Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 06/12/2025

Co’s Masterclass

Let’s get straight into this catch report, with regular visitor here at Gigantica, Dan Coles.  Dan being no stranger to the lake positioned himself straight into Co’s Point and got straight into the action on the first night landing ‘Good Year’ at 25lb 8oz.  

The action came thick and fast for him throughout the Sunday, landing a further five more fish with them all being of a smaller stamp of fish ranging between 17 and 23lb.  

And this is kind of set the tone for the rest of the week for him.  Monday would see Dan land another seven fish, and a slightly better average size between them.  Going from 28 to 48lb, with the pick of the bunch being ‘Only Cans’ at 48lb 8oz, ‘4 Scale’ weighing 39lb 12oz, ‘Brownie’ 38lb and ‘Clueless’ coming in at 36lb.

Actioned quietened a little for the next couple of days, Tuesday produced four fish, ‘Tarka’ at 34lb 12oz, ‘Big Tits’ and ‘Rice Pudding’ both coming in at 35lb 8oz and topped off with ‘Long Spot’ weighing 58lb.

Wednesday would see two bites, landing ‘Bionic’ at 23lb whilst suffering a hook pull on his other take.

Thursday Dan managed to land another nice common in the form of ‘The Windy Common’ equalling his biggest of the week again at 58lb.  This was also backed up with a 25lb’er.

Dan ended his incredible tally of fish with ‘Mrs Browne’ weighing 31lb 12oz.

A total of 23 fish for the week was very good going considering how it has fished of late.  

A mixture of spinner rigs and multi combi rigs kept the fish coming to the net during the week and also hook bait wise again a mixture of pop ups and wafters in various flavours doing the business for him.  No single hook bait stood out over anything else, just good tidy and accurate fishing was the key.

The bait mixture was very typical for winter fishing here at the G, corn, hemp and mix of two different small 12mm boilies (fishy and nutty) keeping the fish grubbing.  Dan wasn’t shy in using the bait baiting with a small bucket worth each day, but when the fish are there and feeding you need to keep them coming back for more.

Well done this week, see you back here in February.

Keeping over that side of the lake, let’s move on to Big Southerlyand Nathan Jose.

After a blank few days it wasn’t until the Tuesday that Nathan began to get amongst some fish, opening his account with ‘KonKave’ at 36lb and ‘Shawshank’ at 26lb.   A nice brace of fish, whilst the lake had been tough going as mentioned above.

Another bite and again on of our stockies came Nathan’s way on the Thursday with ‘Hugo’ at 27lb.  This fish got stocked 12 months prior to this at just 10lb!  It looks and has the frame of The Dustbin, so certainly one to look out for in the future I feel.

But saving the best until last ‘Fluey’ came his way on the very final night, weighing an incredible 52lb 8oz.  That certainly makes the trip home that much nicer with a 50lb’er under your belt on the final morning.

All of Nathan’s fish came at 25 ½ wraps fished out towards ‘The Hump’ just to the left of Alcatraz as you look from Big Southerly. Pineapple and Isotonic little yellow pop ups producing the bites and Spinner rigs made from Boom and size 2 Kranks bringing the fish to the net.  These were presented on a lead clip arrangement.

Free offerings came in the form of again a very popular winter mix here, 10mm Cell, Essential Cell and ISO Fish boilie (some whole and some crumbed) combined with hemp oil and Cell Smart Liquid.

Well done Nathan on your captures.

Moving to the next swim and The Stink we had a friend of Nathans, Luke ‘The Clip’ Willis.  

As with some of the other lads, Luke waited until the Tuesday before having a bite and after having an escapee from the sling (always secure with the provided clips) we managed to get pictures at his second attempt of ‘Blind Side’ at 26lb.  A real rare visitor to the bank this one, not being recorded since 2021 and only three previous captures on record.

But after learning all about the clips on the slings, Luke managed a brace of fish the following day, ‘Patch Lin’ at 31lb and a lovely 46lb common for good measure.

All of Luke’s bites came from 21 wraps fished towards Bob’s Beach, where he positioned Multi Combi rigs made from Boom and Slip D braid with size 4 Kranks, these were then baited with Cell bottom baits and pink squid toppers.  After each bite Luke would top up his spot with 6 Spomb’s of free offerings in the form of Cell and Essential cell 10mm boilies, again some whole and some crushed.

Well done Luke, and thanks for the great banter all week long.

Again keeping that side of the lake and into The Alamo was another regular visitor, Jan Pirzkall.  Jan baited fairly heavily with 30 Spomb’s of bait made up of 1/3 Hemp, 1/3 Pellet and 1/3 of his own boilie.  This was put out at 31 wraps to the left of Bob’s Beach in the gap in the tree line opposite.

Leaving it to the back end of the week and the Wednesday Jan lost a fish early on and then managed to land the second ‘Double Decker Lin’ at 35lb 4oz and then shortly after came ‘The Constructor’ weighing 32lb 10oz.

Jan’s third and final fish of the week came the next day, one of our unrecorded 2018 stockies weighing 26lb.

IQ D rigs doing the bites for Jan tied with size 4 Wide Gape hooks and baited with a match the hatch boilie and an orange-coloured topper.

Well done Jan.

Stefan McKnight chose to fish out of Pole Position and chose to fish out long at 31 wraps towards The Stink.

And it was from here when Stefan managed his only bite of the week on the Tuesday when he managed to land an amazing looking fish, ‘Kenny’ at 38lb 4oz.

Spinner rigs tied to 5 inches in length with size 6 Wide Gape hooks kept the fish on all the way to the net.  This was baited with a small yellow pop up soaked in Pineapple and Isotonic Goo’s.  

Stefan baited with a mixture of corn, hemp and 10mm cell boilies (again both whole and crushed).

Well done Stefan on the capture.

Lastly this week over in Bob’s Beach we had returning customer Steve Crouch.  

Steve also left it until later in the week to land a couple of fish.  All be them smaller stockies ‘The Bosh’ at 26lb and ‘TM1’ at 28lb 8oz they were very welcomed considering how it has fished recently.

Steve fished out at 28 wraps towards The Alamo and used, again, little yellow pop ups on spinner rigs and size 4 Kurv hooks to tempt the fish to feed on his rigs.  

Free offerings consisted of hemp, corn and a mixture of small boilies (whole and crumb) with a helping of liquids for extra pulling power.

Well done Steve on sitting it out and the fish landed.

Well a better week all in all, obviously with Dan in Co’s producing the bulk of the fish but with 37 fish being caught around the lake, not a bad week at all.

Until next time.  Tight lines.

Gareth “Gino”