Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 12/04/2025

Zigazig Ah

 

Saturday morning felt more like a summer’s day than a spring day with this week’s anglers being welcomed through the gate at 1pm to perfect blue sky and mid twenty degrees.  With a few days of good weather forecast this week it looked game on for fishing in the upper layers, and that is exactly where the action was going to take place this week.  Read on to find out how our guests got on this week.

 

Let’s get this catch report up and running with our only first-time guest here this week Chris Lines, who despite drawing ball number six on the draw still managed to bag himself a swim that commands a good central part of the lake in Alcatraz.

Chris began the week not having fished zigs on his fishing journey and wanted to fish and catch on his own terms, which I completely understand, but after seeing what was being caught elsewhere around the lake early on he took the step to commit one of his rods (as per the rules) to a zig and come Monday afternoon he had his first Gigantica Main Lake carp in his net.  Not a monster by Gigantica standards but a nice 18lb mirror known as “Old Water Boy” was his reward.  And from here onwards it just got better and better for Chris.  Tuesday, he went on to land a nice common of 40lb 8oz, one of fresh stockies “Mr Beast” at 11lb and “Stan” weighing 35lb.  Not a bad Tuesday’s fishing.  Sticking with the same depth but altering the colours of foam slightly Wednesday morning produced a fish known as “Ugloe” spinning the scales around to 42lb 12oz.

The last couple of days of the week carried on producing the goods for Chris on the zig.  Starting off Thursday morning with “Aristotle” weighing 40lb 8oz followed by “Skydrive” at 28lb in the afternoon and then a bite during dinner service at the club house that resulted in his biggest of the week for him, “Long Spot” at 50lb and our 86^th fish over 50lb’s for the Main Lake!

Friday did not disappoint either as his good run of nice fish continued with “Unicef” starting it off at 22lb 12oz followed by “Wrap Around” weighing 44lb 8oz and then one of our incredible original scaley mirrors that is called “Two Faces” spinning the scales around to 47lb.

20ft Zigs was the winning depth for Chris this week fishing them out long at 33 wraps and using a various range of colours starting on all blacks but also catching on black with yellow and black and reds.

Great first trip on the Main Lake with some nice fish thrown in the mix.  Well done.

 

Friend of Chris’s was regular visitor to the Big G Josh Cook, and after coming out just before Chris in the draw put himself into The Stink due to its good form the week prior.

Josh hit the ground running again on the zigs, leaving off where the angler the week before had done well on.  Starting at 18.5ft using just black foam mounted on a hair then tied to the shank of the hook with bait floss, it took his zig rod just 20 minutes of being in the water before it was away on the Saturday.  “Bobby Dazzler” was his opening fish weighing 24lb 11oz.  

Saturday was then followed by a Super Sunday for Josh.  Kicking things off just before breakfast time with “Le’ Wonk” coming in just under 40lb’s at 38lb 11oz, this one being caught as his previous fish.  Then with the daytime temperatures again being mild Josh decided to adjust his zig higher in the water layer by increasing it to 20ft and using a red zig aligner with black foam.  This then resulted into a busy afternoon and evening for him.  He went on to catch “Biscuit” at 12lb 6oz followed shortly by “Sprayders” weighing 28lb 6oz.  His daily action didn’t quite finish there, he also landed “Dicky Doos” spinning the scales around to 27lb 3oz.

It all went a little quiet after this for a few days out of The Stink.  Despite having a bad run of luck with losing a few fish in a row, one of our fresh stocked fish weighing 9lb 8oz came and visited him on the Wednesday.  This then led on to the Friday evening when Josh then managed to land firstly “Clarence” at 18lb 12oz shortly after dinner, then whilst I was still around with him in the swim another fish followed, this one being another of our original scaley warriors “The Richmond Fish” weighing 31lb 4oz.

Well done this week Josh, hit the ground running early doors and had a good strong finish to the week.

 

Ball one in the draw this week went to Rhys Richardson who wanted to seize the opportunity to fish out from Co’s Point.

