Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 30/08/2025

My Lucky Slippers

 

With the Main Lake having fished steadily over the last couple of weeks, not producing big numbers of fish but a good average size of fish, was this trend due to carry on through this week as well?  Read on to find out.

 

Let’s kick this report off with regular customer Chris Irving, who after drawing out ball number two could not resist the opportunity to fish from Co’s Point once more.

Deciding to go against the anglers approach the previous week, Chris placed his baited rigs out at 18 wraps into an area he had done well from previously from the same swim.  These were spread from the “Tit’s” to the “Flat Oaks” and the area was baited to start with a mixture of sized fish meal boilies, and later during the session Chris also added lots of hemp into the area as well.

Chris didn’t hang around and caught steadily all week and kicked things off on the Sunday morning with ‘Scratches’ weighing 53lb and this was followed by ‘Jason’s’ which went 37lb 2oz.  That will do for a first morning brace.  And this pattern was to continue all week!

Monday resulted in an even better brace when coming around and looking at what he had caught was very quickly identified as ‘Baby Cluster’, one of our old A Team weighing 68lb on this occasion, and this was backed up with ‘Uncle G’ at 36lb 8oz.

On Wednesday a quartet of carp came his way, these resulted in being ‘Septimus’ at 50lb 8oz, ‘Alfred’ weighing 40lb 4oz, ‘Ava’ being 34lb 4oz and finally ‘Phil” (an old original scaley) putting the scales to 39lb 8oz.

‘Buttercorn’ was Chris’s reward on the Thursday, this time at a new top weight as well weighing 53lb 4oz.  It’s a really nice carp that one and looked amazing in the morning sunshine.

But then he went on to save the best until last, where he started Friday out with one of the most sought-after carp in the lake…….’Target’ and came in just shy of the 70lb bracket at 69lb 8oz.  An amazing start to the day.

Following on from this great start Chris went on to also land ‘Wrap Around’ at 43lb 4oz, ‘Potsey’ at 44lb 8oz, ‘Humpy Common’ weighing 35lb 4oz and to finish it off ‘Buzz’s Half Linear’ at 46lb!

As you can see a very impressive haul of carp landed by going against the grain and doing his own thing.

As I have mentioned Chris used a mixture of sizes of a fish meal boilie and introduced large amounts of hemp as well to keep the carp interested in the spots and grubbing around for more.  

Rigs were also straight forward, N-Trap hook lengths tied knotless knot straight to a Krank hook with no tubing, rings or other rig components and these were connected to a lead clip arrangement.

Chris put his captures down to his newly acquired “Lucky Slippers”, or was it just good angling?

Very well done, Chris is on for another week so let’s see if his form continues next week.

 

First time visitor Andy Chandler plotted up into Baxter’s Hole and like Chris hit the ground running from the first night.

Again, doing something a little different and started out fishing the peg short at just 16 wraps he went on to land three carp in his first night on the lake, these fish weighed 36lb 4oz, 32lb 8oz and 45lb 12oz.  A great way to open your account on the Big G.

And after a re-adjust of his spot and moving out to 20 wraps towards Alamo he landed a brace of carp on both the Monday and Tuesday nights.  Monday’s fish resulted in carp weighing 42lb 6oz and then followed by one at 27lb.

Tuesday evening, around 9pm Andy landed his biggest fish of the week in the shape of ‘Terminator’ that weighed in at 55lb 14oz.  An incredibly clean common this one is.

This was then later backed up in the night by another carp of 27lb.

Andy just concentrated on an out and out boilie only approach, and this consisted of the ISO Fish boilie from Mainline covered in the Smart Liquid.  Match the hatch hook baits doing the business on the rigs.

Great way to start on your very first visit to Gigantica, well done this week.

 

Over in The Alamo this week, after drawing ball umber one, we had angler Rob Russell.  Again, a first-time visitor to the Big G.

After losing a fish on the first night, this didn’t stop Rob from going about his angling for the rest of the week.  When on the Monday evening after dinner he notified me that he hand landed his first fish.  Not a giant of the lake but very welcomed all the same, ‘The Old Water Boy’ weighing 21lb 12oz, first time over 20lb for this fish as well.

Whilst wrapping up the photos of this one, another of his rods burst into life, and after a battle with a big bed of weed we managed to scoop the weed and the fish into the waiting landing net.  31lb this time around and called ‘Clueless’, not been out since 2022 and jumped up from a double figure fish to over 30lb’s.

