Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 07/10/2023

A Week of PB’s

 

The gate’s opened at 1pm to a new week and a new group of 12 anglers, all keen and ready to get going on the walk around.  We had a good bunch of anglers this week, all of them made it a great week to be looking after them for the seven days that they were to be with us.

We have still been experiencing these warm and hot day time temperatures this week and even some of the night-time temperatures have kept it feeling sticky at times, but the leaves are now falling in mass off of the trees around the site so despite it not feeling like it Autumn is well and truly here.

 

Let’s start this week’s report with the lucky angler, Adam Barratt, who was fortunate enough to have pulled ball number one on the draw and put himself into the flyer that has been for most of this year The Beach.

Adam has just recently been getting himself into carp fishing and what a great week he had.  He hadn’t of had the rods out for very long before I was on my around to see him with his first fish in the net, and what a nice way to kick things off with a new PB straight away.  37lb 4oz was its weight and I later identified this fish as being one named ‘The Dutch’.  Whilst around there to help with his pictures another of his rods burst into life.  This time a 27lb 6oz common came into his net.  This wasn’t the only time this week that whilst visiting Adam for pictures one or even two of his rods would be away.

His first evening’s fishing didn’t stop there either, just before dark I got a call saying he had landed an even bigger fish than before, and he wasn’t wrong!  After weighing it, this one went 56lb 2oz!  A fish called ‘TJ’.  He had broken his PB twice in his first 6 hours.

I could go on and on about each one of his captures, but I think it will be more impressive just to put the list up of his fish he caught.

Some of the more notable fish he landed during the week included, ‘The Model’ at 48lb 3oz, ‘The Lottchen’ at 48lb 12oz, ‘Wilbur’ at 40lb, ‘Bomb Head’ and ‘Hobnob’ both weighing 47lb, ‘Vouvrey’ at 41lb 10oz’ and many many more as you can see by the list below;

 

11lb

37lb 4oz ‘The Dutch’

23lb

56lb 2oz ‘TJ’

21lb

21lb

26lb 12oz ‘Luna Rose’

22lb

22lb

28lb

40lb ‘Wilbur’

30lb ‘Maya Rose’

27lb 6oz

27lb 2oz

28lb

48lb ‘The Model’

21lb

38lb 2oz

20lb

20lb

24lb

15lb

48lb 12oz ‘Lottchen’

23lb

30lb

34lb

47lb ‘Hobnob’

21lb

28lb

47lb ‘Bomb Head’

 

A total of 30 fish.

Adam fished between the 21-23 wrap area out in front of him all week, although he did towards the end of the week start fishing one shorter at 12 wraps to his right slightly after seeing fish activity there and went on to catch from that area as well. 

Rig wise, Adam used the same on all rods all week.  This being a running lead clip arrangement leading on to Korda ready tied spinner rigs using the size 4 Krank hooks.  Hook bait of choice was Baitworks Atlantic Heat hook baits that had been soaked in the Squid Supreme Goo.  Adam baited mainly with the throwing stick just scattering matching boilies to his hook baits all around his area.  Adam did not use a spomb to do this and by doing so kept the disturbance to an absolute minimum and reaped the rewards by fishing this tactic.  Great angling Adam, it was an absolute pleasure seeing how you had changed so much by the end of the week with how you handled the fish.  Very well done again and very well angled!  I hope we see you again here some time.

 

Shaun Marchington came out ball nine in the draw but still found himself setting up in Shingles, normally a swim that goes a little earlier in the draw.  This ended up being a good week for Shaun, despite it being a little slow going to start and took a couple of days before he was up and running.

Fishing all three rods tight together at 20 wraps towards the dot island and feeding accurately along the way played out nicely for him.

First fish in the net was ‘Mr Mison’ weighing 36lb 8oz, a very nice was to get on the score sheet, and in the same morning also had a bigger fish in the shape of ‘Flying Dutchman’ at 46lb 1oz…….Another new PB for one of our anglers.

On the Wednesday morning Shaun again had a brace of fish awaiting their pictures, this time a 28lb 10oz common and ‘Darky’ at an impressive 44lb 14oz, a mega looking fish this one.  What followed on the Thursday was a brace of fish that was just shy of the 100lb mark!

The first of this impressive brace was ‘Percy’ weighing in at 42lb 12oz and this brace also included ‘Gilbert’ and this one spun those scales around to 57lb!  Again, another angler breaking their PB twice during the week.

Shaun fished very neat and tidy all week with well tied IQ-D rigs made up of 12lb IQ2 and size 4 Wide Gape hooks.  Shaun usually uses a chod hook for this rig but after running out I assured him that the Wide Gape would serve him well and boy it did.  This was presented on a Hybrid lead clip set up.

Shaun feed Baitworks Royal Marine and Atlantic Heat boilies mixed with corn, this was boosted with a good helping of the Fish Smart Liquid.  Hook baits he opted to use Atlantic Heat bottom baits with a corn topper to match what he was feeding.

