Bait

Boilies – please bring only fresh/frozen boilies, we have large freezers on site to store your bait during your session so if you don’t use it you can take it home again. We do not allow shelf life boilies because they generally have a lower nutritional content and take much longer to break down if they are not eaten. Shelf life hookbaits are allowed like pop ups or glugged bottom baits because they are not being fed.

We have a comprehensive range on Mainline Frozen readymade boilies, all in 20mm to reduce the attentions of the bream. Without doubt THE CELL has been the most productive bait by far this season, mainly because that has been used the most, FUSION and NEW GRANGE have both caught very well and are good alternatives. 10kg of Mainline is 100 euros and you can leave it in the freezer during your stay so it doesn’t go off. The best catches in 2009 have come over large beds of CELL that are topped up regularly, if you are fishing only with boilies we suggest at least 20kg for the week, starting with 3-5kg in one large area on day 1, after every fish feed another ½-2kg, quite simply the more you feed the more bites you get, the fish will tolerate feeding over their heads when they are ‘having it’ because the water is 20 feet deep.

Pop ups are available for both baits in 15mm. Plus two of the best from the High Viz range, Pineapple in bright yellow and Fruitella in bright pink, both is 10 and 15mm, these are great for high vis snowman rigs and little pop ups fished as close to the lakebed as possible.

Because we have no weed bottom baits work far better than pop ups which we feel are too obvious on such a clean flat lakebed. Because of this we have made up some special ‘boosted’ bottom baits, including the ever popular pineapple, strawberry and tutti fruiti, all superb carp catchers and perfect over a spod mix to get the fish to single out your hookbait amongst a carpet of goodies.

All tubs of hookbaits are the same price 7.2 euros, equal to the retail price in the UK.

Pellets – for the last few years a carp feed pellet which is primarily vegetable based has been sold to the anglers in huge quantities and as a result the fish have seen it as almost their natural food. We are continuing to sell the pellet and recommend it as part of your feed. 5kg is 10 euro’s and a 25kg sack is 45 euros. The pellets also work well as hookbaits but only last 4 hours on the hair before the unravel, you can mesh them up or use the predrilled super halibuts we have for sale at 3 euros a pot.

Please do not bring your own pellets for loose feeding, this is so we can control the level of fish oils our carp ingest thus maintaining a healthy stock of fish that grow steadily and consistently. You may bring your own pellets for pva bags providing you make the fishery manager aware of them at the start of the week. If you are found to be feeding with your own pellets you may be asked to leave!

Particles – only particles prepared by us may be used at Gigantica, this is to stop excessive use of Tiger Nuts. We understand that tigers are a great bait but they need to be used in tiny quantities to stop any malnutrition to the fish and also to reduce the risk of spreading infection. The same tiger nut can be eaten several times because the fish do not really digest them, this means bacteria in the gut can be passed from fish to fish in extreme cases. Last season before our rules took effect anglers where using a kilo of tigers per rod per day even if they were not getting bites, crazy! Fish were still crapping out tigers when they were caught a month after the end of the season, that’s a month since a single tiger was put in the lake.

Our own mix is made up of maize, yellow peas, blea (wheat), hemp, some other small seeds and a small sprinkling of tigers just for hookbaits. This gives the fish an excellent source of vegetable protein, lots energy and lots of roughage for good digestion, just like us having fresh veg every day! A 10 litre bucket full to the brim weighs just over 10kg and costs 15 euro.

Personally we have shied away from fishing with just hemp because the shoals of Roach could easily demolish a carpet of hemp without you knowing, leaving very little on the lake bed when Mr Carp arrives.

You can order your bait in advance direct with Danny at the lake by e mailing thegrandfromage@hotmail.co.uk. During your stay he needs at least 24 hours notice for fresh buckets and please bring your own buckets to store in it.

Particle hookbaits
If you have ‘special’ hookbaits soaking in something make Danny aware of them at the outset and we then have no problem with you using them, the same goes for Brazils. Please do not abuse our policy, if you are found feeding your own particles you WILL be asked to leave, we take our fishes health that seriously.

If you are spodding or putting bait out with one of our 6 boats we recommend you use a mix of whole and chopped boilies, particles and pellets. A 10 litre bucket of particles plus pellets and a couple of kilo’s of boilies will give you two full 10 litre buckets, enough for 2 or even 3 days. Fishing maize, boilies, plastic, drilled pellets or tigers over the top gives loads of options and once the favoured hookbait is found we recommend you swop all rods to that.