Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 26/10/2024

The Young Ones

Very unseasonal like weather greeted this week’s new group of anglers at Gigantica, with temperatures over the 20-degree mark and summer like blue skies.  This was not to last though as by the end of the week it was a much different feel with predominantly cold easterly winds trickling in.  Let’s see how this weather change effected the fishing this last week.

Let’s kick of the report with our largest fish of the week, which fell to long time regular customer of ours Chris Clarke.  Now Chris is no stranger to any of the swims here on the Main Lake and this week opted to drop into Baxter’s Hole.

It was to turn out to be a tough week for Chris, as it was for everyone, but come the early hours of Wednesday morning he was awoken by his alarms at around 2;30am and manged to slip the net under a nice looking 47lb 8oz mirror, known as “Tiger Fish”.  Despite the fish being very active in this area of the lake, with the fish during the nights showing from under his rod tips right out to the area he was fishing at 26 wraps at the “marker pole” in the distance he sadly did not manage anymore bites than this one.  Chris fished hard all week but sadly sometimes it is just not meant to be.

Chris kept to his tried and tested tactics of solid bag fishing on all his rods and fed a mixture of boilies and hemp over the area he was fishing but interestingly enough, the one bite he did manage came on the night that he never put anymore bait out on.  

Well done on this fish Chris and with him staying on for another week let’s hope that you get another chance next week.

Mark Birchmore joined us this week all the way from Switzerland, and having fished the Road Lake previously set himself up in Stock Pond on the Main Lake this week. 

With the swim having not been fished the week prior, he knew that the fish had had the opportunity to come into this area freely over the last week so felt there was a good chance of some fish from this area.

Mark set himself up fishing 17.5 wraps towards Oblivion and at 15 wraps towards the tree lined margin to his right, and it took until the early hours of Tuesday morning before he managed to get a fish into the net.  Safely retained ready for the photos in the morning I was told that it was maybe a near 30lb’er, but in fact turned out to weigh 42lb 3oz and was a fish that went by the name of “Chavvy”.  A lovely looking mirror and a bit of surprise for him too when we weighed it.

Midnight the following night Mark managed his next fish, this time weighing 28lb 7oz and one that goes by the name of “Brillo” and sadly lost another fish at around 5am that night too.  At approximately the same time the next day he landed his third of the week, “Baby Orange Spot” this time came to visit him, weighing 25lb 9oz.

This was Mark’s final fish landed of the week, a steady bit of fishing considering how that lake has fished of late.  Most of his bites had come from open water using a mixture of the ISO Fish boilie mixed with hemp, and a match the hatch ISO Fish bottom bait with a piece of pink pop-up corn used as a topper.  Well done this week Mark and hopefully see you again here soon.

In Bob’s Beach this week we had Eddy Inns, who drew ball number two before picking his swim.  Eddy set his stall out in front of him this week fishing at 23 wraps towards The Alamo opposite him.  He set about on the first night introducing 5kg of Krill boilie from the off mixed with matching liquid and rock salt and was off the mark on the first night with a fish with the unfortunate name of “The C*nt” weighing 21lb 4oz.  This was caught on a spinner rig with a match the hatch pop-up as hook bait.  

A change in tactic caught him his next fish just before first light on the Wednesday with an unrecorded capture of one of last year stockies at 18lb, which he has christened as “Rock Steady”.  This was caught on a D Rig fished with 2 grains of slow sinking maize over a boilie and hemp mixture.

The next couple of nights sore Eddy catch a fish each night on, again, another slight change of tactic.  Still using the D Rig set up but this time with a large matching bottom bait topped off with a white Scent From Hell topper.  These fish were “Rosie Pants” at 24lb 2oz and “Yellow Peril” at 22lb 8oz.  Again, another solid piece of angling on a tough week, well done Eddy.

As were a lot of the guys this week, long time visitor Jimmy Sheerin started off fishing in Pole Position, but after no action from this area by the Tuesday found himself on the move to the vacant Oblivion.

This move was certainly worth the effort as he managed two fish from this area on back-to-back days, with the first fish being caught during the early hours of the Thursday, this one being Bobby Dazzler weighing 24lb 12oz, with his next fish being a bit bigger at 38lb and goes by the name of “Le’ Wonk”.  Both of Jimmy’s fish fell to the same tactic, a match the hatch Krill bottom bait fished with a Mulbz topper, these were fished at 30 wraps towards Alcatraz and baited with around a dozen spomb’s consisting of boilie and maize.  Well done on the fish this week.

One of our old bailiff’s here at Gigantica graced us with his presence this week, Adrian “Buzz” Burrett.  Having a midway number on the draw, with ball number six he placed himself into The Stink for the week ahead.

With a nice start to the week during the early hours of Monday morning he managed himself a nice 34lb mirror that was called “Dirty Mag’s”, and this fish was caught at 31 wraps out in the direction of Baxter’s as he looked from his swim.  Despite pressing repeat and trying another rod short with the fish showing closer in no more bites came his way sadly.  Buzz is back out at the end of the year for another week so let’s hope that the carp gods shine down a little more luck then.  Good to see you again and am sure our path’s will cross again soon.

Elliott Sheerin put himself in the ever-popular Alcatraz swim after coming ball four in the draw.

Elliott kept plugging away all week with plenty of fish showing out Infront of him during the early part of the week and was rewarded for his patience in the early hours of Tuesday fishing in shorter at the spot towards The Alamo at 16.5 wraps, landing “Hammer” weighing 21lb 4oz.  This was one of our fish that we stocked last year weighing 14lb so a nice weight growth for its first year in the big pond.  It took right until the last full day for his next visitor to come along, “Blondish” weighing over 30lb for the first time at 31lb 6oz.  This one was caught fishing at range towards Big Southerly this time and both fish were caught on blow back rigs, using Wide Gape hooks and Cell bottom baits with a mulberry topper.  Elliott fed a mixture of Cell boilie and hemp during the week, baiting up with small amounts each time he baited.

We had a few other single captures last week with Lee Palin in Co’s Point landing “Double Gill” that went 36lb on the Wednesday, fishing out at 24 wraps with Cell boilies soaked in matching Stick Mix liquid and hemp seed and used a spinner rig to tempt this fish into his net.

Paul Sheerin in Big Girls left it until late in the week before he manged to catch his only fish of the week.  This one going by the name of “Taylor’s Gold” and weighed 27lb.  This was caught just off the trees near the inlet pipe from our stock ponds and was tempted to feed with Creamino boilies soaked in the matching liquid and was mixed with house maize.  A match the hatch hard hooker was used as bait.

Finally, we have Lewis Beirne who fished on the left-hand side of The Alamo, and again left it late in the week to catch his only fish of the week in the shape of “Milky Nuts” at 26lb.  Solid bag tactics cast 16 wraps towards the club house caught this fish.  Lewis used 2 slow sinking grains of corn as bait in the bag and baited with around 10 spomb’s of boilie and hemp.  He baited this spot for a couple of days prior to fishing it, to allow the fish to freely come in and graze first.

As you may have read, a lot of our smaller residents making an appearance this last week.  The temperatures have defiantly taken a plummet, and the fishing has been tough going of late.  Hopefully we will get one or two more good feed ups from the fish before winter truly hits and we get to see some of our bigger resident’s grace the angler’s nets.

Until next time, tight lines.

Gareth “Gino”.