Rhys, also being on of or regular visitors, spent the first couple of days playing and adjusting with his zig rod until it finally came good for him on the Monday during the evening opening his account this week with “Honky Honk” weighing 30lb.  Following on from what was working around the lake Rhys caught this on a black and red combination fished up at 24ft in 27ft of water at 26 wraps.

Tuesday morning was a red-letter day for Rhys as one of the real lookers of the lake rolled over his net cord, “Equalled” putting the weigh scales around to 49lb 4oz.  For anyone that knows or has seen this fish it’s one incredible looking fish that’s for sure.  

This time this one came to a 21ft zig, which then also produced another of our babies for him later that morning “Ched” weighing 10lb.

Rhys final bit of the action came the very next day on the Wednesday when his only bite of the day resulted in him landing “Life of Brian” at 26lb again back to the 24ft zig for this one.

Well done again this week Rhys, hopefully see you back here soon.

 

Scott Hesling was back with us this week and after having a good draw on the balls put himself into the swim that was top rod the previous week Big Girls.

Just like with Josh it didn’t take him long to start getting amongst the fish in here.  Opening his tally of fish with one of our freshly stocked fish on the Sunday morning but then waiting until the Tuesday to land “The Clash” weighing 32lb 4oz.  These two captures were taken from the 21 wrap spot out in front of our outlet pipe from our stock pond along the tree line.

Scott went on to land three fish on the Wednesday, again another two of our fresh babies followed by “Pepa” weighing 26lb 4oz, this one coming again from the same spot with the two smaller ones being caught from 11 wraps towards the corner of the lake to his left from the swim.

Wednesday night into Thursday was a little hectic for a bit for him.  Landing three in quick succession with another one in the early hours making it four fish that night for Scott.  These fish that came his way were “Pretty Little Thing” 26lb 12oz, one of our stockies from 2023 that needs naming at 24lb 2oz, “Lauren’s Lips” 26lb 8oz and finally “Apostrophe” coming in at 34lb on the nose.  Not a bad night’s fishing at all!  The three smaller ones of this haul came from his left and rod towards the corner and the larger of the catches coming again from the 21-wrap spot along the tree line.

Scott had targeted himself a 40lb fish before the end of the week, with Big Girls being known to produce a fair number of the smaller fish in the lake generally this target was achieved by him on the final morning, landing “PollPits” at 45lb 4oz and this was also backed up with “Ziggy” weighing 26lb 8oz.  Ziggy came from the 21-wrap spot and Scott’s largest of the week was caught at the 11-wrap area towards the corner of the lake.  Eleven fish this week for Scott plus a few loses it was a good bit of action for him.

Scott stuck with fishing on the deck, which is the right thing to do this time of year in the corner swims and used just two rods for most of the week, keeping the number of lines in the corner to a minimum.  Spinner rigs was Scott’s go to approach, fished with our Gigantica Isotonic special pop-ups.  Scott never baited heavily, instead chose to bait up with just a few scoops each time from the bank of Cell boilie, hemp and corn with Cell Smart Liquid to give it that little extra boost.

Well done Scott, see you again in May.

 

After pulling number ten out of the hat this week Paul Carpenter put his name down to fish from Scottie’s Corner for the week ahead.  Paul, again being a regular, knew exactly how to approach this swim from the off.  Again, like Scott stuck to using just the two rods in here, keeping lines to a minimum.  Due to the zigs producing a few fish already at the start of the week, Paul fished a zig out in open water to his left and had a solid bag out at the 18 wrap to start off with.  He also kept a little amount of hemp and corn, with a little bit of boilie trickling in along his tree margin to the right.  Now he never wetted a line in this direction until after dinner on the Monday and within 10 minutes of this being there he was away and landed his first of the week, “Brillo” at 30lb’s getting him underway. 

