Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 04/05/2019

Well what a week of two halves we’ve had here on the Main Lake. It has been a typical Spring week, with sunshine, showers, warm nights, cold nights; just generally very up and down. A howling Northerly wind and horizontal rain greeted the anglers on Saturday, and made for a pretty wet walk-round. The good news was there had been a few fish caught towards the end of the previous week. So we were optimistic of a few bites.....understatement of the century!

Marco Wickbold was a first time visitor from Germany, and chatting with him on arrival, he set himself the realistic target of catching just one fish, and it would be job done. Setting up in “Treeline” he fished one rod across to the left hand margin, one up to where the old fallen tree use to be, and one in open water towards “The Alamo” at 13 wraps. Enzyme HD boilies soaked in lake water, then mixed with some liquid food was the bait approach for the week. He baited lightly along the tree line, and put out 2kg over the open water rod. On Sunday morning Marco realised his target, when he received a steady take from everyone 13 wrap spot, and landed what he thought was a good 20kg fish. When Andy the bailiff arrived to weigh the fish and do the photographs, things changed ever so slightly! After nearly giving himself a double hernia trying to lift the sling from the water, it was clear that this was not a 20kg fish; but something in an altogether different league. A big, long dark Mirror greeted the admirers when they parted the mesh, and “Pip’s” was staring angrily back at them looking simply enormous. Andy weighed the fish at 70lb 8oz and then double checked to make sure as Marco got seriously emotional. The pictures were “off the scale” and Marco did an amazing job. The absolute fish of a lifetime....mission accomplished. 

Luke Cornelius went into "Co’s Point", a swim he has fished before. Undecided what range to start at, he sensibly had a good cast around first. Finding patchy areas where he picked up strands of weed, he started at 25 wraps for the first night. The next morning he thought he would be better off fishing further out, at went to 31 wraps, baiting with 8kg of Sticky Krill and maize. On Monday  he had three bites, landing two Stockie’s and an original known as Luxembourg. A couple of quiet days passed, and on Thursday, Luke decided the fish were showing inside his long spot (which is quite often the case in Spring) and dropped back to 18 wraps. He baited with another 10kg and then sat back to see what transpired. At breakfast time on Friday morning he got “the” bite and after a steady battle, a huge mirror slipped into the net. After much hollering, shouting and general excitement, there could only be one suspect....yes, Fudgy’s made her first visit to the bank in 2019 at 81lb 12oz. In an almost repeat performance on Saturday morning, he had another bite after putting out another 8kg of bait. This time, the culprit was the stunning Patched Fully at 57lb 12oz. What a fantastic week for Luke.

Ian Ockwell came out late in the draw and was invited to double up in "The Alamo" with his mate Sam Clare. He got off to a lightening start when he picked up a fish only a couple of hours after casting out from an area at 23.5 wraps left of Baxter’s. Fishing with Sticky Krill 20mm baits he put out a couple of kilos with the Spomb and throwing stick every day. Standard, out of the bag bottom baits on a simple combi rig did the damage for Ian. During the week he landed a very creditable ten fish, with the highlights being, “Scale Perfect” at 45lb 12oz, “Fred” at 58lb and topped it off with “Baby Cluster” with its first capture at 60lb! The fish were showing out in the middle during the day, then drifting in on an evening to feed. You don’t need to be fishing at long range at this time of year in The Alamo. Good angling Ian.

Adrian Dobriansky was next door in “The Stink” and initially started off with all three rods at 16 wraps left of Baxter’s. A couple of quiet days passed by, when he started seeing fish showing regularly around the twenty five wrap mark. After checking the area out with a lead, he settled on 24 wraps towards the big tree left of “The Beach” and applied a couple of kilo’s of Sticky Krill, hemp and maize to the spot. Moving one rod of the sixteen area, he got a bite the next evening from one of the lakes “character” fish; “The Runt” at 34lb. He then moved another rod out to 24 wraps and the next night landed himself two absolutely belting fish. Firstly “The Koi” came to the net at 52lb, and his recast rod was picked up five minutes after casting out, and the result was the spectacular “Shoulder’s” at 57lb 8oz. A good reward, for some good angling.

Martin Carefoot came out late in the draw and none of the open water swims he wanted to fish were available. After some indecision and once he’d collect his toys that he threw out of the pram (only joking Martin!), he rather reluctantly chose to fish in “Stock Pond” (a great Spring swim). He chose to fish an area left of Oblivion at 21 wraps with two rods, and one rod he started at 21 wraps towards the stock pond pumps. He baited each spot with 5kg of Mainline Fyber, Sticky Krill and maize. Sunday morning saw him get three bites from the Stockie’s which had moved into the area, so he repeated the baiting again the next day, which this time got him a much better result and new PB, in the shape of “Classico” at 53lb 12oz. The northerly wind had been ploughing into Stock Pond for a few days now, but on Wednesday it changed to a south westerly, which unsettled the fish initially. It went quiet until around 11am on Friday morning when he got another bite from a big girl. This time “The Nude Fish” at 53lb 8oz picked up his White Krill Pop-Up fished on a Spinner Rig. Prior to the trip, Martin was disappointed that he could fish all three rods on zigs, as he wrongly believed that the fish would only get caught up in the water at this time of year. He learnt a great lesson on this trip.....they do feed off the bottom in Spring, and they are hungry! He finished with seven fish for the week. Well done on the new PB Martin.

