Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 14/03/2026

New Moon!

Well the new moon didn’t fail to produce some big commons but it was a shame it lacked in quantity. It was a tough week with only 6 fish seeing the bank, but the lads fished their harts out to the very end, the lack of carp certainly wasn’t down to lack of effort. 

With the weather being that horrible early spring hot in the day and as low as -2 at night it makes things very tricky at times and on top of that the pike have started spawning and the carp love eating it. But there was a few lucky ones, Jack Budd in Alcatraz being the hero of the show landing two very impressive commons. Early on in the week jack had a very nice wake up call and after a long battle from at range and beating him up in short he managed to land The Centurian at 59lb 4oz a very impressive carp. Then after after a long few quiet days he managed to land a very rare carp, one that hasn’t been out since 2023 and one that hasn’t got much history behind it in regards to captures. The Box Common at 50lb 12oz and a new 50 for the lake, putting the lakes tally to 96 carp over 50lb. Both Jack’s fish came from the 33 wrap spot just slightly right of the scary tree, feeding steadily through out the week with flake maize, crushed boilie, hemp and corn. The ever faithful spinner with a isotonic yellow barrel wafter doing the business. 

Then we have first timer Ben Robinson, Ben spent the week just buzzing to be here and it was great to see but when his rod went off after a few days in the knees started to knock but what popped up wasn’t the intended species, the dreaded red eye tinker. But that still put a smile on his face because it was 10lb 4oz, biiiiiiiiig tench! But it wasn’t long after that the short 13 wrap rod was away and this time something a bit more special than a tench, another big common “Mammut” at 59lb 8oz. Now if the tech sent the knees nocking you can only imagine what Ben was like with a big common, absolutely buzzing and that’s what its all about! Again the spinner doing its business but this time with a yellow IB pop up and Approximately 3kg of 10 and 15mm cell was introduced with a catapult over the top.

Next up we have regular Josh Cook, Josh stated his week off in Co’s after puling ball one out of the hat. Again the fish didn’t want to play ball but he did manage one of our very fresh stocky’s coming from the 31 wrap spot at the tits. After a few nights and only one fish under his belt he felt like a move was in order and with Pole position being empty and stacks of fish showing in there at night the van was quickly loaded. Josh fished Pole at its maxed range at 33 wraps towards stink and he did manage one but again sadly another one of our fresh stockys, all that effort kind of paid off. 

Then lastly with have farther of Jack Barry Budd, Barry after a 10 year gap from his last visit opted to fish in Baxters Hole as the sort of fishing this swim offers was straight up his street. A very frustrating week past with no fish but a few carp were showing to his right every night in sort of no mans land, so a spinner was deployed at 14 wraps towards the area the fish were showing and that same night he managed to land one. Not massive, again one of our fresh stocky’s at 17lb 4oz.

That’s it for this week, I certainly hope it pics up a bit next week, fingers crossed!

Until next time 

Tight lines 

Ben