Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 11/10/2025

Großer Karpfen

 

This week we welcomed 12 anglers who had driven all the way from Austria, on a group social, for their first visit to Gigantica.

And for their first time here they were welcomed by the main man himself, Mr Fairbrass.  I’m sure that none of them were expecting that and it is not something that happens every week.

After a quick briefing from Dan to the guys and a quick group picture taken it was time to take them on their first walk around and get the guys back for the draw and set them off for their week ahead.

 

Let’s kick things off with Marco Müeller who couldn’t resist the opportunity to fish out of Co’s Point.

It is very nice to get the pressure of catching off your shoulders early on, and that is exactly the case this week for Marco, catching on his first night when he placed the net underneath a cool scaly mirror called ‘Kenny’ weighing 38lb 8oz.

And it was steady away daily from here forth.

The following night he managed to land a new 50lb fish for the lake in the shape of ‘Wipe Out’ that went 50lb exactly.  An awesome solid looking common carp.

Tuesday morning would see Marco cradling another of our scaly carp in the shape of ‘Scrappy’ weighing 33lb, but then just as darkness was descending a cheer was heard from his swim across the lake.  He believed he had Lippy in the net, so flew around to get the pictures done and it turned out to be one of the super stockies in the shape of ‘Wood’s Common’ that achieved a new top weight for this fish at 66lb!  Surely going to hit 70 next year this fish.

The following morning three more fish awaited their photos, ‘Nano Brutus’ at 24lb 8oz, ‘Clover’ 28lb 2oz and finally ‘Del Boy’ weighing 32lb 8oz.

Thursday would see yet more fish from the swim.  ‘Happy Daze’, an original scaly, at 34lb followed by yet another new 50 for the lake, ‘Growler’ spinning the scales to 50lb 4oz.

Four more fish came on the Friday, ‘Roy’ at 38lb, ‘Lips’ 37lb, ‘Big Beans’ 22lb 8oz and finally ‘Butterfly’ at 44lb 8oz.

Marco followed these up on the final morning with his last fish of the session, ‘Mulinio’ weighing 34lb 8oz.

Throughout the week Marco fished out towards the two main zones, the ‘Tits’ and the ‘Flat Oaks’ both at 29 wraps, having almost equal amounts of fish from both spots.

Marco baited with a good amount of hemp during the week with a Cell like boilie, which to be fair all the lads this week used, and rigged his rods up on long lengths of Dark Matter tubing to a Heli Safe conversion kit with a rig of approx. 5” in length made from IQ and made into D rigs with a large loop made from either Boom or Amnesia, and these were constructed with size 4 Krank hooks.

14 fish in total from Co’s, with two new 50’s and a 66lb’er isn’t a bad week’s fishing at all.

 

Over to Bob’s Beach and the biggest fish of the week, which fell to angler Hofer Marcel.

Hofi sat on his hands and waited it out in his swim all week, fishing out at 28 wraps in the direction of The Alamo, and it all came good for him on a frantic Tuesday evening.  When for me just after photographing Woods Common in Co’s the guys stopped me as I cycled past to inform me that a fish was in the sling here.  Upon a quick glance it was clearly a good sized common, not ‘The’ common but the next one in rank.  ‘Lippy Common’ was his reward for his patience.  Again, another fish at a top weight, 74lb’s this time around.  It is great to see the fish in great condition at this time of year and packing the weight on as well.

A little tricky doing the photos in this swim in the dark, and after having water trickling in the back of my waders during the photos, we managed to get them done.

Plenty of hemp also here and the Cell style bait on the ever-popular D rig and Krank size 4 combination landing this fish.

The only fish to come his way this week, but if you are only going to catch one then what a fish to have in your net.

 

Markus Papsl jumped into the vacant Pole Position and after a blank session the week before Markus was just hopeful of a bite.  Well, that came early on in his session when he netted ‘Lucifer’ on the first night weighing 33lb 2oz.  

And the action certainly did not dry up for him during the week.  Monday night he landed his second, third and forth fish.  ‘Pretty Little Ting’ at 29lb 8oz, ‘Linzeeee Woooo’ 34lb and finally ‘Tiger Fish’ again another new 50 at 52lb 4oz.

