Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 09/08/2025

Old Skool Catapulting

 

A lake full of familiar faces joined us this week here on the Main Lake of Gigantica, and with the temperatures forecast to hit over 40 degrees midweek let’s see if the lads can match what the CarpFix group managed the previous week.

 

Let’s kick things off with Andy Reynolds who is by no means a newbie to this lake having fished here many times over the years.  No matter where Andy fished on this complex, he will always adopt his tried and tested method of fishing, over the years his rigs have hardly changed and nor has his approach to every swim he fishes.

Andy opted to fish from Alcatraz at the beginning of the draw, but after one of the other anglers deciding to switch from Big Southerly to another vacant swim, he soon changed his mind and settled on the move to Big Southerly.

From the off Andy kept to his tactic of fishing only catapult range and decided to spread all three rods out in front of him at the same range of 15 wraps and chose to put in approx. 6kg of 20mm boilies to start with and having the aim to top up each spot after any action with a handful of boilies each time.

And action it was in this swim throughout the week! Kicking off the action on the very first morning with a small stockie of 14lb 4oz it was a nice start and a bend in the rod, and an indication that his approach was working.

But it was late morning on the Tuesday when things started to get more interesting when he landed a lovely common named ‘Tank’ at 52lb 8oz.  

Wednesday turned out to be a very productive day in this swim, starting off late morning with ‘Fight Club’ at a very spawned out weight of 40lb 2oz, followed with ‘Baby Chocco’ at 2oz heavier, 40lb 4oz.  Could it get any better than a near brace of 40lb’ers?  Well I had got as far as Scotties Corner before he was away again.  This time putting the net under ‘Long Leave’ weighing in at 28lb 8oz.  Not a bad way to spend your Wednesday, certainly better than being at work.

A fish a day followed on, again similar times to the bites he had been receiving.  This being mainly mid-morning through to just after lunch time.  And it was spot on for both Thursday and Friday.

Firstly on the Thursday Andy caught the incredible ‘Paw Print’ at 54lb and then the very next day he caught another super looking carp in the shape of ‘Chop Dorsal’ just shy of a top weight at 53lb 4oz.  Almost made it onto our club house wall.

What an incredible selection of carp he caught throughout the week.  Sticking to his tried and tested N-Trap coated D rigs tied onto size 4 Kurv Shank hooks connected to a lead clip set up, and like I said not a Spomb or spod in sight in his swim.  Hook-baits where match the hatch boilies as what he was feeding, apart from they were corked out slightly with 8mm cork just to make the boilie sit around and up slightly.  Simple, easy and classic tactics working so well for him.  Very well done this week, incredible! 

He's back in October, no doubt using the same tactics and approach so I’m sure we will all be reading about him again then on a catch report.

 

Moving along the bank to one of the swims next door we had David Hogan opting fishing from Scottie’s Corner after having a good ball during the draw.

It was Sunday through to Monday morning when he started to get some action his way.  Opening up his account with a couple of smaller fish, 19lb 8oz and 21lb but the fish where there in his swim in number so it was just a matter of time before more and bigger fish would come his way.  And it was indeed that same day after lunchtime when a better one did come his way in the shape of ‘Chavvy’ just shy of 40lb’s weighing dead on 39lb.  These fish where caught on a solid bag approach fished out in open water in front of him around 10-12 wraps with a scattering of boilie in the area baited with the catapult.

Just before coming around to dinner that evening, David decided to put a little boilie and hemp in on his right-hand marginal spot at 8 ½ wraps and then upon inspecting this spot on his way back he could see that all the bait had been cleared up.  Getting a rod out on the spot was a no brainer and it really wasn’t long after that he was into battle with a carp.  Around 7pm I received a phone call from him letting me know he had a good’un in the net, and that it was!

Not taking long to identify the carp it was a rare one too.  Not having been caught since August 2022 it was ‘The Virgin’ that was sat in his net.  Now David then informed me that he always wanted a 50lb common and I said to him back that he might have to wait a bit longer for that as I guessed it to be over 60lb.  And it was!  61lb to be exact and this is the first time this carp has gone over 60.  What a beast of a common it is.  

This carp was caught on his Multi Combi rig tactic fished onto a Hybrid lead clip and baited with a matching bottom bait and an orange topper for added attraction.

At first light on the Friday David managed another bite from this spot, 42lb 12oz this one went and goes by the name of ‘Storm’, this was caught on the same set up as before.  

David managed one more fish during the week, at 25lb.

All in all, a very steady and good week he had from this corner peg, topped off with landing The Virgin at a new top weight will stick in his memory for many years I’m sure.

Well done David, hopefully see you soon back here at the Big G.

 

The last of the trio of anglers that went in with the catapult tactic this week was Phil Newman who selected to fish from The Stink during his stay with us.

