Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 16/08/2025

Week of The Leathers

First in line this week we have Pierre who was fishing Bob’s Beach. Starting off with just straight fishmeal boilie in 20mm, Pierre was putting this out with a throwing stick covering a large area and putting his rigs out at 18 wraps towards The Alamo fishing match the hatch bottom baits on combi rigs. It was a tricky start to the week with the fish showing in numbers during the night and early hours of the morning and it wasn’t until first light Wednesday morning Pierre got his first bite, and what a carp it was ‘Two Time’ at 68lb 8oz. This turned out to be Pierre’s only fish of the week but who wouldn’t be happy with that being one of the A Team. 

Over in Oblivion we had regular Paul Carpenter, who got a late draw but was happy in Oblivion. Starting off fishing 26 wraps towards Bob’s Beach, the go to spot of late, Paul gave them a good hit of bait to start off with going in with a whole bucket of maize and boilie and started off fishing 3 spinners over the top each tipped with different colours but finding white was producing more bites. Paul was soon off the mark on Sunday afternoon and like Pierre, it was one of the A Team with ‘Shoulders’ at 67lb 4oz coming off a white tipped snowman bottom bait and a new personal best for Paul. After a couple of slower days and watching the fish show over his spot Paul switched one rod over to a solid bag and started to catch again. Using pellet and having two pieces of slow sinking maize in white and yellow on his rig, Paul went on to catch 5 more fish including ‘Cold Common’ at 33lb, ‘Pineapple Vintage’ at 31lb 10oz, ‘Luxembourg’ at 38lb and ‘Fight Club’ at 41lb all coming on to his solid bags after swapping all 3 rods over. Paul was getting all his bites during the daytime all the way up to last light after baiting up after breakfast and topping the spot up after each bite. 

Jonas was in Co’s Point this week for his first trip with us and after a good lead around and letting the fish show him where they were, Jonas settled on 19 wraps towards the tits fishing straight fishmeal boilie. It was a slow first couple of days in Co’s but come Wednesday at first light Jonas had something very special in his net, ‘Spotty Leather’ and smashing his PB at 67lb 12oz. It then slowed up again for Jonas, that was until the final morning, again at first light, it was another leather in his net and with not many in Gigantica it was something special to have managed two of them, and this one was known simply as ‘The Leather’ at 49lb 4oz what an end to the trip. Jonas was putting out straight fishmeal boilie some via the spomb but also putting more of a spread out with his throwing stick and was another catching them on white tipped baits. 

Long term visitor and friends of Gigantica Ben Oakes and Jemma, joined us in Alcatraz this week and after a bad draw was thrilled to get into Alcatraz, especially after a brilliant session in there a few weeks back. Going with what he knew from his previous session, Ben fished 32 wraps to the right of Big Southerly going in with a good hit of house hemp and boilie. It was another slow start in Alcatraz but that changed come Wednesday where Ben had a daytime bite landing ‘Clarence’ at 20lb and it just seemed to switch on for Ben from there, going on to land several fish both in the daylight and nighttime. Ben ended his week on 9 fish including ‘The Almost Nude Fish’ at 39lb 8oz another one of our leathers, ‘The Upfront Common’ at 49lb, ‘Sammy’ at 45lb 2oz, ending his trip with an incredible brace of commons with ‘Lennie’s’ at 52lb 4oz and ‘Lashes’ at 62lb 8oz. 

Another regular joined us this week, Tom Burns who started the week doubled up with his mate in The Alamo but ended up with the swim to himself after he moved out. Tom spent the week fishing spinners over a bed of fishmeal boilie putting a good hit out at the start of the week, starting off with around 10kg and topping it up daily going 15 wraps towards the clubhouse and 26 to the left of Bob’s Beach. Tom was the first off the mark this week when he landed ‘Fight Club’ for the first time at 41lb but the swim seemed to slow up after that until Friday when he managed another two having ‘Little Smithy’ at 26lb 2oz and ‘Two Scales’ at 50lb 10oz coming off his long spot. Tom then went on to round his trip off with ‘The Slime’ at 26lb on the final morning.

Across the pond in Baxter’s Hole we had Phillipp Romweberwho started the week fishing shorter going 29 wraps towards The Stink and 11 down to his right but after a couple of days of seeing them show longer in his water pushed out to 26 wraps to the right of the red tower and after doing so put a hit of 8kg of fishmeal and cream based boilie out which seemed to do the trick come Wednesday when he got himself off the mark landing ‘Baby Brutus’ at 48lb. Phillipp then went on to land two more fish during the nights later in the week having two upper 30’s ending his week on 3 fish. 

Last up this week is Nico Brocher who came out 11^th this week and chose to go in Tree Line. Nico chose to fish the open water in the swim and was only going to target the tree line if he saw activity in there. Going 25 wraps at The Stink, Nico started off with 8-10kg of a mixture of fishmeal and a cream-based boilie and fished combi rigs with match the hatch bottom baits on each tipped with white. Nico was into his first fish at first light on Tuesday where he managed to land one of the original scalies known as ‘Humpy’ at 49lb an incredible looking carp. Unfortunately, that was it for this trip for Nico but we look forward to your next holiday with us. 

Tight Lines,

Greg,

Team Gigantica.