That very evening just as the light was fading, he phoned me to say he thinks he had a 30kg fish in the net, and this turned out to be ‘Classico’ another fish at a new top weight 63lb 4oz.  This was the first of the trio of big commons that got caught that evening all within about an hour of each other.  The others were Wood’s Common and Lippy as already mentioned. 

A truly made evening!

The next morning didn’t disappoint either, three ‘Noo Noo’ 20lb 8oz, ‘AJ’s’ 42lb 8oz and ‘Short Dorsal’ (mega carp) at 47lb.

Markus finished off his week on the Friday with a nice 48lb common.

What a great session from an unfavoured swim, 10 fish in all.  

Markus was catching evenly between two different spots, firstly his long spot at 33 wraps towards Stink and at 17 ½ wraps to the left-hand side of Alamo as he looked out.

Again, the Cell style boilie mixed with our hemp doing the business on these fish.  Spinner rigs with size 4 Krank hooks around 5.5” in length to the Dark Matter Heli Safe leaders being his successful method of landing these fish, with match the hatch bottom baits.

 

Right next door to Markus in Stock Pond was ‘Maxi’ Windhaber.  

Like most of the anglers this week Max found his feet early on when he landed ‘The Fiddler’ at 37lb 4oz during the Sunday night.  And more fish were to follow almost on the daily.  ‘The Jewel’ at 23lb was his next visitor followed by his biggest of the week on the Tuesday night, ‘Mr President’ weighing 44lb exactly.

A flurry of fish was caught from here on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, this included ‘Life of Brian’ 27lb 8oz, ‘The Duke of Edinburgh’ 29lb 4oz and ‘The Clash’ coming in at 32lb.

All of Max’s bites and fish landed came from the marker in the corner out at 26 ½ wraps, a spot that keeps producing bites week in week out.  And without wanting to sound like a broken record were caught using the Cell style boilie and hemp combination at a 50/50 ratio and fished with match the hatch dumbbell hook baits and mounted to spinner rigs with, you guessed it, size 4 Krank hooks.

 

Over in The Alamo we had a double occupancy this week in here.  Firstly, Fabian Gross.

Fabian was another of our anglers who caught on the first night, landing ‘Tulip’ weighing 34lb 4oz.  Unlike some of the other captures this week, this one was caught using two grains of slow sinking yellow corn.

Then it wasn’t until the Thursday that action came his way again, this time a slightly bigger fish in the form of ‘The Ingot’ coming in at 42lb 4oz.

But it was the final morning on the Saturday when Fabian had certainly saved his best until last.  ‘Broady’s Mirror’, which spun the dial on the scales around to 55lb 4oz! 

What a way to sign off your first trip to the Big G.

All of Fabian’s bites and fish came out at 31 wraps in the direction around Bob’s Beach in front of him and rigs were IQ D rigs using the IQ material and size 4 Krank hooks.

Here he baited with matching Cell style boilie, plus some crushed up and mixed with a good helping of hemp to compliment his mix.

 

Doubled up with Fabian in The Alamo was Steffan Bressnig.

Also fishing the same tactics as Fabian and at the same range it wasn’t until the Tuesday that he manged to catch an absolute worldie in the form of ‘The Peach’!  one of our more rare original scalys that doesn’t visit the bank that much, and it weighed in at a top weight of 53lb 4oz.

Steffan was fishing the left hand side of the swim so positioned his rigs in the big gap to the left of Bob’s Beach again at 31 wraps, and used a Cell 18mm wafter on a 5” IQ d rig to land this incredible fish.

 

Next door to these guys and fishing in The Stink was angler Marcel Schrei.

Here it took quite some time before action came his way. But sticking to his spot and his tactics it paid off for him on the Thursday when he managed his first two Gigantica Main Lake carp.  And not a bad way to start, ‘Angry’ weighing 39lb followed up with another one that doesn’t get caught that much, ‘Soverign’ also at a top weight of 60lb 8oz.  We got one side photo’d before it decided that was enough and despite Marcel face planting the water in an attempt to get it back, but it was off.

