Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 27/08/2016

 

Saturday night/Sunday

 

Super-hot weather with southerly winds to set up in but who cares, we are back for another Korda jolly! Masses of fish are still using the margin between Big Southerly and the Stink, in spite of the work party decimating the tree lined margins in this area. Lots of fish are also evident in both Scotties corner and Tree Line swims as well as in the middle. 

 

'Jay the Giant' in Scotties loses one to a cut off at first light Sunday morning and then promptly wipes the blues away with the 'Giggler' at a summer weight of 54lbs+ on the re-cast rod! This fish has been up to 63lb pre spawning but still looks awesome, well held by the little/big guy. Tom D said you must feel '5 feet 5 inches tall after catching that'! It's going to be one of those weeks..... Jay’s tiger nut 'ring of love' hinged stiff rig just off the trees produces the bite, with no freebies around it. In his words 'it was black with carp last night, it had to go'. 

 

Corin in Alcatraz is into one on his first ever night on the water with a perfect 28lb common that looks like it's just come straight out of the wrapper. He is buzzing to say the least and rightly so. The fish comes from the side of the hard spot in some light weed at 27rl and fell to a hinged stiff rig incorporating a Heli safe. A Manilla pop-up doing the biz.  

 

Neil 'The Claw' 'Longshank' 'Bukut o Pullut' Raison is into a fish at first light that sadly comes off half way in. The bite coming to tigers fished super tight to his left hand margin in Baxter’s. Good angling but bad luck for Neil.  

 

Fish continue to show over Bailey’s rods in Big Southerly and all over that end of the lake. The bulk of the fish are down this end still but sightings are reported all over the lake.

 

Sunday night/Monday

 

A shout of ‘FISH ON’ goes up at 2am and Corin is in again off his 27rl spot. A hinged stiff rig once again but this time a white chocolate pop-up proving successful. The Up Front Mirror graces the net looking awesome at 35lbs. 

 

At the same time, Rob on Co's is off the mark as well with the incredible Pips at 57lbs 12oz. Rob is over the moon as he really wanted a big’un after several trips to the lake without a real monster. A Krill snowman fished over 3kg of Krill doing the biz at 25rl. Rob cleverly coming in closer to suit his casting capabilities. In the past he and many others have tried to fish too far just to be near the middle and as such have fished less effectively than is needed to get bites. It's always better to fish well at your range than badly at someone else's. 

 

Shortly after, Rob follows this up with a typical scaly mid-twenty stunner that looks more like a Sutton carp than a French one!  

 

Fish continue to show heavily at last light, in the night and first light and Rob sees them over him consistently before he gets the bites.  

 

Monday night/Tuesday

After a quiet night for all, Rob finally receives some action in the form of a double take when the fish suddenly turn up on him at 2pm Tuesday afternoon. The left and middle rods produce The Clean fish at 38lb and Quasi at 34lb 8oz respectively.  

 

Tuesday night/Wednesday 

 

Tom 'The Fiddler' Dove is off the mark just on dark with Apple Slices at 37lbs+, well down on its best weight of 46lb a couple of Octobers ago. The late spawning due to the cold spring affecting most fishes weights this summer. The good news is it will fish well right up till Christmas now as the fish try to pack the weight back on. The bite comes on an 18' zig fished at 120 yards, a 15mm pineapple pop-up tempting the scaly beast. The super muggy and still conditions are making it perfect for good zig anglers like Tom to nick extra bites, good angling Tom.  

Rob on Co's shouts ‘FISH ON’ in the depths of the night and poor Kris Kessler stumbles bleary eyed round to film the fight closely followed by DF and Corin. The deep bodied mirror twisting in circles beneath the rod finally turns out to be The Clown at 53lbs, another of the ‘C Team’ for Rob and he is well chuffed. Remember our ‘B Team’ fish are all over 60lbs and our ‘A Team’ are all over 70lbs!!!! Nine inches of 20lb N-Trap soft, size 2 Wide Gape X’s (go on Rob!) with barbs crushed and running lead clips doing the do with a Krill Snowman once again.  

As we photo the fish in the morning, Rob gets a ripper on his left hand rod and promptly lands a stunning 23lb scaly mirror, a typical stunner from Gigantica! Who cares how big they are when they look like this!!? 

 

10am and Corin’s left hand rod signals another take but unfortunately he is cut off immediately, a real gutter for him. 

 

Wednesday night/Thursday.

 

At 10:15pm, less than two hours after Rob had finished spombing 5kg of boilies out, his left hand rod is away but after just 30 seconds, the hook pulls from a powerful fish leaving him wondering what could have been. 

