Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 30/09/2017

The last week of September was a toughie, the whole region has been really slow the last few weeks, conspiracy theories from bailiffs at other local lakes range from preoccupation on natural food, to extended high pressure and we see truth in both of those, but seeing as no one speaks ‘carp’ we are only guessing.

Week Commencing 30 September

Gary Pullen in Co’s Point had two Stockies fishing at 29 wraps that week; not earth shattering news with two 17lb’ers being caught, but when you take into account what they weighed at stocking a year ago it is super exciting. “Mr President” was stocked on the day of Trumps inauguration (a sad day for humans everywhere!) as the only fish from our largest stock pond, C that made the 6lb cut off last November. C Pond holds approximately 600 fish, which were under fed to stop the biomass getting too large, which would result in water quality issues and dead fish. So when he went into the Main Lake after a tough start in life, he flourished beyond our wildest expectations, and at 17lb he has almost trebled in weight. Simon Scott says they should all double their weight in the their first year in the Main Lake, as nothing beats a natural environment for growth, so to treble is amazing.

The second Stockie was fish number 19, a Mirror from A Pond where the best ones reside. It went into the Main at 7lbs 4oz and has put on 10lbs, again, way beyond Simon’s normal gains, and the best part of all is the change of shape. The fish have got much deeper in the body, and both have developed shoulders which they didn't have on stocking. Their shape now, is similar to the mighty Fudgie’s, and we expect them both to be 25lbs+ next autumn, maybe even 30’s! In the long term these will be the 60’s and 70’s of the future; imagine the scales of Mr President when he is 70lbs…..

Gary had both fish on a Snowman presentation over minimal bait, as the lake was not fishing well at all. He is a seasoned Gigantica angler and is always consistent. The more times you come the more you learn and generally the better your catch rate.

Week Commencing 7th October

It's Danny F’s mates week (yes he has some friends despite the internet character assassinations, ha!) so it's filled with top quality anglers who have been coming for several years, so far more bites than last weeks two were predicted. Water temp was 16 degrees centigrade. Winds all week had West in them, mostly South West straight into Alamo; temps were really good, 15-20 degrees in the day, and no less than 10 every night, so no excuses there……

Billy the Golfer in Alcatraz started the week off on Sunday night with the “Snags Linear” at an all time high of 51lbs, it looked awesome and clearly is not past its best. The fish came to his middle rod cast at The Stink at 27.5 wraps to the super clean area that has done most of the bites this year. He had it on a 7” Korda Hybrid Stiff D Rig incorporating a Size 2B Korda Kurv and Dark Matter Leader with a 3.5 Heli Lead. The bait was a Pink Signature Wafter from Sticky over 2kg of Krill and a small amount of Maize.

He followed this up a few nights later with the equally impressive “Wodka” again at an all time high of 43lbs. What a carp this is; we have showed you both sides in the report and a bankside shot to illustrate the colour and scaling of this unique carp. Billy has had a superb year at home fishing Darenth Big Lake, yet he says this fish is the highlight so far. He was physically shaking playing both fish. This one came on the left rod as the clear area at 27.5 has grown significantly since the Spring. Billy also lost a fish on the last night, a cruel end to a consistent week for Bill where he read the swim just right, and fed correctly to keep the action coming.

DF in Baxter's had “Farma’s Carp” at 17lbs early in the week at 20 wraps to The Stink on a 4” Boom Combi Rig and super sharpened Krank X Size 4B to a 3oz COG lead. The bait was a 14mm White Buttercorn Wafter over 8kg of munga, chopped and whole Mainline Fyber boilie's mixed with our Hemp and Maize mix. This stockie went in at 9lbs last November and was out at 13lbs 12oz in August so it's packing the weight on, the shape has also changed and it's set to be a beautiful big un in years to come. Fish showed from time to time in his area, mostly at night and at first light, yet no more bites came despite working hard. Anyone who fishes around him will know only too well his frustrations at not extracting more from his own lake, we are all human it seems…….

Denni Di Rosa from Italy moved from the Road Lake to the Main when one swim was left after the draw. A bold move indeed with the lake fishing hard. He opened his account on his second ever night on the lake, a feat not matched by many others. He had Ugloe at 34lbs at 6am from the Tree Line at 21 wraps just off the fallen tree. A 6” 30lb N-Trap Soft hooklink to a sharpened Size 4 Wide Gape B finished off Blow-Back style with Kikka on the eye produced the fish. He also followed the advice of the bailiffs to the letter and used a running lead clip, squeezing the eye so it doesn't semi fix. He fed 1kg of Mainlines ‘The Link’ per night catapulting it from the side bank from the tip of the fallen tree out to his furthest rod cast at The Stink, also at 21, the bite came on a White Link Wafter, exclusive to Gigantica.

