Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 13/07/2019

When will it ever end……the warm, dry weather is becoming seriously tedious now! The Northerly breeze is as stale as a Trappist Monks “jock strap” and I’ve worn out two pairs of moccasins doing a Cherokee rain dance. It’s been a long time since we have been in such need of a break in the weather. Unfortunately, more of the same was promised this week, with temperatures up to thirty degrees and more boring northerlies. A switch to westerlies was showing for later in the week, so there was at least a chink of light on the horizon.

This week we had the boys from Embryo on the Main Lake, and even if the fishing was going to be hard, there would certainly be plenty of laughs, and morale is always high. Joining them for a record seventh week in a row was John “Mr Gigantica” Allen. John finally got himself a respectable number in the draw, picking out number 4 and opted for Co’s Point. He has rather craftily (actually very wisely) being fishing in different swims to gain as much knowledge about the lake as he possibly can. During his stay, he has been gradually improving his distance casting, and is now comfortable at 27 wraps, which is where he chose to start. Baiting up with a mix of hemp and maize he put two rods out the front towards the “Tits” and dropped one to the left in front of the weed bed at 3 wraps. In what turned out to be a frustrating week, John kept his cool and stuck to the task at hand. On Thursday morning things came good when he managed to land two bites in quick succession. You can never tell what is going to pick up your hookbait at Gigantica; as John was about to find out! The first fish being a 2018 Stockie at 13lb 8oz, and the second was “The Twin” at 68lb 8oz. From the sublime to the ridiculous springs to mind. Well done John you are one of the most patient anglers I have seen fish on the Main Lake. 

Tobias Ward went back into Pole Position; scene of “many carps” for him on his last trip. He was using a mix of Baitworks Royal Marine and Atlantic Heat which he mixed with maize. Initially he started off with 4-5kg per day at 27 wraps towards the Stink which got him some bites. Unfortunately, it was the smaller fish that seemed to be playing, so he upped the anti, and went to 10-12kg per day. The increased quantity did have an effect, when he landed his largest fish of the week at 33lb 12oz and backed it up with pretty 21lb 8oz Mirror. Tobias fished Pop-Ups on German Rigs over the top, using either Scent From Heaven or matching Royal Marine hookbaits. He ended the week with a very respectable seven fish.

After much deliberation and indecision Tom Collingwood eventually dropped next door to Tobias in Stock Pond. The swim has been in excellent form of late, so it was a surprise to us that it wasn’t one of the first picks. We think that some people are so focused on fishing right out in the middle of the lake at long range, and wrongly think that, that is the only way to get them. During the Spring and early summer, it couldn’t be further from the truth! The previous week, the fish had all come from the margins, but Tom wanted to fish an area in open water as well as the margin. He opted for two rods at 22 wraps left of Oblivion and one across to the far side reeds at 26.5 wraps. Bait for the week was CNS Enticement boilies mixed with maize which Tom introduced 10kg of each day, split between the two spots. As expected, it was the far margin rod which produced the four out five bites for Tom; the best being a mid-twenty Common known as Bilbo Baggins. Rigs were simple Combi’s which he fished with a snowman presentation with running leads. On Thursday Tom took an opportunity to move across into Big Southerly, to see if he could connect with something a little larger, but unfortunately the move didn’t pay off for him on this occasion.

Dave “Bucko” Buck had a bit more success at the draw bag this year and landed himself Alcatraz for the week. After chatting with Andy the Bailiff, he wisely decided to split the rods. Fishing two at 27 wraps towards the “Wonky Tree” and one on the hump at 24 wraps towards Scottie’s Corner. On the bait front, Dave was using Mainline Fyber and Link in 18 and 15mm, which he mixed with maize. He put out 10kg each day split between the spots with the Spomb and used Hinged Stiff Rigs on Heli-Safes. DF had given Dave some plastic pop-up boilies to use on Cawcutts (where Dave fishes in the UK) and they have become his “lucky” hookbaits. He put them on the hinged stiffs incorporating Barbless Kamakura Choddy Size 4’s. It has been noticeable that the Wonky Tree spot has been a bit quiet of late, so we thought that the hump would be the best bet for a bite, and this turned out to be the case. Dave landed five fish during the week, and they all came from the hump. The best being a mid-twenty mirror. Well done Dave, we’re confident you’ll get a superbeast next time.

Matt Bland went into Bob’s Beach and decided that he would go in lightly to start off with. On Saturday night he fished one rod out front at 20 wraps and one down each margin left and right. Baiting up with Nash Scopex Squid; just twenty baits over each rod and snowman presentation on a simple combi-rig, he had a bite just after 4am on Sunday morning from the 20 wrap spot which had been baited the week before. The resulting 31lb mirror was a fish known as “Wizza” which only had one previous capture on its copybook. Matt then upped the baiting quantity to 5kg per day of Nash Scopex Squid boilie and maize, which he introduced at midday as the fish descended en-masse in front of him most evenings. Frustratingly for Matt, no more chances came his way, despite it being “blackness” with carp almost every evening.

Pete Lay fancied having a crack at The Stink (don’t we all!!) and given its track record of producing big fish, plus doing a couple of bites the week before; it was a very sensible choice. He split his rods up, fishing two at 31 wraps towards the big tree left of Beach and one at 16 wraps. Bait for the week was Oxford Carp Baits Tange-Marine which he introduced with maize at a rate of 5-7kg per day. He got his first bite at 4am on Sunday morning from the 16 wrap spot which turned out to be a nice 31lb Common. What a great way to start the week. Pete used simple running rigs with a matching Tange-Marine Wafter as the hookbait. Once the wind switched back to Northerlies again, the fish seemed to vacate the area and unfortunately Pete’s action dried up. Being the tidy angler he is, if the fish had come back onto him, we know he would have had more chances.

Neil Thompson had the chance to get into the form swim of the moment, Big Girls which had produced a great hit of fish the previous week. The fishing in the swim is simplicity itself, being all short to medium range fishing, which you can then bait up by hand. The hotspot has been at 21 wraps where the highly oxygenated water enters from the Stock Ponds, with the other two rods side by side at 23 wraps. Neil was using a mix of Mainline Link and CNS Enticement boilies mixed with maize and baited up by hand from the end of the spit. Neil put his own twist on things and just fished one rod at 23, one at 21 and one at 16 wraps, using Blow-back rigs baited with White Pop-ups completing the setup. Neil was called straight into action on Saturday evening resulting in a 2018 Stockie, then it seemed to go a bit quiet until later in the week when he picked off another. He used 25kg of boilie and 10kg of maize during the week.

Steve Coley was looking for a short - medium range swim, and Baxter’s fitted the bill perfectly. With the Northerly winds continuing for most of the week, it was a sure bet that there would be fish in front of Baxter’s...and that proved to be the case. Most evenings would see a big group of fish arrive and put on an epic show. Steve had chosen to bait very lightly, putting out a 1kg mix of maize and CNS Enticement boilies at 20 wraps towards The Stink. On Thursday morning during the breakfast run, Steve got the take he had patiently waited for, when his Mainline Fruitella Pop-up was snaffled by a pretty mid double Common which he got to name. That turned out to be his only chance in what was a hard weeks fishing.

The weather certainly played its part for the anglers this week. It has become patently obvious that the hot weather conditions have made the larger original fish more lethargic, and they are not feeding as regularly as we would expect at this time of year. The smaller Stockie’s are still feeding hard as they continue in their quest to grow and become the super-beasts that we all dream of catching. Once we get a decent break in the weather, it’s going to go biblical!

Until Next Time….

Tight Lines and Bonne Peche

Andy

Team Gigantica