His first bite came from just 10 wraps down his left-hand edge after seeing fish show in this area and the second was from 17 wraps out towards the club house as he looked.

Then it was almost a bite a day after this.  The early hours of Tuesday he had called me to inform me that a good fish was in his net and after weighing in at 65lb 4oz it was indeed a good fish.  It was later identified as ‘The Clean Fish’.  Not quite a PB but still a good original fish.

Wednesday evening a stockie came his way weighing 21lb 8oz and was christened ‘Cub 28’ and this one looks set to go onto big weights having only been stocked in the December at just over 10lb.

Thursday evening came Rob’s final piece of the action in the shape of a lovely 36lb common after introducing around 20 Spombs of bait.

Rob also took a boilie only approach, again in the form of the ISO Fish boilies, and his hook baits were the match the hatch hard hook baits fished on a loops and boom rig set up with Wide Gape hooks set up blow back style and fished onto lead clips.

Well done on the fish Rob.

 

Terry Watts, also a newby to the venue, went into fish from Oblivion this week and found himself also fishing a little short than the spot that had been doing the bites over the previous couple of weeks, and set his stall out at 15 wraps towards Baxrter’s Hole from the swim.

His first fish came to him on the Sunday afternoon where he went on to land ‘Dirty Mag’s’ weighing 33lb.  A nice carp to start with from a new lake.

This was then backed up just before dinner on the Monday when Terry landed one of our original scaley fish in the shape of ‘Chop Dorsal’ that went on to weigh 51lb 8oz and a new PB for him as well!

Terry then sat through a few quiet days, but at the end of the week went on to land another fish of 25lb and goes by the name of ‘Bucket Trick’.

Also concentrating his efforts to a mainly boilie approach and the ISO Fish boilie from Mainline doing the business in helping him to tempt these carp into feeding.

Well done this week Terry.

 

Fishing from Bob’s Beach this week was another new angler for us Rich.

Rich began the week concentrating his efforts at the ever popular 18 wrap zone out in the direction of The Alamo.  And managed to land a fish on his first night from here weighing 35lb 8oz and then followed this one up with ‘Smacker’s’ weighing 24lb 12oz from this same spot on the Tuesday morning.

After this Rich took the decision to push his rods out a little further, as this is where he had seen most of the activity. Keeping his lines in the same direction he pushed them out to 25 wraps and on the Wednesday night he was rewarded with a nice 41lb’er and then at first light on the next day landed a lovely 29lb 12oz mirror.

Baiting the zones with a mixture of boilie, hemp, maize and pellet kept the action flowing steadily.  His rigs comprised of ISO Fish match the hatch boilies mounted onto the Loops and Booms rig set up with Krank hooks and connected to a lead clip setup.

Another great first time here at the Big G, well done Rich on the fishing.

 

Nathan Bootle fished from Stock Pond this week and his target, along with his Neighbour ‘Baz’, was to just catch one Gigantica carp a piece.  

Well it didn’t take Nathan long as he opened his account on the very first night with a lovely mirror weighing 29lb caught from a small gap in the weed out at 25 wraps towards Oblivion.  Despite sticking with this spot he made a change midweek and dropped it back, again on the same line direction, to 17 ½ wraps.  He was then rewarded on the Wednesday night with his next Gigantica fish of similar weight, 29lb 8oz.

Then leaving it to the very final 24 hours, Nathan went on to land two much better fish.  Firstly ‘Bratwurst’ at 39lb and then on the final night landing a near 50lb’er in the shape of “Tiger Fish’ at 49lb 12oz.  

Very well done at the end there Nathan.  

During the week he had introduced a mixture of boilie, pellet and hemp to entice the fish to feed.

 

Next door to Nathan we had angler Barry ‘Baz’ Goddardwho was fishing from Pole Position.  And as already mentioned above, his goal was also aimed at catching just one fish from the Big G for his first time visit.

And again, this box was ticked off quite early in the week.  During the Sunday night, and an absolute downpour of rain Baz managed to land his first fish in the shape of a nice 32lb common.  He was certainly made up with this achievement all week.

This fish was then backed up the very next day when he managed to land ‘Coffee Time’ at 20lb, this time in the dry and during the daytime.

Baz was baiting with boilies, hemp and pellet as well and fished all his rods out in the direction of The Alamo at 17 ½ wraps, an area that has done a fair number of bites lately.

