Catch Reports

Gigantica monster

Posted in Catch Reports on 15th September 2009

It’s not often you will see foreign fish pictured on here but Andy Clark has had his fair share of UK whackers over the years so he more than deserves this one. He and his missus Katherine recently decided to give join up with a group of friends for a nice relaxing break at Gigantica lake in central France.

Apart from two noddies (according to Andy) everyone on the trip caught fish, even Katherine who managed to bank a lovely 35lb heavily scaled mirror on the final night (bottom right). However, top honours went to Andy himself when he banked one of the venues largest residents at a massive weight of 67lb 12oz! As you would expect the B5 was responsible for the majority of the fish on the trip and a big thanks to Gazza Wade (who caught several fish to just under 40lbs) for supplying the pic – awesome!


Fluoro pop-ups

Whilst carp are not generally recognised as sight feeders, there are undoubtedly times when they are visually drawn to a food source and bright pop-ups are a classic example of this. It's not surprising therefore, that fluoro pop-ups have proved very effective, particularly if just using a single bait with no free offerings. The winter and spring months are a classic example of this and a single fluoro pop-up cast to a 'showing' fish has resulted in the downfall of many a carp.

But it would be a mistake to think fluoro pop-ups should be just restricted to single bait presentation. Quite often, a fluoro pop-up fished over a bed of bait can fool the wariest of carp and a little 10mm fluoro pop-up mounted above a standard bottom bait can act as a very good visual sight and lead to a bite or two when other methods fail to produce.