Angler Comments

Welcome back to the Gigantica weekly report.....

What can I say apart from WOW !! Justin McArthur from Worthing sets a new Gigantica record when he banked the Giant from the 'Beach' swim in the early hours of Wednesday at a truly impressive 74lb !!

Justin had a great week, smashing his French PB twice, firstly with the capture of a stunning 26lb fully scaled mirror, which was gorgeous, then once the baited rig was back out in position, his Perfection Baits Scopex - black pepper bottom bait topped of with the ever consistent Mainline Indian Spice or as we call them here, the mean greens !

The bait combo obviously appealing and straight away, off he ( the Giant is a Male fish ) trunddles and puts up an excellant account of himself. Justin, me, and the rest of the group were just amazed at how immense a fish he is !,Looking great in the warm Spring sunshine, Justin did an excellant job holding him up for the pics. Take a look at him, the Giant setting a new lake record. Well done Justin !

Not to sit on his hands, Justin then banked 'the Rigadon' at 45lb, up 5lb almost too the day it was caught last year !!!.

In Pole position, Gavin was having a great week also......fishing to the producing area at 70m, with the standard but proven Gigantica method, Mainline Cell tooped with the Mainline mean greens over a healthy scattering of Cell, Gavin upped his PB with his very first fish, a brute of a fish, Singles Mate at 43lb then followed it up through the week with a succession of good 20z.

George, the group leader, and his beautiful wife, Deena, just couldnt resist the aqua blue waters and both, through the week managed to fall in !! As good as it looked, they both assured me it was 'bloody freezing' lol.

George had a 26mirror from the 'Tree line' but was frustrated at the lack of action, considering the amount of fish in residence in the 'tree line' snags.

Although one of the more popular swims, the 'tree line' is quite a technical swim to fish. The fish group up in the snags throughout the day and by fishing close to the edge of the trees, you can, at times, haul. However, the fish generally leave the safety of the snags through the evening and migrate into the deeper water for the night.

So your fishing snags in the day, which is very strenuous, then relocating your hookbaits at night in the deeper water. Hard work on the best of days, stressful when there not playing ball.

Weve found that the best way too extract the fish whilst fishing the trees and snags is not to use heavy rods and braid pointed directly at the baits as you would imagine but to use softer rods, set at an angle from the snags, and by using heavy nylon line, the rods act as massive quivertips. The fish, on being hooked pull against the action of the rod and then kite away from the snags. Fishing like this, with the use of running leads ups the landing to hooked ratio massively. Indeed, we have found that, by fishing a conventional snag stlye, i.e. rods pointed at the baits, bow string tight lines, heavy rods, the hooked fish swim directly up through the water hoping to snag the hooklenght in the branches that dangle down into the water. Once the line is snagged, the fish use their weight and speed to pull the hooks out leaving you tethered to the surface snags. Very frustrating but now, easily resolved with a little bit of cunning thought.

Ian & Neil, over in Alamo, had the most frustrating week off all. With constant fish movement in front of them all week, it was a releif when Neils zig produced a beautiful 24lb linear. Ian followed it up a day or so later with a 22lb fish but this time falling too a bottom bait. Very frustrating for sure.

The final fish, a 24lb mirror fell to young Scott fishing in Oblivion. He fished hard all week, even when it looked like a blank was on the cards but finally managed to pull one outta the hat last knockings, well done Scott, good skillz.

So, there you have it, more fish than the previous week, a trend which Im hoping will continue, a New Lake Record at an ashtonishing 74lb and a great week generally.

So, onto the next week. Lets hope even more big fish grace the nets and Id love another fish to break the lake record so soon.

Be safe, be lucky.

Danny