Well done on your visit to us, we hope to see you again in the future.

 

An angler who is just getting back into his fishing, and said to me his fishing bug is truly back now after a couple of years away from the sport was Nick Turry.  Nick had drawn ball number six and found himself fishing from Alcatraz.

Nick did manage to sadly lose a fish on the opening night due to weed, and even I’m sure he would agree with me after this event his head had dropped a little.  But after spending sometime in the swim with him, adjusting a few bits here and there and a little help getting his rods out and baiting up with him he managed a couple of carp along the way.  

First off with TM1 weighing 24lb, this is a lovely looking linear, which is was more than pleased to have caught.

Later that evening not long after dark I heard his alarm sound, and I went to check in on him and after a torrid battle in the weed Nick finally managed to land another fish.  

It looked a decent one to me as well as it slipped into the net and after weighing it it went 49lb 14oz!  I truly would have loved for it to have been a 50lb’er but it was a needles thickness away from it on the scales.  Nick really didn’t mind, and it was identified as a carp called K.C.

Nick’s fish came from 28 wraps out in the direction of the slit in the treeline to the left of Stink.  Here he baited with boilie, hemp and a little maize with the added extra of ISO Fish Smart Liquid to compliment the boilies he was feeding.  N-Tap hook lengths and Krank hooks was nicks go to for the week, along with match the hatch boilies and a yellow topper to mimic the maize he was also feeding.

Very well done Nick, keep going and get back into the flow of your fishing and hopefully we will see you back here in the future.

 

Another regular this week was the return of Chirs Clarke, another angler that is on a back-to-back trip with us.

Chris hasn’t had a lot of luck in the draws this year and this form continued with ball 11!  From this he found himself pitched up in Tree Line.  Also off the mark on the first day, Chris found himself with ‘Sweeny Todd’ weighing 31lb as his early prize, caught from 23 wraps out towards Stink.

Pushing his rods out further on this same direction out to 28 wraps produced ‘Baby Gray’ for him weighing 30lb 2oz and then late on in the trip with ‘Maddie’ weighing 36lb 8oz.

Chris used his go to tactic of solid bags of small pellets and a dumbbell wafter for hook bait.  Free offerings came in the form of fish meal boilies and good amounts of hemp.

Fingers crossed for the draw for you next week Chris.

 

Dave Howard, also a first time visitor, started off the week in Scotties Corner where it looked prime at the start of the week, but after little action or sign of fish he was kindly given the chance on the Thursday to double up in The Alamo for the remainder of the week.  

And what a move this turned out to be, when on the last day he went on to land one of the original fish from here, ‘White Lines’ just scrapping the scales around to 50lb.  He was so made up with this capture, just one fish can completely change your week here at Gigantica.

Well done Dave, glad it came good in the end for yourself.

 

The last of the trio of anglers on a back-to-back session on the Main Lake was another regular Andy Lewis.

Andy kicked off his week fishing in Big Southerly but at the end of the week after not seeing anything of inspiration made the move into the vacant Big Girls.

It was at first light on the first day in his new swim that he landed a nice 23lb mirror fishing out at the 21 wraps spot towards the outlet pipe from our stock pond that he caught this one.  Baiting the area with a small amount of feed comprising of hemp and boilie.

It was a similar story the next morning, when he managed to land ‘Looking Busy’ at 32lb.

Rig wise, Andy fished a snowman presentation of a match the hatch bottom bait and a pink squid topper for added pulling power.

Fingers crossed for next week for you Andy, and I will catch up with you again in October upon your return.

 

Lastly this week another regular Gavin Middlebrook joined us and fished from The Stink.

Gavin was another angler to catch on the very first night where he landed an old character in the shape of ‘Bite Mark’.

Gavin kept active and was again rewarded on the Tuesday when he landed ‘Poppy’ at 24lb.

He caught both of these fish from 26 wraps in the direction of Baxter’s Hole from his swim and used ½ a match the hatch wafter with a pink piece of maize on top as his attractor and baited the spot with a good amount of boilie throughout the week.

Well done Gavin.

 

Well that’s it for another week, a better number of carp caught (over 40) and still fish of good sizes being caught around the lake.  On conclusion it looks like the boilie and hemp approach is still working very well with match the hatch hook baits on the deck also picking out the good fish.

 

Until next time, tight lines

Gareth “Gino”