Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 31/05/2025

How do you like your bacon ?

After a few tough weeks on the road lake due to the spawn, How would the new set of 12 Anglers fair this week. Read on to find out how the guys got on. 

First up we have James Hewing back for his second trip on the road lake, with his previous trip nicking a couple of bites, coming out 12th in the draw, This time around he came out 10th and started the week off in Dunkerque with previous weeks doing so well, However with the fish showing at the other end of the lake he decided to make the move to Double Boards on the Sunday knowing it had not been fished for a fair few weeks. The plan for the session was 15 wraps out towards Bacheliers swim and 9 wraps down the margin towards the no fish zone. The bait approach, keeping to what has been doing the business from my advice, 15mm fish meal boilie with the throwing stick, Solid bags with sticky micro pellet and 15mm trimmed down krill wafters. Tuesday morning after hearing plenty show through the night and to no suprise James was off the mark with ‘Stubby’ 47lb. Cracking start there! With the fish starting to spawn heavy, it wasn’t looking great for a bite, however James maned to get into 3 more bites from Tueday to Thursday upto 22lb, keeping to the tactic of solid bags and a scatter of boilie with the stick. This tactic has seemed to be such a savage tactic lately and it was working once again with James landing ‘The Dutch’ 36lb 2oz. What happened next was something special, We had a day bite on the road lake, which seems like forever! Landing ‘Lovin life’ 52lb 4oz and a  new PB, along with an absolute soaking from the ‘Twins’ if you know, you know! This was it for the week for James, What a great move this turned out to be. Just proves being active and making the move can turn out to be a unforgettable trip! Well done mate, was a pleasure, and we will 100% see you again!

Secondly we have Leon Fray on his 2nd week in a row on the pond, After coming out 11th the previous week, the draw was kind to Leon coming out 1st and slotting himself in to Turtles Corner, with seeing plenty of fish in there on the Friday evening. The tactic for the week would be fishing the far margin at 23 wraps, Fishing 15-18mm fish meal boilie and house maize. Rigs for the week would be size 6 crank spinner rig style with 1 grain of slow sinking maize, baiting from the margin. After the chaos of the Saturday set up it was Monday when Leon got into his first bite with ‘Jackson’ 24lbs. With signs of fish spawning on the lake still, the bait approach was a light one, Knowing ‘Filling it in’ wasn’t going to work. Couple of handfuls of boilie and maize was enough to pick off the bites. The tactic was working with the next bite coming on tuesday, and having the privilege of naming his next capture in ‘The Fray’ 24lb 4oz. Still seeing fish up and down the margin it ws quiet frustrating for Leon not to have that ‘red letter session’ how ever Wednesday came with two bites after still sticking to the light bait approach, with ‘The Minion’ 25lb and the biggest of the week for himself in ‘Marquez’ 37lb 10oz. Managing ‘Swoosh’ 18lb on Thursday, along with a 18lb mirror and ‘Mr Mison’ 36lb 10oz on the last night. A good performance mate, in very tough conditions, the bait approach certainley abled you to knick the bites. Well done and was a pleasure to have you for two weeks, we shall see you back next year! Too go one better ?

Coming out 9th in the draw we have Levi Fray, twin of Leon, who decided to set himself up in shingles after seeing fish on the walk round! Fishing 18 wraps towards the dot island, feeding 15mm fish meal boilie with the throwing stick. Slip-D combi rigs with match the hatch hookbaits. It was a tough week for Levi, However he managed to land 3 bites upto 24lb in ‘Archies Common’ and ‘The Syco’ 23lb . Well done on the bites mate with not a lot coming out. Im sure we will see you again in the future.

Next up we have Mick Tong on his first trip to Gigantica, Coming out 2nd in the draw and setting himself up in Bacheliers for the week, Not the biggest caster, so the tactic was to fish short out in front of him 10 wraps and to the left hand margin where a few bites have been coming from, feeding  15mm mainline cell boilie with match the match hook baits. It was a slow week for mick, With what seemed the entire stock on the lake spawning in front of him he managed a mid double and also his new PB, being ‘Wilbur’ 36lb 8oz. Well done on this mick, that was it for the week, Congratulations on the PB, look forward to seeing you back on the road lake in the near future 

The toughest week so far in a while on the road, with 19 bites coming from the pond, On and off spawning certainly isn’t helping. Hopefully things can improve in the next couple off weeks. My time is up at Gigantica until August when ill be back helping the anglers catch some more chucks. Its been a great experience meeting terrific people on the way.

Tight Lines,

Tom 

Team Gigantica