Ben Milnes was across in "Oblivion" and set about finding himself and clean, firm area to fish at medium range where the better fish have been coming from recently. He settled on 20 wraps with all three rods for the first night, and prepped and area down the right hand margin at 6 wraps. Bait for the week was chopped and whole Royal Marine, mixed with hemp and maize with a a splash of Liquid Fish and C-Stim. Putting out 4kg of bait to the 20 wrap area, he landed “La Boheme” one of the “Super Stockie’s” at 39lb 4oz on Sunday morning, and then upped the quantity to 6kg, to try and bring more bites. Next morning around the same sort of time, he had repeat performance, and landed “Brother of Pec’s” at 38lb 4oz, which had amazingly been on the missing list for five years! Ben dropped back onto the margin spot he had baited periodically during the week, but it didn’t produce the goods on this occasion. A quiet couple of days ensued, until Friday morning when he bagged himself another rare scaley one in the shape of “Stinger” at 31lb 12oz. All the fish fell to Pop-Ups fished on Spinner Rigs, with white and orange being the most productive.

Jon Druse got the opportunity to fish in "Alcatraz" for the week, and was straight onto the productive 27.5 wrap spot towards the wonky tree. Baiting with 5kg of chopped and whole Mainline Link mixed with particle, he got underway on Sunday morning with “The Richmond Fish” at 36lb 12oz which was a great start. The fish were showing in the area from first light, and 9-11am have definitely been the best time for a bite. Fishing Pop-Ups on Spinner Rigs got him a new PB on Tuesday morning, when “The Stranger” lead him on a merry old dance. Eventually it succumbed to the pressure, and “Drusey” hoisted the 47lb 8oz chunk up for some water shots, and the obligatory Gigantica soaking! Well done mate.

Marcel Protz was in “Bob’s Beach” next door to his friend Marco, and after witnessing the capture of “Pip’s” he really got stuck in. He had been suffering with a chest infection over the weekend, and it wasn’t until Wednesday night that he got his first bite. But what a bite it turned out to be..... “The Clean Fish” at 54lb! Marcel was also using the Enzyme HD boilies which he prepared the same way as Marco, and baited a similar quantity. He fish medium range at 16 wraps between the “Alamo” and “Stink” and baited with a kilo of chopped and whole baits each day. He also fished at 14 wraps towards the headland and baited with just 10 Spombs each day. The lightly baited 14 wrap spot gave him “Eddie’s” at 37lb, which was a good reward for some consistent angling.

Tim Clay was in “Pole Position” for the week, and followed on from the previous week at 27.5 wraps at the “Stink”. In the early hours of Sunday morning he was straight into action, and picked up a pretty 27lb 8oz Mirror to take the pressure of. The fish had been feeding hard on the previous week’s bait, as it passed a lot of hemp and maize (which the previous angler had used). Unfortunately for Tim, his week didn’t go quite so well, when he lost three fish on the trot for one reason or another. That said; he was as happy, cheerful and upbeat from day one to day seven. Some anglers would do well to set stall by his positive attitude when the going got tough. 

Bob Burrows went into “Big Girls” for the week and after having a chat to Andy the Bailiff, decided to start with two rods up towards the headland baiting a strip of boilie from the margin, out; and then one in the corner at six wraps. After a long trip out, he chose not to fish on Saturday night, but did put in a 3kg mix of boilies including Mainline Activ-8, Cell and Essential Cell, plus some Key Cray. He started off fishing a maize stack on Slip-D Rig at 21 wraps and picked up two Stockie’s before switching over to Wafters. Bites were coming every night to Bob, and surely it was only a matter of time, before one of the originals turned up. It was; and they did, as he landed a 32lb 8oz Mirror known as “The Decoy”.

Sam Clare suffered what must have been a mentally difficult week. Coming out first in the draw he went into “The Alamo” and invited his mate in to share. Sam fished the right hand side, and went out to 25 wraps initially, then dropped back to 23.5 when Ian started getting bites on the left side. It didn’t seem to matter what he did, Sam simply couldn’t buy a bite, even when the fish were in the area. When Ian and Adrian next door both landed big fish on Thursday night I did think that the bait he brought with him wasn’t what the carp are used to finding and it wasn’t readily accepted. The lads were using Sticky Krill either side, and on Friday, Sam introduced some and low and behold he caught a fish. It was one of the 2018 Stockie’s, but demonstrated to me that bringing a bait from one of the reputable big firms which the fish see regularly, (Mainline, Sticky, CC Moore, Baitworks) will definitely bring you the bites when the fish are feeding well (as they were this week). 

What a week it turned out to be, with 44 fish landed, including 1 x 80, 1 x 70, 1 x 60 and 7 x 50’s. Only one angler didn’t manage to land a fish, when unfortunately he got cut off in Big Southerly when the fish kited left. The week passed by in a blur, and I took over 2000 photographs during the week, which indicates it was a busy one. Let’s see what’s in store next week....still waiting for “Chunky” to make an appearance.

Until Next Time..... Bonne Peche and Tights Lines

Andy

Team Gigantica