Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 25/05/2024

Beach Life

First week back for a while having 12 anglers fishing this week, since a couple of swims had been out of action for possible filming purposes.

Another week of mixed weather ahead, some decent early summer vibes early part of the week leading into more wet weather towards the end of it.

A week of mainly regular visitors this week on the Main Lake at Gigantica, with only two new anglers to this side of the site.

One of those returning customers this week was regular Chris Irving, who after having another poor draw found himself parked up in Bob's Beach for the week.  Not a bad swim to have drawn on ball 11 to be fair.  And Chris certainly had a week to remember this time around.

Deciding to start his week fishing short at 10 wraps to let the fish come into him it wasn't until the Monday morning that his alarm first alerted him to some action.  And a good one to open his acount for the week, 'Percy' weighing in at 44lb 9oz. Despite this one coming in on his close range area it was Wednesday night that Chris decided to have a re-think about his tactics and went out 18 wraps so he could be a bit closer to where the fish activity was, as he felt that the bulk of the fish were not coming in close enough to feed.

What a right call to have made, as come Thursday morning four slings were lined up in front of his swim, inlcuding something a bit special.  Lets run through these starting from smallest to biggest 'Nova' 26lb 13oz, 'Thunder Buddy' 32lb 6oz, 'The Runt' 36lb 12oz and lastly 'Pips' at 76lb!  How's that for a nights fishing!

Pips looked amazing and having almost everyone on site gathered around to share this special moment with Chris it was an amazing moment.  This was also a new P.B. for Chris so very well done buddy.

Later that same day he also managed a nice 31lb'er, which had no previous capture records so he got to christen this one and named it 'Smile'.

And the action didn't stop there either, as the following morning the same view layout in front of Chris's swim.  Four more slings rowed up and again something speical in one of these.  As before going from smallest to largest 26lb common, 'Final Count Down' 26lb 2oz, 'The Courier' 28lb (out twice this week) and 'Shoulders' at a new top weight of 68lb 8oz.  An amazing fish to see on the bank if you ever get the chance to see it, and as before this one also drew an audience and rightly so.

A ten fish week for Chris, with a couple of the A team thrown in the mix, not bad for ball 11.  Just goes to show no matter what ball you get there is always a chance if you angle well.  All of Chris's captures were caught on solid bags tactics, comprising of spinner rigs in the bags made from a supple braid and Wide Gape hooks with a snowman style hook-bait made from a Cell bottom bait with a cut down pink dumbell on top.  Feed was made up of Cell boilie, house pellet, hemp and corn.

Very well angled this week Chris, and I am made up for you with what you have achieved this week.  No doubt will see you out here again soon I hope.

Another regular to Gigantica was Scott Hesling, who having a mid-way draw put himself into Alcatraz.

Just like Chris it wasn't until the early part of Monday morning that he had his first bit of action this week.  Fishing a zig at 7ft under the surface it awoke him in the early hours and it turned out to be a fish called 'Jayden' and went around to 46lb 3oz.  A very nice fish to have caught.

Scott like many others this week persevered with the zig fishing and was rewarded again on this tactic in the evening of Wednesday just before dark with 'Maddy' putting the scales to 40lb 14oz.  A great looking original fish.  Just after putting this one back one of his other rods was away, this time off the deck using a solid bag tactic and fishing 17 wraps out in the direction of the swim known as Stink.  This one again was a lovely original carp here, 'The Leney' and slightly bigger than his last one at 43lb 3oz.  What a fantastic evenings fishing for Scott.

Finishing it off for Scott this week was a great looking common, called 'Night Watchman' that again fell to a 19ft zig, weighing in at 44lb 8oz on the Thursday morning.

Four fish this week and all 40lb'ers, that will do nicely for any week here, a great average weight to be going home on.  Well angled this week Scott.

Also having good results on the zigs this week was, again, regular visitor Dan Coles who found himself fishing from Co's Point this week, a swim that he had always fancied having a go in.

It took a bit of patence this week for Dan, who had to wait until the Tuesday just before dinner service when he landed a lovely common that is called 'DC10' and was a new 50lb'er for the venue at 50lb 5oz.  This fish hadn't been recorded for a couple of years and had put on 10lb in weight since then.  A fish that is moving in the right direction weight wise.

Whilst having just done the pictures of that one and before leaving him in peice another of his rods was away, this one ended up being a fish called 'Brillo' and weighed in at 27lb 2oz.  Again as before a 23ft zig moved around to where ever fish had been showing almost every hour was the down fall of this one.

The following day with the weather having turned more over cast and cooler Dan adjusted his zigs to a depth of 19ft and was rearded nicely with a fish called 'The Clean Fish' at a massive 65lb 9oz!  

A great effort on the zigs, keeping active and keeping his eyes on the water and moving around with the fish rewarded Dan nicely with his captures.  Effort equals reward as they say, and it certainly rang true this time around.  Well done mate.

