Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 18/10/2025

Target Achieved

 

Off the back of warm and steady weather from last week, this was forecast to be slightly different to that.  With rain forecast and a storm due to blow through mid-week how was this going to affect the fishing for the guys this week?

We had a handful of anglers who have fished here previously and a good selection of first time visitors, let’s read on to see how they faired.

 

Over the years we have many regular guests, but probably none more so than this man, Chris Clarke, who many of those that have fished here over the years will have come by or heard of.

Chris has had a hard run of it when it comes to the draws of late but pulling ball seven this time, he found himself setting up in Oblivion.

Chris decided early on to concentrate at the edge of his boundary out at 33 wraps, where it was free of any weed, and kept all three rods on this spot all week.

And it didn’t take long for action to start flowing, when on the first night he landed a nice 43lb 12oz mirror to open his account for this week.

And this is kind of how the rest of his week played out, every morning I was greeted with at least a sling with a carp in waiting for its pictures.

Monday morning it was two fish this time, starting with ‘TM1’ at 26lb then followed by a rare visitor, ‘Hutchies’ 33lb 8oz. This original fish by our records has been caught five times now, twice by Chris.

Two more were caught that night, ‘First Timer’ at 25lb and ‘Ripper’ 29lb 12oz.

Things started to get a bit better in terms of fish size here after.

Just the one fish awaited me on the Wednesday morning, but a nice fish in the form of ‘Squeaky Clean’ at a new top weight of 47lb.  Another one he has now ended up on the club house wall with.

But it was Wednesday night and into Thursday that it really got good for Chris.

Three fish caught, starting off with ‘The Hoff’ 29lb 12oz, this was then backed up by two big originals that Chris has previously never manged to catch himself.  Firstly ‘Pierre Cardin’ at 60lb 10oz and then he landed ‘The Target’ weighing 73lb 10oz!  What a night’s angling that was!

A small visitor came his way that night in the shape of ‘Miss Davis’ weighing in at 22lb, but it was the final night that it got better again.

Although aa repeat capture (Chris has caught this one five times now) it was very welcomed and again at a top weight, ‘2 C’s’ just shy of the 60lb barrier at 59lb 12oz!  One that he is also going to go up on the wall with by replacing himself.

Spombing out a mixture of two boilies, one a fishmeal and the other a sweet bait, mixed with hemp and liquid produced the goods for Chris this week.  Over this he was placing solid bags this with a milky dumbbell wafter to tempt the fish to pick up his hook bait.

 

Keeping on that side of the lake let’s move on up to the inform swim The Stink.  In here this week we found first time visitor to us Dave Wood (not West).

Dave also hit the ground running on the first night, accounting for three bites and three fish landed.  Firstly, a small fresh one at 19lb and this was then backed up with ‘J1R’ at 38lb and another 30lb’er, ‘The Mastiff’ weighing in at 32lb.

What a great way to start here at the Big G.

This little hit was followed up on the next night with one of our unnamed stockies, which spun the scales around to 23lb 8oz and that he got to christen and named it ‘Tone’.

It was another of our smaller residents that came along on the Tuesday night for Dave, this time around ‘Strokey’ weighing 21lb 8oz.

But his next two fish were both of better stamp in regard to their weights.

First off it was ‘Smokin’’ that came along at a weight of 43lb on the Wednesday night and then saving the best until last landed a fresh 50lber for us here at exactly 50lb ‘The Exclusive’.  This now takes our tally of fish over 50lb to 90 for the lake.

All of Dave’s fish bar the last one fell to him from range, 33 wraps out towards Baxter’s as he looked out.  His final, and biggest fish, came from 14 wraps towards to the two poplars on his right-hand boundary, which after having a little issue with his tapered line on the final night almost forced his hand to fish here.  Obviously, it was just meant to be for Dave to fish this on the very last night.  It was also a spot that he had fed during the week as a back-up spot.

Dave set up his rods with a lead clip arrangement and spinner rigs baited with a snowman style match the hatch bait arrangement and a wide gape styled hook in size 4.

Bait for the week was his trusty fishmeal boilie mixed with house hemp.

Very well done this week Dave, 7 fish at your first attempt at fishing here isn’t to be sniffed at.  Well angled, even in the tough weather condition.

 

Coming over to Stock Pond and angler Ed’ Biscoe, who was also a first timer here with us.

Dropping into the inform Stock Pond wasn’t a bad shout even on ball number eight in the draw.

Again, like with Dave, Ed managed to open his record here at Gigantica on his first night, where he landed a small fish of around 25lb.

 Sunday night would see his second fish landed for the week; this one was “Baby Pecky” weighing 23lb.

But it was Tuesday into Wednesday when he landed his first better fish, this was ‘Spectre’ and his first fish over 40lb, only just at 40lb 2oz.

One more fish came his way on the very next night, ‘Deathstar’ weighing in at 34lb.

But it was the Friday night and into Saturday that it went crazy for Ed in Stock Pond.  Landing five fish on the very last night!

These fish included ‘Pud’ at 27lb 8oz, ‘Co’s Coins’ 30lb 4oz, ‘Dicky Doo’s’ weighnig 32lb, ‘Mr Sam’ at 38lb and finally his largest and best looking one of the week ‘Buzz’s Kamo’ at a new top weight of 46lb 12oz!  Another one to go up on the wall of the club house here.

