Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 15/06/2024

Dress Like A Big Girl

A nice sunny welcome back to Gigantica for myself and the 11 anglers that we had visiting this week, many familiar faces, which is good to see were eagerly waiting outside the gate for that 1pm opening time.

Let’s kick things off this week with the very likable character that is Danny Windust.  Danny managed to get a draw that worked out nicely for him in such away he got the swim he fancied the most, this being Baxter’s Hole.

Danny tried very hard all week and spent a lot of time working the swim in different areas, despite losing a handful of fish it wasn’t until very late in the week that he had something starting to work for him.

Fishing out along his right-hand edge of the swim he was fishing a couple of rod lengths off of the tree’s with chod rigs and pineapple pop ups and on the Friday morning landed ‘Scratches’ at 52lb.  Not quite a PB for Danny but very well deserved.

Danny was baiting the area with Cell boilies and our house pellet with a catapult when possible.  A great edge when fishing these marginal or corner areas instead of crashing spombs in.

One more graced Danny’s net on the Saturday morning, although it being one of our fresh stockies they all count, and this one went 12lb.  Caught as before on the same tactic and baiting approach.

Well done this week, and great company to have.  We hope to see you again in the future.

Another of this week’s anglers who left things to the last minute was Henry Collins fishing in big fish swim Big Southerly.

Despite Henry catching the first fish of the week, a fresh stocked fish from November, it took him until the last couple of hours on the Saturday morning until he heard his alarm again.

This time it was a much nicer and bigger fish sitting in his net.  Once weighed and photo’d we identified this one as ‘Humpy’ and this one was a new PB for Henry and it spun the scales around to just shy of the 50lb mark, 49lb 12oz.  It was all worth it in the end and a very nice feeling to make that journey home feel better.

Henry was fishing solid bags and caught this one at 16 wraps out over 10 spombs of crumb and pellets with a yellow dumbbell hook-bait tempting it on the hook.

A great way to end the week that is for sure.  Well done mate.

Another returning guest was James Humbell and found himself pegged up in Tree Line.

With the fish having just finished their spawning at the early part of the week like many of the others this week it took a couple of days for action to start coming their way.  And on the Tuesday he netted his first fish of the week, again one of our smaller residents ‘Rice Pudding’ at 18lb 8oz.  This was caught from the 21-wrap spot, at the main gap in the tree line, and was tempted onto a 4” spinner rig and a Moonshine infused pop-up that he had obtained whilst visiting the Goo Bar at one of the shows Korda had attended this year.  James baited with boilie and pellet in the area to get this one to feed.

James went on to catch a couple more fish on the Thursday all from the same spot as before.  Firstly ‘The Missile’ that spun the scales to 37lb 2oz and shortly followed by ‘Tripple M’, which went 26lb on the scales.

Unfortunately, James managed to lose three others for one reason or another but still an enjoyable trip getting in amongst some of the action here.

Well done again on your captures, hopefully see you again in the future.

Harrison Ashby came along to Gigantica for the first time, along with his partner Sasha, and opted to fish in Bob’s Beach this week.

Both kept themselves occupied with their morning fitness work outs and jogs around the lake, and despite the action in this swim being in good form of late, Harrison only managed the one bite this week fishing out in open water in front of him and this came on the Thursday.  This one was ‘Schnuffler’ and went 32lb. Harrison baited with Wraysbury Baits Red Spicy Squid boilie along with house pellet and fished matching hook-baits in a snowman style on a noodle rig to tempt this one.

Zac Lendore was another first timer at the Big G and put himself in Pole Position.

Zac had a promising start to the week when on Monday he managed to land two fish, which would turn out to be his only piece of action for the week in the end.

Both commons with the first one being ‘Beach Life’ weighing 27lb 13oz and was taken from the long area at 32 wraps out towards the reeds next to Stink as he looked and caught on a pink spicy squid pop up on a spinner rig set up with a 4” boom.

His second fish that day was ‘Cornification’ and went 33lb 1oz, this time coming from a much shorter area at 14 wraps straight towards Alamo, this time though was caught on a slip D rig and on a single grain of fake maize.

Both areas where fed with hemp, corn, Cell and Link boilie both whole and crumbed.

Well done on your fish this week.

In The Stink this week we had Dave Lawrence, and Dave had to wait until mid-week to get amongst some action from this swim.  Around half past 7 in the morning of Wednesday he had managed to slip the net under a relay nice looking carp in the form of ‘Trans Pretty One’ at a spawned-out weight of 31lb.  A fantastic looking carp this one.

This one was caught from 18 wraps out and caught on a combi rig on a heli set-up with a Royal Marine hook-bait with a corn topper and Dave had fed matching boilie to his hook bait and maize.

Sadly, he couldn’t tempt anymore action for the week, but well done on a tough week and again hopefully see you back here again.

Another Dave on the lake this week was Dave Westwood, again was a returning customer to us here at Gigantica and put himself in to fish the Stock Pond swim.

Sadly, Dave managed to have a few fish get away from him this week, again for various reasons, but did manage to bank a couple before the week was out.  Although these were not big by Gigantica size, they all count at the end of the week.

Thursday Dave managed another of our fresh stock fish in the shape of a 14lb 10oz carp that he got to name as ‘Sheriff Keith’.  Dave’s final fish of the week, again like some of the other guys, came on the Saturday morning.  A little bigger than before at 23lb 11oz and goes by the name of ‘Courtney’.

During the week Dave was feeding Royal Marine boilies to tempt his fish and they were caught on either a matching hook bait or two grains of fake corn.

Well done Dave, no doubt we will see you again in the future.

Stuart Burns put himself in the ever-popular swim that is Co’s Point.  Stuart fished a few different areas, but fortune came his way, again later in the week, on Thursday when he managed to land a nice fish in the shape of ‘Eternity’ weighing 30lb 8oz.

Caught from closer than most tend to fish this swim at five wraps out and was caught on a spinner rig with fake corn as the hook bait and he fed a mixture of hemp and maize to get this one to go down and feed.

Again, like the others it is always a tough time to come and fish straight off the back of spawning time.

Well done on your fish Stuart.

I also managed to have a go this week and parked myself in the vacant Scotties Corner.

I fished a total of four nights this week fishing the usual weed bed area towards the leaning tree and a bit more out in open water to the left of this.  But I did manage one fish oh the Thursday from the weed bed spot fishing a solid bag with a mixture of small pellets and crumb with a good helping of an oil attraction mix and an Isotonic infused hook bait.  This one went 26lb 12oz and goes by the name of ‘Biscuit Boy’, one that we have no recorded captures of since it was stocked in 2022 at 14lb.

Lastly this week we have Antony Dyer who managed to get himself into Alcatraz this week, and Antony worked so hard all week getting up at various times at night trying zigs at different depths and areas to try and tempt a bite, but unfortunately all his hard work didn’t pay off this time around.  I am sure it would have done at other times of the year, but the carp have just not been playing the game of late.  

On the final morning Antony did manage another of our fresh faced stockies from literally right in front of his swim and weighed in at 16lb 10oz, a couple of pounds up from when it went in during the winter.  This was an unrecorded fish in terms of captures, so he got to name this one and has christened it ‘Han Solo’.

Well done Antony, was a pleasure to have met you and we hope you come back for another crack in the future.

A very tough week straight off the back of spawning for the guys this time around.  Much warmer weather next week is forecast so hopefully we will see a few more carp caught each week soon.

Until next time, tight line.

Gareth (Gino).