The fish showed on Denni on several more nights, yet no more bites came. This is a great result for a super nice guy who has dreamed of fishing Gigantica for many years; he will be back for sure!!

It would be fair to say, Greg Taylor in Co’s had a complete mare! His first chance came on Sunday night, and after a short tussle it simply fell off. Later in the week he had his next chance in the early evening, the fish kited off to the right and again fell off. Then a couple of nights later the same thing happened again. Cruel times indeed as on inspection he was doing nothing wrong. He fished 8” Combi’s with a 7” Boom to 1” Braid, fished as a Slip-D. Our only advice would have been to switch from Helicopters to Running Lead Clips to help keep the hook in place better. The fish here do use semi fixed leads as an anchor point to help work out the hook. Greg introduced the most bait of all during the week, baiting with at least 5kg of boilie and Maize each night.  

Russel ‘Rusty’ Kent in Big Southerly had action from Saturday night, which is a regular occurrence in this swim. The fish often retreat there on Saturday night to avoid the Marker and Spomb bombardment on Saturday afternoon. Sadly he lost the first one to a cut off in the weed. It came at 15 wraps towards Co’s on a smooth clean area that has done a lot of bites this year. He only fed 50 baits with the stick that night, and this set the tone for his baiting all week. He cleverly only baited every other day and with no more than 10 medium Spombs of Maize per rod, plus 50 baits in the stick and ended the week with 4 bites, making this the most consistent swim. Tuesday night he landed a previously unnamed Common on 37lbs, his first fish from the lake so we named it Rusty’s Revenge. This came to a 7” Combi-Link with a Scent From Hell Pop-Up on top of an MGM bottom bait. He didn't bait at all that day, so his bait from the previous night must have still been there; this shows minimal baiting in close range swims can really pay off.

He lost another one later in the week to a random hook pull, the fish had moved a long way without any bleeps on the indicators, even on a running rig. We advised him to move to larger running leads to stop this happening again.

Then, on the last night his Snowman on his left rod at 15 wraps pulled round again, and after a dogged fight his mate Neil slipped the net under “Mammut” the Common at 45lb 12oz; its first capture in 12 months and at an all time best weight. To say Rusty was happy was the understatement of the century. A well-deserved result for the Lea Valley angler who's had a rollercoaster couple of years; he's already planning next year………

Jake ‘Vicky Pollard’ Taylor in Stink had just the one bite……Fudgies at 80lbs on the nose!!!! His bite came after moving a rod in to 14.5 wraps after seeing several fish show there in a few days; proving regular observation can pay dividends when regular spots have dried up. The spot he found was rough gravel, which had clearly been uncovered by feeding fish; feeding on what we do not know? The fish came on a Size 6 Korda Kurv on an 8” Combi with a 4oz lead on a Lead-Clip over only 10 medium Spombs of Maize and chopped Baitworks Royal Marine boilie. His hookbait was a Royal Marine toughened hooker.

Finding these new spots is a definite edge at this time of the year when the fish have been hammered all season, keeping a couple of rods on the normal bite spots and trying a third in closer definitely seems to be getting extra bites and some big fish too!

Andrew Gibbins fishing in Alamo had only one chance on Thursday night, sadly it came off almost straight away. Andrew fished at 27 wraps to the large tree by Bobs Beach and baited fairly heavily each day. The fish were on the bait for some time before the bite came and we expected Andrew to get more bites as he is consistent on here, snaring a big un most years.

The lads also had time to drain down the main two stock ponds, to transfer the best new ‘babies’ into the Main Lake. 55 fish in total went in, with the biggest 4 year old fish being 14lbs, and the smallest 7lbs, with most being over 10lbs. All these fish will at least double in weight in their first 12 months in the Main Lake so there will be another fifty plus 20’s this time next year, with the biggest probably topping 30lbs. The scale patterns and shapes of these fish were ridiculous and with another 20-30 going in from C Pond in November ’17 the future is set to be very bright indeed. 

The 38 new stockies introduced in November ‘16 have made a huge difference to catch rates this year; we are up 50% from just over 300 fish in 2016, to 450 for this year so far, amazingly with only 10 of the 38 stockies having been caught!!! This is what happens when new fish are introduced, so we expect this winter to fish really well just as it did last winter, when one angler had 13 fish to 73lbs the week before Christmas…….