Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 06/07/2024

Late Cancellation Hits Gold

This week we welcomed 3 groups of friends and family and one angler who took a spontaneous late cancellation just days before his trip and it certainly paid off. 

Starting off with Dave Reeve who took this week’s booking three days before travelling to us and after coming out ball 9 in the draw, put himself in Alcatraz. That was until Scotties Corner became available Monday morning and being more Dave’s type of fishing, he jumped straight in there. After settling in it wasn’t long until he was off the mark having 4 bites come Tuesday and landing 3 of them, starting with ‘Little Toperooni’ at 35lb 8oz and a brace of 50’s with the bar of gold common ‘La Boheme’ at 52lb and ‘Baby Brutus’ at 55lb, what a start! Dave didn’t stop there, with most of his bites coming in the daytime he was coming round of a morning for a shower and his breakfast, giving the swim a rest for a couple of hours every morning after putting in a few scoops of pellet. It certainly worked with the following day he had another 4 with ‘Catch Report’ at 43lb 8oz, ‘Big Foot’ at 25lb 8oz, the newly named ‘Cockney’ at 29lb and a 33lb common. Dave was fishing solid bags tight up to the weed bed towards Alcatraz at 17.5 wraps and another a rod length to the right at 16 wraps, using yellow IB slow sinking maize. Dave’s last bite came on Thursday when he landed one of our stocked commons yet to be named at 28lb 4oz. 

Next up we have Neil Allen who came out ball 3 and opted for the famous Co’s Point. Fishing 28.5 wraps towards the tits, Neil was using SLK boilies, fishing a helicopter setup with a loop to boom rig topped with a match the hatch with a pink topper. It was Monday morning when Neil got his first bite being ‘The Ingot’ at 30lb 11oz followed the next day by ‘Tambourine’ at 22lb 4oz then come Thursday landing 3 within the space of a couple of hours. A cracking common known as ‘Classico’ at 54lb, a new PB common, ‘The Chinese’ at 39lb 4oz, and ‘Jason’s’ at 37lb Neil’s trip was made, all witnessed by his mascot.

Down in Baxter’s Hole we had Graham Moseley who was with us this week with his Fiancé. Graham started his week off with a 50lber Monday morning in the shape of ‘Terminator’ at 50lb 4oz which was his new PB. Fishing 24 wraps towards the red tower using Mainline Cell and ISOFish with house pellet and maize he kept the bait going in steadily throughout the week before dinner, and managed back-to-back fifties having another one on Tuesday morning known as ‘Scratches’ at 50lb 7oz, beating his new PB by ounces and then after losing a couple in the week, two more fish Friday daytime one being a lovely scaley known as ‘Kobra’ at 35lb 3oz and the other being ‘J1R’ at 23lb 4oz. Graham was treated to this trip as a present for his 50^th birthday, and was thrilled with how it went, so from all of us here at Gigantica, Happy Birthday Graham!

After coming out last in the draw Tom Pember was left with the choice of Stock Pond and Oblivion and chose to go in Stock Pond. Tom was off to a good start managing to land one his first night known as ‘Archimedes’ at 29lb 9oz from the in form 9 wrap spot to his right. The fish were still along his treeline but after losing a couple over the next couple of days it wasn’t until Wednesday when Tom managed to land his next two with ‘Little Rump’ at 23lb 6oz and ‘Half Moonscale’ at 43lb 15oz. Tom was fishing a fishmeal boilie he’d been having success on fishing in the UK, along with sweetcorn and baiting up two spots along the treeline one at 9 wraps and the other half was along at 17.5. Tom managed his last fish on Friday morning and was another angler who took us up on naming the fish when its first caught after stocking and went with the name ‘JK’ who he had at 13lb 1oz who he will now be tracking with his children who he is also teaching to fish.

Jason Williams drew ball 6 this week and got himself in Pole Position and was another one who managed to get off the mark on the first night landing a fish known as ‘AirCon’ at 34lb 13oz and was fishing all 3 rods on a spot 27 wraps out towards the right of The Alamo baiting up with SLK boilie and sweetcorn, fishing helis with match the hatch bottom baits with yellow toppers. Keeping bait going in steadily throughout each day of the week, Jason was getting steady bites averaging a fish a night all coming in the mornings where he had ‘Short Dorsal’ at 39lb 11oz, ‘Growler’ at 37lb, ‘The Clash’ at 30lb 11oz, and ‘Rumi’s’ at 32lb 12oz some great looking carp.

