Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 06/07/2019

Another warm week beckoned on the Main Lake at Gigantica. The weather wasn’t forecast to be superhot, but mid to high twenties most days, and then dropping to low teens in the evenings. The winds were still the same old boring Northerlies with a westerly switch promised at the end of the week. We had a group of anglers on who had all fished the Main Lake before and knew the drills.

Dale (Dee) Diamond started off his week in Bob’s Beach, but with little activity in front of him took the opportunity to move into Big Girls. The swim was vacated on Tuesday so was free of lines and pressure before he moved in on Wednesday. Dee was just looking for one bite and thought that playing the “long game” the fish should move in there on Friday with a fresh new wind. In short; he got it completely wrong! The fish were already in there when he cast out shortly after tea. It took only a matter of minutes before his rod fished at 21 wraps towards the stock pond inflow pipe rattled off. A slow heavy fight ensued, and Andy the Bailiff made it round in time to see the last throws of the battle. A massive scaley mirror came into view and Dee got the old disco leg as he desperately tried to get it in the net. All went well, and the result was the stunning “Fred” at 57lb 8oz. 

Rod back out on the spot, and it went within ten minutes, this time “Eddie’s” at 36lb. Back out to the spot, and same result; ten minutes later and another bite! This time the “Spotty Leather” at its first time over sixty (61lb 8oz) and a new PB for Dee. Still not content, he flicked it back out again, and ten minutes later he was staring down at another fifty in the net! This time “The Unattended” at 50lb made it a thirty, a brace of fifties and a sixty in less than 3 hours! Dee baited with 7kg of chopped Mainline Link and Maize each afternoon, and fished D-Rigs with two grains of IB Slow Sinking Maize Over the top. He picked up another three fish during the last two days taking his tally to seven fish. What a session, great angling.

Chris Clarke went into Co’s Point for the week and chose to fish at 31 wraps. Bait for the week was Baitworks Royal Marine and Sticky Krill mixed with maize. He introduced 4kg per day with the Spomb and fished IQ D-Rigs with a white Scent From Hell hookbait over the top. On Sunday morning just before 7am he received a fast take and landed his first fish of the trip, a mid-twenty Mirror known as “Sans Oeuf” (which translates as No Egg in French, as bailiff Steve hates the eggs that they put on the pizza at the takeaway!). Things then went a little quiet, and it was on Thursday after dinner that Chris pulled his master stroke. Fish could be seen in the weedbed on the right-hand side of the swim; so with nobody fishing Scottie’s he dropped a running COG lead and D-Rig baited with two grains of SS Maize. Within fifteen minutes he had landed two fish! The biggest being Elephant Tube at 38lb 4oz. Good angling Chris. 

Ryan Mullins came out of the draw first (for the third time on the trot!) and chose Stink for the week. During the walk-round it was evident that a lot of fish were holding up between Stink and Big Southerly, so Ryan decided to split his rods. He wanted to fish a 32 wrap spot at longer range with two rods and then started baiting two different 16 wrap spots, and alternated the other rod between them. Ryan was using Dynamite Baits Tiger Nut boilies with Maize and fished either matching Pop-Ups or Wafters as hookbaits on a Spinner Rigs. Baiting with 2-3kg of bait each day, Ryan managed to get a chance of a bite each day. The size of the fish weren’t earth shattering, but he managed five fish and a couple of losses, the best being “Short Dorsal” at 38lb 4oz. 

Dean Cullen went into Alcatraz and set about fishing the usually productive 27.5 wrap spot towards the Wonky Tree with two rods and one at 24 wraps on the hump. He baited with 2-3kg of Mainline Fyber and Maize which he presoaked and pimped with some Pineapple Goo. Despite fish showing in the area, it took a while for Dean to get his first bite. On Thursday he broke the duck with a mid-twenty in the morning and then landed “Lone Survivor” at 38lb 4oz in the heat of the afternoon. His Spinner rig baited with three grains of IB Pop-Up Corn doing the damage. He also managed another twenty at last knockings on Saturday morning. He stuck to his spots, and stuck with the plan and got his reward.

