Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 17/07/2021

It was all looking so good…….

 The main lake has been Steadily picking up momentum over the past few weeks. With the weather settled, some glorious sunshine and temperatures around 30 degrees forecast and with a few regular visitors on that know how get a bite or two between them it was looking to be a very productive week ahead. It was off to a great start with 8 fish landed in the first 24hrs, then things suddenly started to get very wet, actually around 18inches wet! The lake behind us had seen a sudden rise of over 1 metre this seemingly caused the fishing to slow down a little but With a few changes to the planned approach from the lads they still managed a few more fish over the course of the week.

            Luke (Corndog) Cornelius opted to fish the always popular Co’s Point Fishing out at 28 wraps to the tits. Having fished Co’s before and being no stranger to Gigantica Luke decided his approach was to use a good amount of bait to get things going and started by baiting up with around 10kg of sticky Krill boilie, maize, and pellet mix, fishing a simple blowback rig with snowman as hook bait. It didn’t take long to get his first take, the next morning his righthand rod rattled of just before breakfast resulting in stunning mirror called Mr Tong weighing in at 47lb. Luke stuck with his game plan that was proving to be successful and put another 10kg of bait out to the 28 spot in the afternoon ready for the next take. By the time Luke got his rods back out for the evening the water level had already risen by a good 6 inches and continued to rise throughout the night and by morning the swim was under water. Undeterred Luke continued with his chosen approach, but Unfortunately Mr Tong was the only fish for Luke this week but what a fish. Well done mate some solid angling in tough conditions.

            Regular Roy Prodger had a not so good draw (again), yes, the last choice of swims! But ended up with one of his top choice swims, Baxter’s Hole. With the wind blowing in and having done pretty well in the past in Baxter’s it certainly looked good for a few fish. Roy’s approach was to start with 10kg of Mainline Hybrid and top up regularly to encourage the bites. Fishing all 3 rods tight at 25 1/2 wraps towards Stink with blowback rigs and snow man hook bait. This proved to be successful with Roy’s first take coming at 5am the following morning with a 36lb common called The Mosaic. With the first one in the bag things we’re looking promising for the week ahead, Roy applied another good helping of bait to the spot and left his lines out of the water for the day in the hope of a quick bite or 2 in the evening but with the rising water levels this unfortunately seemed not to be the case as the action seemed to have stopped. With no fish showing in the swim the next day Roy made the decision to move as he had seen a few fish showing close in The Stink.  All set up now in the The Stink Roy fished a zig at 25ft with black foam on one rod and solid bags on the other 2 rods at 16 wraps towards the poplars. A bite came from the zig rod at 10pm that night with a stunning “original” called The Exocet weighing 31lb 12oz. With another move on the cards, Roy moved back to Baxter’s to fish over his already baited spot but with conditions proving difficult with the rising water levels no more fish were had by Roy for the remainder of the week. 

            Stuart Minney now fishing his second week choose to drop in to Pole Position. Fishing at 27 wraps to the W tree, Stuart wasted no time and got to work spombing 5kg sticky Krill and maize mix out to the spot, fishing all 3 rods tight with one rod on a spinner rig with 2 pieces of slow sinking maize and the other 2 rods fished with blow back rigs and snowman hook bait. First bite came Saturday evening on the slow sinking maize with a lovely original fish called Mars bar muncher weighing 33lb on the nose. After recasting his rod Stuart topped up with 6 spombs to be sure there was still some bait on the spot. Just after tucking into his breakfast roll one of the rods was away and this time the snowman doing the business and carp number 2 in the net for Stuart, Maddie weighing 26lb 8oz. Things slowed up a bit as had the whole lake had so Stuart tried 1 rod on a zig fished at various depths throughout the days. No more bites came so on Friday evening Stuart decided to move next door to the now vacant swim stock pond with hopes of a last night bite and he wasn’t disappointed! Fishing a spinner rig with 2 slow sinking maize and just a few handfuls of maize over the top at the 24 1/2 wrap margin it wasn’t long before another original fish called Looking busy graced his net weighing 29lb 12oz. Well done Stuart good steady angling all week mate 

            Adam (Chilly) Cheal chose to fish Alcatraz for the week accompanied by his partner Phoebe. Chillys chosen spot was a clear area 28 wraps towards the stink, he got to work Saturday evening spombing out a good bed of bait to get things going, around 10kg Mainline Hybrid and maize mix went out to the spot and he fished all 3 rods tight over the baited area fishing a blow back rig with snowman presentation on all 3 rods.  Chillys first take came in the early hours of Sunday morning with a small common named Brizzle weighing 21lb 4oz. Chillys approach was to keep 25 large spombs of bait going in after each take which proved to be working well as by 15.00hrs Sunday he had already landed 4 fish with the biggest being a lovely common of 32lb called Haribo. As the bites had slowed up and he had no takes for couple of days he decided to try 1 rod on a zig and after a quick marker up decided on 23ft. This produced a couple of bonus fish for Chilly bringing his total for the week to 6 fish. Well done mate good angling.

            Ben Mcglone fancied his chances in The Stink this week after seeing a few fish close in on the walk round. Fishing 2 rods at 16 wraps towards the poplars and 1 at 14 wraps towards Alcatraz. Ben started by baiting up with 6kg mainline essential cell and maize mix on the 16 wrap spot and 3kg on the 16 wrap spot fishing all 3 rods on spinner rigs and snowman hook bait. Things were very quiet for the first 48hrs in front of Ben so he decided to have a move, Ben choose to fish a swim he had fished on his last trip and had a couple of fish from Big Girls. Now fishing 2 rods at 21 wraps to the stock pond overflow pipes and 1 in the corner 9 wraps to the tallest tree Ben felt confident. He began baiting from the margin with approximately 5kg of mainline Cell and maize mix each afternoon and although there was fish in the area nothing happened for a few nights. Friday evening one of his rods rattled of and the battle began, I got a call to say he had a fish on and was snagged up, after a short boat ride the fish was free and Ben was playing a fish into the landing net. An original fish called Looking Busy @ 29lb 12oz and a new PB for Ben ! Well done Ben, You got away with a soaking this time 

            Bailiff Dean Cullen managed a few nights fishing this week and dropped into Stock Pond. Fishing 2 rods at 23 wraps the drop of and 1 rod at 24 1/2  to the right hand margin. Baiting up with only maize, putting 6kg over the 2 rods and just a couple of handfuls over the margin rod. Just the 1 bite came from the margin rod, rod, being the spotty leather weighing in at 62lb 4oz. 

So, all in all the fishing was a little slower than anticipated, but spirits remained high with a few side bets won and lost, lots of laughs and some wicked banter throughout the week. Cheers guys look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Be good, stay safe and keep those nets wet…...     

Dean