8 carp landed for Shaun and a mid 30lb Grass Carp, not a bad weeks angling if you ask me and a very good average size of fish.  Well done, it was great having you here.

 

Father and son duo, Bob and Freddie Bellinger were both new customers to us here at Gigantica this week and they found themselves plotted up in Dunkerqueand The Goo respectively.

Young Freddie, who found himself in The Goo, was the first of this duo to get off the mark this week.  Landing himself a very nice 39lb 4oz mirror on the Sunday night, this was also a PB for him.  Freddie caught this fish from fishing 14 wraps straight out in front of him and fed hemp, maize and Link boilie.  He was also including some Tutti Frutti Goo into his mix for added attraction.  This fish was tempted by a 14mm yellow Pineapple pop-up put on to a combi rig made up from Korda N-Trap and a size 4 Wide Gape hook.  This again was fished on a lead clip set up.  Well done on you PB Freddie.

Freddie’s Dad, Bob, had put himself into Dunkerque after it had produced some good fish of late.  After a little bit of advice to tweak his rigs and lead arrangement, it took until Wednesday before he had got one in the net.  After weighing it and it spinning the dial on the scales around to 41lb 8oz, it was found to be ‘Inventor Phil’, a fish that has not been out for just over three years!  This like Freddie’s fish was also a PB for Bob.

Spinner rigs with a Mainline IB pop-up soaked in Isotonic Goo helped Bob catch this fish.  Bob fed Mainline Cell, Essential Cell and Link boilie mixed with maize.  This was all cast to 9 wraps to his left aiming towards Decoy.

Very well done both of you, I hope that you had a great week and that we see you again one day.

Leading group booker Charlie Stone came out late in the draw but despite this somehow still managed to get himself into Brambles.  A very good big fish swim, like I tell people on the walk around this is not a big hit fish swim but certainly is a bait and wait swim for bigger fish.  And this is exactly wat it did again this week.

After assuring Charlie to stick it out on the 18-wrap zone in front of him he was absolutely made up on the Tuesday morning when it had all come good to him.  Landing, again a PB, ‘Ruby Murray’ weighing 47lb 4oz.  This is an awesome looking common carp and looked even better with the autumnal leaves behind him.

What made Charlie’s week even better was when on the Thursday he beat his PB again!  This time netting a fish called ‘Le Flair’ and again another great looking common carp and this one took Charlie over the 50lb barrier at 50lb and 4oz.  Very well-done mate, and well done on the bait and wait approach.  I told you it will happen and that you just have to be patient and bide your time.

Charlie used home tied stiff combi rigs made from Boom material and a softer braided section fished as a blow back style D rig.  DNA bug hook baits with a corn topper was the bait that was doing the business for him.

Feeding matching boilie to his hook bait mixed with maize plus a dashing of glug was enough to tempt these two awesome looking commons.  Again, like many this week a very well done on your angling.

 

All round Mr nice guy Kyriacos “KiKi” Papageorgioufound himself last in the draw and plotted up next to young Freddie this week, in a swim that in the previous week and produced Ron’s at 66lb, The Poo.

It was an absolute honour having this gentleman with us this week, he was always smiling every morning when I visited with breakfast and for him it all came good on the Wednesday morning when he caught himself his only fish of the week sadly, but it was a PB for him.  This fish was ‘Bobby’ and weighed 27lb 8oz, but despite its size it was certainly an absolute stunning looking fish.

Kiki used an Active-Krill wafter with a pink Essential Cell topper to tempt this fish.  This was fished on stiff Boom section combi loop rigs cast 15-wraps straight out in front of his swim.

His baiting approach comprised of Mainline Link boilie, hemp, maize and a handful of pellets, and he had baited with 30 Spombs to get this fish feeding.

Again, very well done on your PB!

 

Another couple of anglers who manged to get themselves a fish a piece was Ben Wakefield in Tea Party 1 and Dal Castle in Decoy.

Ben managed a 22lb common from 17 wraps towards Turtles Corner.  This was caught on a yellow pop-up presented on a spinner rig and baited with boilie, maize, hemp and pellet.

Dal, on the same morning, landed one slightly bigger at 22lb 8oz.  Again, a spinner rig as before but with a Bio Marine wafter as his hook bait and was caught from 17-wraps to his right.  Dal was feeding Mainline Link boilie and was introducing this with a throwing stick.

 

A very up and down week, but with some nice sized fish being caught it was a very enjoyable week for myself with some great people and great company.  We had seven anglers who caught and 6 of these anglers have gone home with new PB’s.

The weather looks like it’s going to change massively next week, with much colder temperatures and northerly winds it will be interesting to see how this effects the carp.

 

Until next time.

Tight Lines……

Gareth “Gino”.