At the first light the following morning and then again just before breakfast time Paul went on to have two more bites from this spot.  “IBC” weighing 32lb and then one of our original characters of the lake came and paid Paul a visit, “Mr Chow” spinning the scales around to 50lb 2oz.  This turned out to also be the biggest fish of the week that came out of the lake.  After this the rest of the week would see the water getting clearer in this corner of the lake, a good indication that the fish weren’t quite in there feeding in numbers.  You can very often tell when they are as the water in front of the swim merks up in colour.

Paul fished short stiff spinner rigs from the Hybrid material and presented this with two grains of slow sinking IB corn for bait.  

Well done on the fish you caught this week, again hopefully see you soon.

 

Plotted up in Bob’s Beach this week we had ‘Jez’ Westgarthwho like most of the anglers this week got straight on with a zig on one of his rods.

Jez worked the zig rod hard all week and was rewarded early on the Tuesday with “Paraody” weighing 43lb 10oz, caught on a 21ft zig out towards The Alamo as you look from his swim at 100yds on a black and brown colour combination piece of foam.

Jez followed this up the following day on the Wednesday around lunchtime with the lovely looking “Twin Moon” at 26lb, again falling to the zig tactic as the day before.

Friday produced the pic of the bunch and his biggest of the week in the shape of “Wipe Out” weighing 48lb, and as before also on the zig rod but this time a little adjustment to the depth being fished at 20ft off the deck.

As I mentioned above Jez really did work the zigs and his swim hard all week, and the results showed his work level, well done.

Great company is Jez (as everyone was this week), we look forward to you returning in the future.

 

Chris Clarke graced us with his presence for a second week in a row, and after pulling ball two from the hat went into his favourite swim Big Southerly.

Chris was determined to catch the fish this week on his own terms of fishing on the deck all week, which he stuck to and was rewarded with his efforts on Monday morning when he landed “The Poacher” weighing 25lb from along his left-hand margin on a solid bag approach baited with pellet.  

Chris kept plugging away at “the long spot” from Big Southerly and had to wait until the Wednesday when he landed “4 Scale” at 32lb 6oz again on his solid bag tactic with feed consisting of pellet and boilie, both whole and crumbed.

That was the action done this week for Chris.  Always a pleasure to have you here at the Big G, see you shortly for your next trip.

 

All the way from North Wales returning for another go at Gigantica was Tom Burns and after initially setting up in Baxter’s Hole soon found himself on the move to Pole Position after numerous fish had been showing in this part of the lake.

Following everyone else a zig was deployed out at 20ft long straight off the lead on a black and red combination hook bait and this led to his first fish of the week on the Tuesday morning, “Wizza” spinning the scales around to 37lb 14oz.  

One more fish came Tom’s way on the Thursday evening just before dark, this time landing “Pumped” weighing 26lb and again falling to a zig approach.

Both fish came for him from range out in the direction of The Stink from his swim.

Well done Tom, good to have seen you again (Tackle Temple, if anyone from Wrexham way is after fishing tackle from that area)

 

John Paterson fished from Tree Line and went on to land a couple of fish this week.  Starting his action off on the Tuesday with “Solid Scales”, another very nice-looking carp, weighing 29lb 8oz and then landing his second carp of the trip on the Thursday with “Rosie Pants” coming in at 25lb.

Both fish came to a slip D rig approach fished with bottom baits and running lead clips from further along the treeline at around 26 wraps.

Well done this week John, I hope the new home hunting goes well for you.

 

Lastly to get amongst some action this week we had returning to the Main Lake David Mansell and his partner set up in Oblivion.

David managed to land his only fish of the week early on the Sunday evening, again on a zig fished out at range in front of him on a piece of black foam.  This fish turned out to be an uncaught stockie of 29lb 12oz, which is now called “Pearl”.

David tried hard all week, fishing close in on the deck with small traps of bait and roamed the zig around but to no further action.

Nice to see you both again, hope you had a safe journey home.

 

That’s it for another week on the Main Lake, 49 fish landed and a dozen lost during the week.  A great week in both the anglers and the number of fish landed.  Well done all.

And finally, the tidiest bivvy of the week award goes to Jamie “Skippy” Woodman.

 

Until next time

Gareth “Gino”