 

12:30am and Corin is away again but he too experiences a hook pull! Nightmare! 

 

Corin’s spirits are lifted once again though when at 4am he lands a scale perfect common named 'Bobbins Dancin' by Ian 'shag' Bailey when he banked the fish a couple of years ago. The fish goes 33lbs+ and looks absolutely stunning in the early morning light. The old faithful 27rl spot producing again over the ever consistent Krill. Corin is now baiting with approx. 3kg per night for 3 rods all fished on the same area. 

 

Once again the ‘FISH ON’ shout is heard coming from Co’s as Rob bends into another fish at 10:15am after his right hand rod signaled a slow take. A lovely 26lb common being the culprit on this occasion. 

 

There’s still plenty of fish activity just beyond Corin’s rods and unsurprisingly he receives another bite around 1pm and promptly lands a cracking 25lb linear. 

 

The bulk of the fish now seem to be in front of Gareth in Oblivion and Arris in left hand Alamo. Both guys had zigs out in the area and it wasn’t long before Arris got in on the action with an absolutely stunning 20lb scaly mirror which fell to a small piece of black foam. 

 

Thursday night/Friday.

Tom's in again just as it gets dark on an 18’ zig but a white 15mm pop up this time. After a dogged fight, DF slips the net under '3 Jokes', named after an ex bailiff and his repertoire of funnies........ The fish goes 31lbs and looks immaculate.

DF finally gets off the mark from Bob’s Beach taking ‘The Godfather of Soul’ at 38lbs 4oz from his 20rl spot aiming to the left of Alamo. A prototype mainline boilie tipped with a 10mm Almond goo'd topper fished on a 7" Boom to Arma-Kord combi rig in conjunction with a COG lead system doing the damage. Ironically Danny didn't bait his spot that day after stoving at least 5kg in the night before after seeing the most amazing drone footage of the shoals of carp out in the middle of Gigantica. We have pictures of 285 different carp on the web site and we know there are more as we have recorded 15 new fish this year already but seeing this footage has shown that there are many more than even we thought! Shoals of big’uns swarm across the screen like locusts!

 

Back to the fishing and DF is away again, this time on a new spot which is 16rl towards the headland where he had seen fish boshing the last few mornings. He baited with 20 large spombs of maize and fished a new butterscotch corn goo infused Mainline white wafter over the top on the same rig as above. The bite at 2am produced a 24lb scaly mirror and the same rod goes again at 4.30am revealing 'The Leather' at 40lbs 4oz. Tom Dove’s suggestion of allowing particle to mix up the approaches used on the lake was a good one and whilst we will not allow nuts wholesale, maize will now be allowed to mix up the feeds and tactics. Next year this may extend to hemp and parti-mix as well.  

 

Corin is in again at 2am on his 27rl spot and this time it's a stunning scaly mirror of 28lbs, clearly down in weight as a result of this year’s late spawning. A stunning fish that looks like it would look more at home in Savay rather than France! 

 

Friday night/Saturday

 

Dalton in Big Girls once again leaves it till the last moment to bag a whacker, taking Mr. Angry at 56lbs in the middle of the night. The crowd gathers for the pics in the morning and all confirm that Dalton likes big girls...... 

 

The ever consistent Corin has another take on his double Krill bottom bait combi-rig on a running lead clip at 27rl. A stunning, deep bodied, chocolate brown 33 pounder the victim this time. 

 

DF receives another bite at 7am off his 20rl spot towards Alamo, once again on a 10mm Almond Goo pop up on top of a prototype Mainline Boilie. This is a classic scaly Gigantica carp of 25lbs. It's the last fish of a fantastic week with 22 fish coming from 28 bites, almost double the amount landed last year on our trip showing that the new rules of reducing baiting by boat and reduced use of nuts are paying off. 

 

 

A small pot of nuts will be sold to anglers having Cray problems for hook baits and minimal feeding from now till the end of the season, this started two weeks before the Korda trip as the corner swims were bad for Cray attacks on boilies. We now have 144 Cray traps in the main lake, spaced out all around in banks of 5 and the numbers collected each day are falling. Normal boilies out in the main lake are not being touched anymore and we expect the corners to be fishable with unwrapped baits in the next few weeks, all due to the hard work and diligence of the bailiffs on sight.  

 

The entire session on both lakes was all filmed for Masterclass Volume 4 which will be out in January '17 on DVD, korda.co.uk and YouTube in full HD. Some footage will be released before hand including the shoals of fish from the drone and all will literally blow your mind, well done to all camera crew! 

 

Tight lines, see you all next year.

  

The Gigantica Bailiffs