up, it didn’t take long to land his first fish from this zone.  ‘Sweeny Todd’ was his reward at 31lb.  From the same spot and using the same tactics his second fish from here came on the Thursday night.  This one turned out to be ‘Alpha Maffa’ weighing in at 24lb 8oz.

It just shows the chances are there if you make that little bit of extra effort to react to any signs presented in front of you.

A pleasure to have met you and well done on the fish.

Lastly this week, and the angler to catch the first fish of the week was Kris ‘Witten’  Verstreketen who fished from Stock Pond.

Following of from the previous angler, Kris caught his first and only fish of the week from 20 wraps towards the orange marker in the corner of his swim.  This was a fish called ‘M.C’ and weighed in at 29lb 2oz.

Kris caught this fish on a very short “German” style rig of just 4 ½ inches long made from IQ Fluorocarbon to a size 6 Wide Gape hook and a double Cell boilie bottom bait.  No bait was introduced prior to the capture of this fish, just a single rig placed on the spot.

It proved tough for the rest of the week, but Kris certainly kept at it and tried the whole way through.

Well done on the fish.

All the fish that are caught currently are well earned, as the whole site is fishing tough now.  Certainly a few fish being caught on just single bags this week…..maybe something to consider for the next few weeks if you are coming out to fish?

Until next time, tight lines.

Gareth “Gino”