Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 04/10/2014

Water Temp – 17 degrees

Danny F's mates trip is here again, full of anticipation with excellent weather expected and The Full Moon!

Sat Night/Sunday

SW wind and hot in the sun, clouding over at night, Wind N & NW by morn, raining steady all day.

Fish continued to show in front of Terry in Big Southey and Billy in Stink from last light, through night and into the morning. Andrew in Alamo had an occurrence at first light but failed to connect. Mark B angling for a Guru sponsorship had 4 bream in The Beach, fishmeal heaven for the slabs in his swim. Stevie Rocke the bailiff is off the mark first at 1pm on Sunday afternoon with Stoneacres at 41lbs, 29rod lengths out of Pole, two balanced tigers soaked in Pineapple Goo over hemp tiger and boilie. He is fishing the same spot as last week as no one fancied the swim in the draw. Testament to the theory that if the same spot keeps getting fished well, it will produce more and more fish

Sunday Night/Monday

Wind swinging S and increasing all day, intermittent rain. Heavy cloud cover!

Tom in Co's gets his first bite just after dark and gets cut off in the weed during a dogged fight, gutted! Balanced tiger at 29rl gets the bite. Then disaster for Tom again just before first light a hook pull also from 29 rl which is super clear according to Tom, obviously with a big bank of weed short of it. Steve In Pole has The Cod, possibly the ugliest carp in the lake but still welcome at 6am, 37lb the weight and Mark B in Beach has a super clean 25lb’er now called Black Spot at 3.30am 70yds out aimed at Co's, Mark's Atlantic Heat drilled out with a Hell pop-up dumbell inside on a mouthtrap to braid combi rig and lead clip. This fish is defo a baby from the lake and will be a stunning big’n one day.

Monday Night/Tuesday

Strong S and SW winds rain most of night, 18 day, 12 night

We are pumping down the stock pond to move the remaining 5 twenties back into the main lake, remove of any Roach and cleanse it ready for the best 100 babies Simon Scott spawned in the spring. With 4 huge pumps going straight out the stock pond and into the main lake the closest swim was either going to be full of fish of devoid! Mathieu Baert from Korda Europe jumped in stock pond swim for one night and got 2 bites! Sadly he lost both but it proved the huge in flow pipes and stirred up water was attractive to them. No other bites came on the lake amazingly as the weather was biblical.

Tuesday Night/Wednesday

Wind Strong SW fading at night and SE next day, heavy cloud cover hiding the huge moon, full on Wednesday.

Mark B and Terry D both wanted The Stock Pond as Mathieu left and Mark won the toss so quickly shot round and set up with the pumps still sending a torrent of water into the main lake as the stock pond itself drained down. Fish continued to show in the this area through the evening and night and at 1.30am Mark got his first chance, sadly the hook pulled as he tried to get the fish moving from the weed. Then disaster on a biblical scale, 3.30am same rod 23rl at oblivion, Atlantic heat on a combi rig, he plays a HUGE fish in across the top the whole way in, at 30yds it looked massive and his legs started to shake, under the rod tip it dived right and went through a fallen tree just down the margins and cut him off, he said some very naughty words and was almost sick with grief, he said it was massive at least as big as the 60+ he had last year and Fudgies is soo overdue, was it an 80, we will never know! That tree has come out already; hopefully tomorrow night will pay him back!  Danny F did his first full night on his long area from Alcatraz fishing at 35.5rl to a gravel area, even this didn't produce and as usual the fish moved into his other swim Baxters and jumped like crazy all night long. They also showed heavily in tree line and beach, was it because Mark had moved out of the area? Certainly looked like it. Baiting and resting a whole area often produces a bite the night you move back in so keeping off your bait with all 3 rods for a night, still baiting and moving back can score!

Heavy rain again on Wednesday meant little fish spotting could be done.

Mark also said they showed like mad over Andy in Oblivion yet no takes came! Until 8:30am that is and Andy lands The Nude Fish at a new high of 51lbs 6oz, on two balanced tigers on his 23rl spot towards Alcatraz doing the bizz with hemp, tigers and boilies put out 2 days before. An excellent result for Andy who hasn't had a 50 since the old Maison Du Lac Bleue days, nice work Bruvva!

A team of Merry Men lead by Joe netted the stock pond on Wednesday to get the remaining 5 carp and any roach/pike. First sweep they got 4 of the carp inc a 24 common and some scraper 20 mirrors which all went back in the main lake. The second sweep they got the last one a 20lb common, good work indeed. All the pike went into the main lake to keep the roach down and the roach in the net were deep fried and served to the customers with chips later that day.

Weds Night/Thursday FULL MOON

Gail Force SW winds and Big Fat Rain battered those on the Alamo bank all night on abating in the early hours.

Mark B in stock pond was off the mark at 9.30pm with a 19lb mirror, a proper scaly one indeed on his ever consistent 23rl spot at oblivion on Atlantic heat/Hell hooker and combi rig inc a size 2 Kurv, very aggressive, we like!!

Then after the savage weather Andrew 'The Gentelman' Gibbens snared Roberts Fish in Alamo over 3kg boilie and 2kg particle, it looked loads when it went out with all the boys in the clubhouse having a laugh at the new 'bar' of bait in Alamo, but Andrew had the last laugh with this awesome creature. It had a rig and safe zone leader out its gills that had been there for some time and the guys successfully extracted the rig before releasing the monster back to its home, well done to Andrew and the gang. Fish continued to show super strong all over the lake clearly turned on by the full moon, especially along beach and baxters area, Danny F tearing his now grey hair out as no bites came, was he not putting enough in? Based on Andrews results almost certainly. It's hard when the fishing is moody to get the baiting right, most on this trip have been 'careful' and maybe that was the wrong thing to do. 

Thursday Night/Friday

SW wind fading at night still 18 in day and 12 at night

Big fish Thursday lived up to its name when Andy R on his 23rl spot at baxters landed a real monster. Dan helped with the weighing after it bottomed andy's 60lb scales, this is why Gigantica supplies 112lbers! On weighing in the water Dan said to Andy's surprise 'it's not 60..........its 73lbs 12oz!!!!!!' Andy said he could have cried!! The fish first thought to be Spences turned out to be the illusive Chunky, missing for 2 years and 8lbs up in weight, balanced tigers on an N trap soft D-Rig with size 4 wide gape doing the biz!

This is truly a fish of a lifetime and very well deserved for Andy who has endured two gruellers the years before. Andy, Danny and Andrew sat drinking tea for some time after bathing in Andy's success, a magical moment for all!

Then a few hours later at 6:30am disaster for Andrew in Alamo with a cut off, the weed is full of mussels and we recommend at least 0.40 line at the moment.

Andy R is in again after his dream photo session taking a stunning scaly 33lber now named Phil, cos that's what Billy thought Andrews name was for most of the week!! This came casting to the euro tree line in Big Girls 24.5rl from oblivion, again n trap soft d rig size 4 wide gape and balanced tiger.

Andy's in again in the afternoon on his 23rl spot at baxters, landing a gorgeous 25lb scaly one.

Friday Night/Saturday

Slight SE wind with broken sun fading into misty night.

Stevie Le Rocke the bailiff is in at 9.30pm on a new spot in Pole, 15rl slightly left, a clear area near where they have been showing the last few nights. The Baby Weld goes 38lbs and looks fabulous, unlike Steve who appears to have been licking windows before the camera starts flashing.

Well that was it for the week, slower than last year but easily a better week from a big fish point of view. Are we baiting too much, are we baiting too little? THAT is he question.

Team Gigantica.