What a great way to end the week and he must have gone home on a massive high after that night of fishing.

Ed caught this week equally from two spots that he fished.  These being the 26 ½ wrap spot into the corner of his area at the markers, and 23 wraps to the tall tree at the left of Oblivion as he looked out.  Ed baited with a mixture of fishmeal boilie, hemp and some house pellet and placed multi combi rigs over this with a match the hatch fishmeal hook bait.

Well done Ed’ this week.

 

Back over to the opposite bank and The Alamo, where also first-time angler here, was Jon Hall.

Jon also took the brunt of the winds over in his swim during the storm, but stuck to his guns at 31 wraps to the gap left of Bob’s Beach as he looked out in front of him and it all came good in the end for him.  It was the Thursday night when he managed his first bite and incredible fish at that it was, plus also a new personal best for him. 

After fearing I may have to hide his shoelaces from him on the Wednesday, he was a changed man on the Thursday when he cradled an incredible common that is called ‘The Centurion’ which weighed in at 56lb on this occasion.  A great fish and a great name to boot.

 Not done there, Jon managed the only day time bite of the week shortly after doing the photos, when he landed yet another common in the form of ‘Stan’ which weighed 33lb 8oz.

Just the two fish this week from The Alamo, butt again he also went home a happy bunny after his captures.

Jon set his stall out with short D rigs constructed from clear Amnesia (old skool hooklink that) tied to super sharp chod hooks and fished also on a lead clip set up.

Like the other anglers, Jon also fished a boilie and hemp combination for the week.  Baiting the first half of the week then easing off after no activity but then baited again after his bites.

Well done Jon, sitting tight to your spots paid off in the end.

 

Coming over to Alcatraz now and in here was lead group booker and regular visitor Andy Lewis.

Andy managed ball two on the draw and was torn with coming into Alcatraz where he had done well earlier this year or going back into Co’s for another go in there but settled with ‘Traz which would put him in favourable conditions with the winds forecast latter in the week.

After having a good lead about during the Saturday he settled on two areas, both at 30 wraps and it was whilst having a catch up and sit down with Andy on the Sunday evening when his alarm sounded into action for the first time.

After a short fight his first fish was safely in the net at first time of asking.  ‘Jene Genie’ was his early reward, and this one weighed in at 37lb 8oz.

The following morning, I was greeted in his swim by another sling containing a carp that he had caught during the night.  This time around it was one called ‘Columbus’ at came in at a very similar weight of 38lb.

Despite this early bit of action that was the only bit of action Andy would have on his rods this week despite his best efforts and trying various things along the way.

Like many others, this week and of late, Andy tackled up with fishmeal boilies and the hemp combination with both fish coming from his 30-wrap spot aimed at the slit in the trees to the left of Stink.

Until next time Andy, let’s hope for another big hit like before.

 

Fishing out of everyone’s favourite Co’s Point this week we had angler Lenny Cooper.

Despite struggling to start with at getting his rods out to 29 wraps, we soon sorted him with a set of Kaizen Green rods, and he found himself now hitting the spot much easier.

And it was later in the week before action came Lenny’s way, when on the Thursday night he managed to land himself a brace of 30lb carp.  Firstly ‘The Gruffalo’ chich was a new PB as well for Lenny, which was great, and this one weighed in at 37lb.  

This was backed up by the very nice looking ‘Chloe Rose’ which has now tipped over the 30lb bracket by weighing that weight exactly.

Lenny set himself up with 5.5” spinner rigs, with D Rig Kickers and Kurv hooks with the Shot on the Hook for extra effect.  These were baited with ISO Fish hook baits and he also fed this as his main boilie with some hemp in for good measure.  His rods were split over two different spots, both at 29 wraps, at the “Tit’s” and the “flat oaks”.

Well done mate, keep practicing with them rods and hopefully see you back here in the future.

 

Lastly to get amongst some action this week was Laurence ‘Loz’ Hellier who fancied a go this week fishing from Tree Line.  Tree Line hasn’t been fished for the last few weeks despite fish being in the area, so I was hopefully that Loz would be getting amongst some action.

And that he did on the Sunday night into Monday, where he went on to land a new PB for himself in the form of ‘Storm’ (quite appropriate for the week of weather we had) which weighed in at 43lb 4oz.

After losing his next bite to a cut off, it was the Wednesday night when Loz would catch his final fish of the week.  This time around he managed to catch and land ‘Tarka’ at a weight of 32lb 8oz.

Loz managed all his bites from 21 wraps along the tree lined margin to his left in the direction of “the gap”.  With the use of a throwing stick he baited the margin with a spread of boilie and used the gap to introduce some bait by hand from there.

Rigs comprised of a boom section with a soft braided end section and a size 4 curve shanked hook.  This was used with a lead clip arrangement

 

Despite tricky conditions the lads did a fantastic job this week.  Great to meet new faces, and they were all great guys, and to also catch up with some older faces as well during the week.

Plus again, well done to Chris for ticking off some more that he hasn’t caught before.

I hope to see you all again in the future.

 

A group of regulars next week (The Danes) so let’s see how they get on in the next catch report.

 

Until then, tight lines 

Gareth “Gino”