Phil started out fishing just under 23 wraps but after numerous shows short and his friend Andy catching well short, these carp just couldn’t be ignored.  So dropping his range rods back to 14 wraps made sense and began to work for him straight away.  Using almost the same bait as Andy and same match the hatch hook-bait approach it was later that day on the Wednesday (around 2:45pm) when he landed a lovely 44lb 8oz common.  A great opener!

Sticking with the tactics two bites came in quick succession for him the next day.  At almost the same time, 2pm, Phil landed ‘J1R’ weighing 31lb 10oz and after doing the photos and just having a chat about his approach his rod was away again.  Another 30lb’er, ‘The Duke’ at 32lb 14oz.

A change in tactics mid-week changed Phil’s fortunes this week, and as I have mentioned the boilie approach with a catapult and match the hatch hook baits mounted to IQ D rigs and size 4 Kurv hooks working well for him.

Well done Phil, pleasure as always having you here.

 

Another angler that made a few adjustments mid-week that led to some bites was Dave Martin right next door in The Alamo.

This time doing the opposite to Phil really.  Having started fishing short, as the fish were showing in this area, nothing was coming his way.  And after a chat on the Wednesday, I pointed out a night firm clear area out of the swim at 26 wraps to the left of Bob’s Beach in the opening of the tree line.  Having some doubts about fishing it accurately at that range I reassured him that he will be fine.  Dave managed this and was rewarded soon after when on the very next morning’s breakfast run he had a fish wallowing around on the surface in front of him, so I got into the swim and aided him in netting it for him.  35lb 14oz was his reward and a fish called ‘Wizza’.

I had only just made it back to the club house when Dave called me again to say he had his second fish in the net.  Similar weight to the last at 34lb 6oz and called ‘Gale’.  First time over 30lb’s this one!

A nice change in fortune and a brace of 30’s to get the blood pumping.

After a quiet Friday it was whilst packing away on the Saturday morning that this spot produced another bite for him.  With the rods off the rests and laying on the unhooking mat Dave noticed his line pulling up tight and he was into another carp.  A lovely common lay in his net and his biggest of the week.  ‘Potsey’ weighing 41lb was his last minute reward.

Cell boilies with toppers was his go to tactic to tempt these fish to feed, fishing them on Multi Combi rigs and size 6 wide gapes, with around 20 spombs on the spot of just boilie.

Well done Dave on your fish this week.

 

Regular Chris Irving visited us again this week and put himself into Baxter’s Corner.  A tough week lay ahead for Chris, but he battled on and stuck with fishing one of his rods into the right-hand marginal corner at just over 12 wraps.  Fishing this spot ‘washing line style’ proved the winning formula in here.  

Early in the week on the Sunday evening he managed to slip the net under ‘Tyson’ at 31lb.   Despite trying a number of different tactics in open water it was his marginal rod again that produced his only other fish of the week on Thursday not long after dinner, this time at 38lb 4oz and named ‘MK’.

Baiting with boilie and hemp on the spot kept the fish visiting the corner, and Chris set up with an “old skool” Super Natural braided hook link and a size 4 Krank hook with a match the hatch boilie on the end.

Well done on the fish, and we will see you again in a couple of week’s.

 

Fishing up in Tree Line this week was Shane Hull, who after managing a fish on the first day just over 30lb at 30lb 2oz again had a frustrating time, again with fairly regular carp traffic in the area.  But it was also the Thursday when he caught his next carp ‘Uncle G’ at 36lb.  A repeat capture for Shane and from the same swim.

Another smaller stockie came his way on the last night, but this was all the action that he managed.  

With the aid of a baiting pole to allow him to get his rig tight under the trees at the 21 wrap spot hole produced his first fish, but later in the week he decided to drop the bait just out a little bit off the shelf into slightly deeper water.  This is what produced his next two carp.

Well done again, and no doubt see you again soon.

 

All the way from Germany we had angler Axl who fished hard in Big Girls all week and manged 5 fish in total all in the 20lb bracket and all coming from down his left-hand margin out at 11 wraps.

A tough week in here but well done Axl.

 

A couple more anglers who got into the action early in the week catching a single carp each was Jordan Webster fishing from Co’s Point where he landed a nice 36lb common on the first morning.  Jordan fished out towards the ‘tits’ at 29 wraps during the week.

Lastly was Paul who fished in Stock Pond and again on the first morning landed a 21lb mirror caught from just out at 17 ¾ wraps towards the far-right hand corner.

Well done guy’s.

 

And that’s a wrap for another week.  Some absolutely stunning fish out this week, Andy certainly having the pick of the bunch and David with The Virgin was certainly the main highlights of the week.

Well done everyone this week.

 

Tight Lines

Gareth “Gino”