Pulling ball 7 out of the hat was Paul Brooks who decided Treeline was the swim for him and again managed to get himself off the mark on the first night with one of the amazing old original scaleys that reside in our Main Lake known as ‘Epicano’ at 39lb 4oz and followed it up with another one on Tuesday with ‘The Richmond Fish’ at 31lb 10oz. Paul had two spots on the go this week fishing 24 wraps towards the dead tree along the treeline and 21.5 towards The Stink. Fishing solid bags with slow sinking IB maize on Paul managed a total of 9 fish this week including ‘Mars Bar Muncher’ at 33lb, ‘Biscuit Boy’ at 25lb and ‘Luna’ at 19lb 10oz among others, all of which came during daylight hours.

Long term regular Ben Mitchell is next who came out ball 10 and managed to get himself in Big Southerly, one of his first choices. Ben spent the week fishing the known spots in the swim fishing 25.5 wraps to the left of Alcatraz and 14 towards The Alamo to the snags to his left. Getting off the mark Monday, Ben caught one of the lakes smaller residents which was an unnamed mirror at 15lb 8oz and decided to name it ‘Hammer’ let’s just say after one his friends. Using Royal Marine, house maize and pellet, Ben was using out the bag boilie with Scent from Hell toppers in yellow which caught him 6 carp throughout the week including a gorgeous grey mirror known as ‘Jayden’ at 38lb 4oz an original scaley known as ‘The Power’ at 25lb 12oz, ‘Old Yellow’ at 38lb and a lovely common called ‘Titch’ at 31lb even managing one Saturday morning. Until next time Ben.

Another long-term regular is up next who loves drawing number 1 so much he drew two of them this time with ball 11 but still ended up at home in Big Girls is Tom Griffiths. Tom was the first one to catch this week landing one known as ‘The Stinger’ at 23lb 12oz coming from the 26-wrap spot towards the reeds on the spit. Tom was baiting up via the bank using the holes in the trees to access his spot with a mixture of house maize and pellet along with Baitworks boilie and doing so just before dinner service, then fishing triple slow sinking maize on a spinner rig over the top or a match the hatch bottom bait with a topper. Come Monday Tom had another upon first light in the shape of ‘Donovan’ at 38lb, a lovely dark common, then Tom’s next bite came on Thursday morning when he had ‘Tosh’s’ at 35lb then was up early again Saturday morning with a mirror known as ‘Crucible’ at 32lb. Until next time Tom.

In Bob’s Beach this week we had Ben Unwin who came out 4^th in the draw. Fishing with Mainline Cell and Link along with house maize and pellet, Ben chose to fish the 18 wraps spot out in front of him with two rods and one rod down his right hand margin at 10 wraps, putting a good bed of bait out to start with. Tuesday was Ben’s first bite where he had a lovely golden common at 26lb from his right-hand margin spot then on Wednesday morning managed his second with another common, one known as ‘Titch’ at 31lb. keeping the bait going in steadily, Ben managed two more upper 30’s on Thursday with ‘Jayden’ at 38lb 4oz and ‘Old Yellow’ at 38lb then caught his last fish early hours of Saturday morning with an unnamed fish, now known as ‘French Storm’ as the storm we had this week managed to flood his bivvy earlier in the week, just lucky it was a nice warm sunny day the following, managing to dry everything out.

Jim Price started this week in Scottie’s corner after getting ball 8 in the draw but after seeing a lot of fish showing in front of the vacant Oblivion, he decided to make the move early Monday morning. Jim started fishing two rods out towards the left of Bobs Beach at 30 wraps and one 10 wraps down his right-hand margin. Unfortunately, the fish seemed to have reduced in numbers once he had settled in, but Jim stayed focused and kept working the swim when on the early hours of Thursday morning he had ‘Roblox’ at 40lb 6oz a cracking common from his 10-wrap spot down his right-hand margin. Jim was made up with this especially after the fight it gave him snagging him up in the margin and taking half an hour to get in.

And last but not least we have Ian Bland, who drew the magical ball 1 this week and selected his first-choice swim, The Alamo. Fishing 25 wraps out towards the right of Baxter’s, Ian started off baiting up with house pellet and Royal Marine boilie but had a slower start than he’d hoped for with his first fish not coming along until Thursday when he had two of our recently stocked fish know as ‘Remix’ at 17lb and an unnamed one, now known as ‘Big Rig’ at 14lb. Ian then left it late for his next and final fish but this time it was a bit bigger with one known as ‘Shmokin’ at 33lb 12oz coming last knockings on Saturday morning. 

Overall, a good week on the Main Lake this week with only one swim not managing to get amongst them and 56 fish coming out, new PB’s caught and Birthday celebrations.  

Roll on next week,

Tight Lines.

Greg,

Team Gigantica