Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 10/10/2020

Busman’s Holidays really are worth taking....

The weather has recently started to have an autumnal feel to it, with daytime temps now struggling to reach mid-teens and dropping to 5-7 degrees at night. That said; the fish have been feeding hard and coming out at some great weights. With a forecast showing quite a bit of northerly wind we weren’t entirely sure what the reaction of the fish would be. 

Gigantica Bailiff James “The Slayer” Jones clearly doesn’t do enough fishing, as he stayed on for a weeks’ holiday. He drew well and chose to fish in Bob’s Beach, which has a habit of throwing out some great fish. James chose to fish at 26 wraps to the big rock between Alamo and Stink with all three rods. He baited with a mix of Mainline Link, Essential Cell, maize and pellet. 10kg went out on Saturday afternoon and he fished with Link and Isotonic Snowmen on Spinners #standard. Just before first light on Sunday morning he had a steady take and landed himself Patched Fully at 59lb 8oz!! What a great way to start. Things went a bit quiet until Monday afternoon when he had his second bite which resulted in another fifty, in the shape of Slate Grey at 53lb 8oz! He picked up another small Common on Thursday morning, before heading off to Italy for a week of glitz and glamour. Well done mate.

Martin (RobBob-Top Secrect) Skov has been a regular on the Danish trip for many years, but with a distinct lack of holidays in 2020, he chose to come a week early, and have an extra week before the rest of the Danish boys arrived for their annual trip. Oblivion has really come of age this year and has produced some great fish. Martin fancied a crack at that and set himself up fishing with two rods at 26 wraps towards the big tree left of Beach and one at Baxter’s at the same distance. Bait was a mix of the Danish favourite, DT Baits N-Blend and the Cold Water mix with Green Beast. After losing a fish on the first night, he made amends on Sunday and landed himself a thirty and a forty. The forty being the stunning “Soft Focus” at 46lb 8oz. The bites all came to different colour Pop-Ups fished on Spinner rigs, which is not usually the Danish way.......Top Secret Martin!! Things got even better the next day when Martin landed “The Virgin” at 59lb 12oz, which was a fantastic result. Andy the Bailiff was invited round for some Danish “Tea” (knocks your socks off!) on Friday evening and Martin blotted his copy book when he actually had a fish whilst we were chatting. Unfortunately, Martin had forgotten to turn his alarms on, so we just heard the clutch spinning. He then proceeded to strike all three rods before going back to the first rod and managing to select the right one......we didn’t laugh much, honest!! Martin finished the week with a very creditable six fish and we have promised never to talk about the Friday night shenanigans again!! His appointment as the Korda Koach for Denmark is on hold for a while now!! Lol

Thomas Ursinus made the trip down from Germany and having not fished at Gigantica for five years, clearly things have changed a bit. He fancied a crack at Alcatraz and having been practicing his casting, to get it on point, he chose to fish at 35 wraps left of Stink and one at 32 wraps towards Big Southerly. He was bang on the money and it was good to watch someone fishing well at long range. Thomas fished solidly all week and picked off one or two fish every single day; very consistent. He used a bait rolled by a friend in Germany which was a bird food bait with a Scopex attractor, which he fished on simple Combi rigs. The highlights, of the week were the awesome “Epicano” at 39lb 4oz and “Polly” at 40lb.

Anders “Frank the Tank” Frenk travelled with Martin on the Danish advanced party. He had a terrible draw on the numeric front (Ball 9) but had a brilliant swim, in the shape of Stink (proven big fish territory). Anders has a reputation and enjoys fishing at long range, with 40 wraps being well within his comfort range. But as much as it is nice to be able to do it, it is not always necessary. On this occasion, he had a cast around at long range but found nothing that inspired him, so he settled on fishing at 28 wraps to the right of Baxter’s with two rods, and a close in spot on the right, in case the fish showed around the snags. After a quiet first night, he got underway on Sunday morning with one of the new fish which he chose call “Wriggly Cnut” as it would settle for a photograph!! Baiting with 5kg of DT Baits N-Blend each day and fishing with 22mm matching Wafters over the top did the job, as on Monday night he had four bites, landing three, with two over 30. However; the best was yet to come and on big fish Thursday he helped himself to a stunning mirror known as “Smartie Pants” which hadn’t been caught for two years. It is an old original that was last caught at 47lb 8oz, but this time tipped the scales round to 57lb 8oz! What an incredible result, well done Anders, your lucky socks paid off big time (note to self... must get a pair!).

Rich “Richie Rich” Winter was on for another trip and having only fished Big Southerly for a couple of nights on previous trips, fancied spending the whole week in there. He went out to the hump at 25.5 wraps with two rods and fished one to the left at 15 wraps down the side of the marker pole. On the bait front he was using Mainline Link and Essential Cell and chose to fish with solid bags over the top, which has proven to be a great tactic this year. It just goes to show, how being prepared and getting straight on it can pay dividends, as Rich landed three fish on Sunday, which were all 30’s. The fish had clearly found the bait on the hump and he capitalised on the feeding spell. Things then went quiet until Wednesday night when he had another 30 just after 9pm. Four 30’s for the week was a good result for some patient angling.

Paul Clements came out early in the draw and chose to fish in Co’s Point. He followed on from the week before, fishing at 30 wraps towards the Tits. He was using a mix of DNA S7 and SLK, plus maize, hemp, pellet and fishing with a snowman presentation on a Slip-D rig over the top. He had a bite in fairly short order on Saturday, which unfortunately shed the hook, but he still managed another bite and landed a mid-twenty on Sunday morning which took the pressure off. Things then went a bit quiet for a couple of days, until he had a brace of 30’s on Wednesday and followed it up on Thursday with his biggest of the week; “The Stranger” at 49lb 8oz.

Matt Dawes picked Pole Position for the week and went about fishing the area at 28 wraps towards Stink. It would be fair to say, that it was at the extreme end of his casting ability and the baited area was quite well spread. Matt was using Sticky Manilla mixed with maize and put in around 5kg per day. He sensibly chose to fish with solid bags, which are always fishing, no matter where they land. A mix of pellets with a single grain of slow sinking maize were his weapon of choice. He landed three fish during the week to 26lb. 

Roger Meir came out numero uno and went straight into The Alamo. He started off fishing with three rods staggered at 29, 30 and 31 wraps. Baiting with a mix of Sticky Krill Active and pellet he got quick action and had two bites on Saturday night, landing himself a brace of 20lb Mirrors. One fish lost and another twenty on Sunday looked as though things could be kicking off. Unfortunately, that was the last of the action for Roger, despite him bringing all the rods to the same distance. Proper head scratcher! There’s always next time for a chunk Roger.

Andy the Bailiff put his rods into the vacant Stock Pond and fished at 28 wraps left of Oblivion. Baiting with a Mainline test bait, mixed with maize, he had a twenty-pound Mirror on Sunday night and thinking there may be a few more bites to come, baited with 8kg the next day. This proved to be the wrong decision, as no more fish were seen or caught. A Solid PVA bag baited with an Isotonic Wafter were the winning combination.

As usual, it was a great week with good company. Whilst it wasn’t a bumper haul of fish, (in terms of monsters) there were 42 fish landed during the week which wasn’t bad considering the changeable weather. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon boys.

Until next time

Tight Lines and Bonne Peche 

Andy

Team Gigantica