Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 23/09/2023

Target Achieved

This week it was the annual Korda social at the Gigantica complex, a week that is firmly a favourite for the work force at Korda Towers and Gigantica alike.

This year we had the added bonus that the whole week, on both lakes, was to be filmed and documented for an upcoming Spooners Vlog Christmas Special. 

You will have to keep your eyes on both Korda and Gigantica social media platforms for the release date and then you will need to head over to the Korda YouTube channel for the video, which I am sure will be one not to be missed!

To not spoil your viewing of the upcoming Vlog I am not going to divulge into too much detail of what happened fish capture wise during the week but talk more about the tactics that was used to good effect during the week.

We had a full lake of twelve anglers fishing and with the walk around and draw completed all the anglers were off to settle into their homes for the week.

Once into the swims plenty of leading around and marker floats where deployed.  You are all here for a week’s fishing, which is a long time, so I recommend that you get to learn everything about your swim on the first day.  Spend your time wisely now with the marker lead to get a feel for where the weed might be, clear areas amongst the weed and just a general feel of those firmer areas of the lake in front of you and keep note of these spots.  With the nights starting to draw in a bit earlier now there is no shame if you didn’t fish the first night and just explored the areas, having a better picture in your head of what is going on out there will play into your hands massively as the week goes on.

The Gaffer, Dan, was the first angler to wet a net on the Saturday evening with a lovely clean common.

Dan had explored his swim and found a nice area in The Stink aiming at Baxters at 29 wraps.  With bait deployed in this area he then went on to fish in short and look for a chance of nicking a bite or two close in and wait for signs of fish turning up on his baited area at range.

And this is exactly what happened, a couple of fish caught from 12 wraps before they turned up on his longer spot, once this had happened, he went on to fish this area and caught from there as well.  Including a couple of very nice carp in quick succession.

Great angling and a tactic that you all can take away from this.  Pick an area and feed it for a day or two, they will turn up on it and when they do fish for them then.  Let them come in and have a free bit of food and get there confidence up and they will be easier to catch, look at other areas in your swim away from your main area for the chance of catching a fish or two before committing to your main area.

Rigs of choice were taken from his recent ventures in front of the underwater cameras at Norton Disney, another programme to look out for in the future on our YouTube channel.

Spinner rigs using the Boom material on to Longshank X hooks (made barbless) with D Rig Kickers being the main components used.  These were fished with running lead clips and the Dark Matter Tubing.  Hook baits being a trimmed down boilie with a small topper sitting on top of this for added attraction and an extra bit of visual awareness to help it stand out.

Dan was baiting with hemp, boilie and pellet at a ratio of 50% hemp, 25% boilie and 25% pellet.  

Another notable good hit of angling came from the ever-consistent Tom Dove, who plotted up again in Alcatraz after having a good session in their back in early August.

Using where he left off before as a guide, he found that with his marker lead the spot just didn’t feel the same as it did before.  

Settling on a new area towards Big Southerly at 30 ½ wraps he went on to build the spot into a good hit of fish.  Lots of the newer stocked carp as opposed to all the originals he was catching back in August.  But on the final night he landed five fish in the night including one very special looking fully scaled original.

More proof that spending time with the marker rod at the beginning of your session and getting a good picture of your swim in your head pays dividends.

Tom was baiting with boilie and maize all week with a good glug of the matching liquid to give his bait that extra bit of pulling power.

Rigs, Tom used running lead clips with spinner rigs made from Hybrid Stiff to Korda Spinner Swivels with a snowman presentation of a match the hatch bottom bait with a yellow pop-up topper.

Star of the Vlog is Neil Spooner and he found himself picking Oblivion for this session.

Starting off on the advice of the Bailiff and from where the previous angler had left off, he found himself settling on 24 wraps towards Bob’s Beach opposite.

This was a good move early on as he managed to land a handful of fish from this spot before observing the fish being very active out in front of him at range.  

Having a lead around in the area he managed to find a clear area amongst the weed and set about fishing this spot as the bites in the 24-wrap area had slowed up.

A good move as he went on to catch a few more from range, but again you will have to wait for the Vlog to go live to find out more about his session.

Michael Isted, who many of you will know as the voice on the end of the phone when making your bookings, plotted himself up in Big Southerly.

Sticking to the known spot out in front of him to the left of Alcatraz Michael deployed two rods tight together on spinner rigs with small yellow pop-up hook baits and after baiting with boilie and corn caught a couple of Bream, but this got him thinking and came away from the small yellow hook baits as he believes they was eating the corn and this was attracting them to his hook baits.

He switched over to small white squid pop-ups, which we sell here on site, and the bream did not bother him after this move.  Instead, he went on to land one very special carp and a new PB for him the next morning and lost another.  The change of tactic had paid off.

A quiet few days’ past by before Michael had some more action, a great brace of big carp followed by another good size fish gracing his net before the week was out.

Sticking to your spots as Michael did can pay off, you just must be patient and play the bait and wait tactic as he showed us perfectly.  “Good things come to those that wait”, as they say.

Richard Flower again like Michael stuck to his spots all week in Stock Pond and kept everything consistent and managed to keep the bites coming during his session.  Richard went on to be one of the lucky anglers who broke his personal best by some 20lb, so again something else to look out for on the Vlog.  A handful of the stock fish and a nice looking original scaley also paid Richard a visit, good consistent angling pays off again.

Richard was using Mainline Link wafter hook baits that he had been soaking in the Golden Honey Goo for some time.  Spinner rigs again for Richard like many others doing the work.  Richard prefers his with one of the Krank hooks, which he used in a size 2.

David Bendall plotted up in the ever-popular Co’s Point.

After much of the week being frustrated by the carp out at range, he observed carp showing consistently much closer in.  After a while this was too much to ignore so he put a rod out in the area, being 5 wraps, and managed a quick bite off this new spot and landed a very nice Common.

Keeping your options open in the range swims is not to be ignored either, they do come in close, and it is not all about fishing out as far as you can get it in the lake, especially in those more commanding central swims.

A handful of other fish did get caught around the lake, but again not wanting to give too much away you will just have to wait for the Vlog to drop on the Korda YouTube channel, so keep your eyes peeled towards the end of the year, once our very own Lewis Porter has worked his magic and trolled through all the video footage him and Kai managed to get and put a nice film together for you all to watch.  I’m sure it is going to be full of great entertainment and good laughs.

Until next time, tight lines.

Gareth, AKA ‘Gino’.