Gordon Harman settled on Big Southerly and the water in front looked like hot chocolate for the first half of the week. There were a lot of fish in the area, but they appeared to be preoccupied doing something else, as it took a while for his chance to materialise. Gordon was over moon when on a Wednesday morning he landed his first Gigantica carp after a couple of previous blank trips. If ever there was a fish that he was destined to catch it must have been the 24lb 4oz Common that graced his net. It was aptly named “Perseverance” which is exactly what Gordon did. He used a mix of Mainline Essential Cell and Link and the fish fell for a matching Essential Wafter from a spot at 13.5 wraps on a Spinner Rig.

Roy “The Traveller” Prodger was on for his second week and started off in Baxter’s for the first two nights. He unfortunately lost a fish down the left hand margin, before seeing the water in Scottie’s Corner start to colour up and saw some big fish cruising the margins. A quick move to the vacant swim, and he identified a small spot that the fish kept visiting. He set up a washing line across to the far margin, and very carefully placed his Mainline Hybrid Wafter hookbait. No sooner than he had tensioned the line he got a bite!! Unfortunately it didn’t end well when the fish came off. Roy managed to land two fish during the next two nights, but they weren’t the monsters he had seen swimming there. A couple of 2018 Stockie’s were his reward for some clever angling; but it could have as easily been a brace of fifties. He then moved into Bob’s Beach for the last two nights, and unfortunately lost another fish when it got wrapped around some Spod Braid caught in the margin.

Stuart Minney chose Big Girls initially, but then after a couple of quiet nights decided a move into Baxter’s was on the cards, as he’d seen fish in there the previous evening. Early on Wednesday morning he received a fast take down the left-hand margin and landed himself one of the 2018 Stockie’s, which he got to name “Wake Up”. A couple of quiet days followed, but on Friday night he got another chance down the right-hand margin, but disaster stuck when he suffered a hook-pull. Stu used Sticky Krill mixed with maize to prime the spots in the edge and presented Gigantica Banoffee Wafters on Spinner Rigs over the top.

John “The Resident” Allen was on his sixth week at Gigantica, but unfortunately his success at the draw bag continued to be poor. Coming out last again, he decided to spend the week in Treeline as it is a swim he hadn’t fished before. Initially John spent a lot of time observing the fish which were moving up and down the left-hand tree-line before committing to a spot. The baiting approach was his trusted mix of Gigantica particle (I’m going to buy him a bag of boilies for Christmas!) and on Saturday he chose to fish just one rod across at 21 wraps with a micro corn hookbait. Sunday morning and John received a pickup, but the fish slipped the hook during the fight. He had a repeat performance on Monday morning, but this time he got his man. A lovely clean looking Common known as “Boreas” was his reward at 30lb 8oz. John also set up a washing line rod closer down the margin at 12 wraps and he also had a fish on this rod, the first time he placed the bait. An unknown, grown on fish which we haven’t stocked at 14lb.

Surprisingly, nobody fancied fishing Stock Pond, so Andy the Bailiff decided to have a go on Sunday evening. With a strong wind pushing in, a spot on the right-hand tree-line at 9.25 wraps was the obvious choice. He baited with just two handfuls of maize, and fished two grains of IB Slow Sinking maize on a Spinner Rig with Size 4 Kamakura Kranks, and running COG leads. He landed two fish on Sunday night and one on Monday, the best being a 28lb Mirror named “Josie”.

Dean Burton started off in Pole Position, then moved across into Stock Pond after not having any success in open water. He fished one rod at 9.25 wraps and two across to the far side which he set up on a washing line. On Friday morning he finally got a bite from a pretty 20lb Common. The fish fell for two grains of IB Slow Sinking Maize on a German Rig. 

It was a funny old week overall, with the fish clearly being preoccupied on something else. The usually consistent open water spots just didn’t do bites. The majority of fish came from within a rod length of the bank, and some creative angling was required to get the best from some of the swims. The weather hasn’t helped either, we’ve had Northerly winds for what seems like an eternity, and we desperately need some rain to kick things into life. It was still a very enjoyable week spent in good company.

Until Next Time

Bonne Peche and Tight Lines

Andy

Team Gigantica