The very next day another came his way on the shape of ‘Spooner’s Vlog’ at 32lb 8oz and he then backed this up on the Saturday morning with a real character fish of the lake in the form of ‘The Kreature’ that weighed 39lb.

All of Marcels fish apart from Soverign came from 32 wraps, his biggest came from 14 wraps towards the tall trees to his right slightly.

He baited with the same bait as everyone else and also caught his fish on 5” IQ D rigs and matching wafter hook baits.

 

Crossing over to the other side of the pond now and into Alcatraz where we find Alexander Gleichweit.

Alex started his account off with one of our growing stockies in the shape of ‘Pearly Lin’ and another fish that has been packing on the weight, now weighing 58lb 4oz and this was caught on the Sunday night.

But then it wasn’t until the Tuesday night and into Wednesday when two more fish came Alex’s way.  Firstly ‘Wayne’s World’ weighing 38lb 6oz, this was followed by ‘Stitch’ at 34lb.

The following night another fish came his way.  This time it was ‘Twisted Scale’ that came to visit him weighing 38lb 12oz.

The final piece of action came on Friday night where he netted his final carp of his trip, ‘The Exocet’.  One of our original scaly’s and weighing 38lb.

Bites were coming from 30 ½ wraps to the gap in the tree line to the left of Stink as he looked out.  And on identical tactics to all the other lads.  Cell style boilies with hemp and 5” IQ D rigs and size 4 Kranks with match the hatch hook baits.

 

Whilst we are writing about this area of the lake let’s move on into Baxter’s Hole and Christoph Pichler.

Here is was the Monday night into Tuesday that his alarm sounded for the first time this week.  Landing ‘The Murph’ which weighed 38lb 12oz.

After this it wasn’t until the Wednesday night that his next bite came, this time it was a stocky called ‘Yazoo’ which broke the 20lb mark for the first time at exactly 20lb.

Christoph’s bites were coming from just 19 wraps out in the direction of The Stink from his swim, and yet again it was the Cell style boilie and hemp baiting approach that tempted these fish to feed, but this time around he used 5” Spinner rigs with Wide Gape size 4 hooks and 15mm Salty Squid wafters soaked in the Squid Supreme Goo to increase their attraction levels.

 

Jumping over now to brothers Florian and Daniel Pflanzl.

They fished the week together in adjacent swims, with Daniel fishing from Big Girls and Florian in Oblivion.

Let’s start off with Florian in Oblivion.  Florian was off to a flyer, catching on the first night and landing ‘Ursula’ which weighed 33lb 12oz.  And after this early bite it all went quite right up until the final full day of the week on Friday when he managed his next carp, and yet another new 50 for the lake, ‘Donovan’ at 50lb 4oz.

Florian fished out long at 33 wraps to the left of Bob’s Beach out in front of him but was catching using pineapple pop ups mounted on 5” Spinner rigs and a heli set up, which was fished over a bed of 80% hemp and 20% Cell style boilie.

 

Daniel was also off the mark on the first night, but with one of our smaller fresher residents weighing 19lb it was ‘Mini Eggs’.

This one was caught on a milky cream wafter fished in a solid bag with a spinner rig and was cast 7 wraps to his left after hearing fish towards the corner.

And casting solid bags at showing fish lead to his second fish on the Friday also, this time landing ‘Big O’s’ at 36lb 8oz.  And by doing the same thing also led to his final fish on the last night ‘Co’s Coin’ weighing 28lb 8oz.

Well done lads!

 

Well that’s it for another week.  52 fish landed and some great carp in the mix as well, plus a bag of fish moving up into new categories on the website shows that these fish are really on the munch and growing well.  Match the hatch still accounting for a number of fish over boilie and hemp, and it is obvious that 5” rigs be it spinner or IQ D’s are doing the job nicely.

Well done everyone!  I hope the drive back to Austria went smoothly.

 

Until next time,

Tight lines.

Gareth “Gino”