Dear Danny,
I have fished in France now on several occasions on smaller lakes and having watched some of the DVD’s available regarding Gigantica I am slightly worried.
Normally I like to fish the margins and do well, but in almost all the video’s regarding your venue the fish seem to be caught as far away from the bank as possible and I worried my gear will prove lacking.
Do I need to get the distance to catch the carp or can you locate them closer in? I am not familiar with your venue yet, but it being April it might also be difficult to locate the carp.
Are there any new DVD’s regarding Gigantica that would help me understand Gigantica a little better?
Just trying to get as much information as I can’t wait to get to your venue.
Kind regards, Anthony Briggs
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Anthony,
Thanks for the interest. There is a common misconception that all the fishing here at Gigantica is at range. Totally untrue luckily.
We have several swims where you’ll be fishing from under the rod tips to a maximum of about 40-50m. It is true that in general in most of the swims, the margins are very deep and steep sided, reducing the chances of fishing really close… but that doesn’t mean you have to fish at 100m+ !
For the majority of swims, we advise anglers to fish at no more than 70m. This is generally where the majority of bait goes so the fish constantly visit these areas. Also, no matter what most anglers believe, nearly all can fish efficiently at 70m and not much further, one of the reasons we suggest fishing at such a range.
We find that most of our clients believe they can fish efficiently at much greater ranges, and perhaps they can… but why make the fishing so much harder for yourself? When the fish are really active and your having to bait up several times a night when catching, having to bait, recast at a distance that’s difficult to achieve, your just make things harder for yourself.
I fish at 50m, it’s nice and easy and I catch plenty but when I tell people, they all seem to want to fish further out. Each to their own… but it is not necessary at all.
We have a new swim this year – Baxter’s hole – built to access an area of margins that we couldn’t fish in the past. I noticed that at certain times and certain conditions, the fish would group in this area but it was a very difficult cast and your line ran at an angle that made getting a bite very tough. So we built a new swim.
This swim will be a margin swim and up to a maximum of 50m range. It will be a popular swim this year for sure and will produce some good catches. But I’m sure so many clients will fish the swim thinking that blasting out as far as they can will be the way, when if they fished the swim next door, they could fish the same areas with an underarm cast !
I believe that because Gigantica is quite a large expanse of open water, most clients, wrongly, believe that fishing out as far as possible is the ultimate style… but it isn’t, it’s been proven.
All this does is make the fishing for all the anglers much much harder. If bait is placed out at extreme range, certainly later in the year, the fish will just sit out there eating the bait. When the clients fish as suggested, in closer between 50-70m, it generally fishes far better – for everyone.
There are no new DVDs available at present but we are planning an underwater project here this April. We will film for 5 weeks and hopefully, this will produce the next Korda Underwater DVD which we hope you will like.
I hope this has answered your questions but feel free to contact me at any time should you have additional questions you would like information on.
Danny
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Hi Danny,
Thanks for the feedback. It’s a relief to know that I don’t need to get the distance as that is not my style of fishing.
I understood last year when I booked that if you would be filming, my trip in April might be cancelled?!
I hope this is not the case as I am looking forward to my trip and hopefully a quick chat with the main man himself, who has brought my fishing to a new level. (that goes for all the people who helped with the underwater series).
Anyhow, If I read all the other FAQ on the website, all baits and particles are available from yourselves. Maybe you could give me one final tip regarding the bottom of the lake, which color tubing, safety etc would be wise to bring along.
Sorry for all the questions, but I am starting to prep everything.
Thanks again and kind regards,
Anthony Briggs
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Anthony,
Your trip is still in place, the filming will close 2 swims only which should have been explained to you on booking. It’s in one comer swim so the main lake will be available to all.
Colour wise, we have found, through diving and comparing the colours with the lake bed, the gravel and clay colours are by far the best colours for rig camouflage. One other tip we tell all visitors, getting your lines down, whether that is through the use of fluorocarbon mainlines or back leads in all there guises really makes a difference. The water is deep and clear here so having the lines down onto the bottom really makes a difference.
No problems, you asking questions, that’s what I’m here for.
Danny
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