Steve Newell got himself into a swim that he really wanted, this being Baxter's Hole.  Keeping at it and not letting his head drop Steve was rewarded nicely on the Tuesday with one of our 2017 stockies from the right hand corner of his swim fishing 12 wraps towards 'the gap' in the tree line landed a nice common of 23lb 10oz.  Nice to get off the mark for sure but he was to be rewarded a lot more later that day and later in the week.  That same evening he managed to be moving in the right direction with regards to the fish's weights, landing 'Only Cans' at 36lb 5oz.

Then having to wait until the Friday moring, and it certainly was worth the wait, he put the net underneath a good sized common known as 'Soliid' at a new top weight and personal best 58lb.  This time it was taken on a solid bag fished out in open water.  Steve's other two captures from the tree line came on 12mm Essential Cell wafters soaked in Isotonic Goo and baited with K2 boilie.  Rig wise Steve was using combi rigs made up with Krank hooks and fished on a lead clip set up on a Dark Matter leader.

Andy Lewis who is no stranger to both lakes here at Gigantica pulled out ball two this week and made no hesitation to put his name into Big Southerly.

Andy stuck to it out on the 25 wrap spot at the edge of his swim boundry and had to wait until Thurday before putting the net under a nice 40lb mirror.  Tactics to land this one was using a super sharp size 2 hook on a combi rig set-up incorperating a fluorocarbon boom section baited with a large 22mm S7 boilie to match what he was feeding along with SLK boilies, maize and plenty of liquids to match.

The following morning Andy was again rewarded for his patence, 'Mr Tong' at 49lb 4oz.  I am sure this will be a 50lb fish in the near future.  Same tactics as before resulted in his capture of this one.  Well done mate for sticking at it.

First time visitor to Gigantica was Paul Parsons who got a swim that suited his angling, Stock Pond.  

Being his first visit to the venue his goal was to just catch a carp from this amazing venue, and he didn't have to wait long.  In fact after losing one on the first evening he managed to net one on the Sunday morning just before breakfast 19lb 5oz of mirror carp that he got to name as 'Youngest'.  Paul had a run of bad luck after this one, which involved both myself and our other onsite bailiff this week out in the boat doing a spot of mid week snag removal for the safety of the fish.

This worked nicely for Paul as he then went on to have a dinner time bite, which excited the club house and gave him a big audience in his swim and landed our biggest stockie from last year at 23lb 8oz, 'IBC'.

Paul had two the following day, Thursday, 'White Spot' at 26lb 12oz and 'Torpedo' at 12lb 13oz.  Paul managed one more beofre heading home 'Ninebot' at 16lb 9oz.

All of Pauls fish came from 17 wraps up along the right hand margin and were caught on Spinner rigs with Signature wafters fished over Royal Marine boilies and sweetcorn.

Paul was amazing company to have at the lake for many of us, it was a pleasure to have you here and we hope to see you again another time.

Mike Kallaras drew ball one and after the previous weeks results put himself into Big Girls, which last week was a swim in great form and am sure was high on everyones list.

Monday day time and Mike landed his first fish from 11 wraps to his left on a solid bag with a 4" rig inside and a homemade 12mm wafter hook-bait.  this one weighed 20lb 2oz and is called 'Bobby Dazzler'.

Mike again was away later that day landing 'Orange Spot' at 21lb 8oz, this time caught on a combi rig out along the tree line at 21 wraps.

During the week he also fished out a bit longer at 25 wraps and this one produced a couple of fish later in the week, using spinner rigs with two grains of slow sinking maize caught him 'Linzeeee Wooo' at 29lb and a nice 27lb 2oz mirror.

Sadly Mike also lost a few this week for one reason or another, but still a nice weeks angling catching a few carp along the way.  Well done this week.

Another first timer here was Liam Ledger and after having a fairly good draw put his name down to fish Stink.  

Liam stuck to his spots this week 16 wraps towards the edge of his right hand boundry and 28 wraps out towards Baxters.  He was rewarded for his efforts on the Wednesday with a fish that Chris in Bob's Beach went on to catch as well at the end of the week, 'The Courier' at 28lb.  

Then leaving it until the very end he caught 'The Exclusive' at 45lb on the very last night in the early hours.  A nice end to the week to go home on.

Liam's tactic for the week was combi rigs fished with Cell hook-baits and a corn topper and fed matching boilie and corn throughout the week.

Not a bad weeks angling this week that took a little while to get going, but when it did it fished fairly well and most people went home with fish to their name.  Some new top weights and a couple of personal bests it certainly was a good week for us with many returning guests and others that we hope to see again.  

Still no signs of them kicking off the spawning activity in mass yet, but am sure with some steady warm weather on the horizon it wont be long now.

Tight Lines

Gareth (Gino)