Gary Asks;
Hi ya Danny,
Just thought i’d drop you an email. Me and my 3 mates have booked up for Gigantica at the beginning of March 2010, and was wondering if you minded giving us some advice.
It will be our second trip to France, so we are relatively new to overseas fishing, but we are experienced in the UK.
The main reason for me writing is as I said just to get a few pointers from you. I’ve read the website and the reports etc, and have noted a few recommendations and observations.
It seems to me that Mainline Cell is the way to go right? How much do you think we will need and where do you recommend we get it from? I notice you don’t rate the rolling companies over here, but if we decide to bring it with us, where do you reccommend we get it from? Also what size works best?
Any other advice you can give us with regards to what we should bring would be great thanks mate.
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Danny replies;
Dear Gary,
You are right my experience is that the bait actually rolled by Mainline works better than the same bait rolled by other bait rolling services, I don’t know why, but I wouldn’t use anything else on there now.
Regarding size 20mm is perfect, Mainline do roll 20’s but they are not stocked by shops very much because in the UK 14’s and 18’s are the best sellers. If you bring anything smaller than 20 it will be eaten more readily by the bream, 14’s for example are a waste of time, you are just feeding the bream.
We sell Mainline 20mm’ers that Mainline have boiled extra long to make them hard enough to not split out of the throwing stick which is essential. They are priced at 100 Euros for 10kg which is equal to the best retail bulk price in the UK. To make sure we have them I recommend you order them in advance with Danny at the lake at thegrandfromage@hotmail.co.uk. We always keep a couple of hundred kilos in our freezers but if your party wants a lot we may need to know in advance.
Regarding amounts, for March I would say that if you used 30kg in a week on your own you would have had an amazing week! I only use a lot of bait if I get a lot of runs, I suspect at that time 10-15kg will be more than enough. I would start with about 2 kilos and add an extra ½ kilo per fish or after 12 hours without action. For example if I put 2 kilos out on Saturday afternoon I would probably put another ½ kilo in at about 10am Sunday morning if I had not had a bite, sooner if I had caught. Then I would put another kilo out at about 4pm for the next night. The half kilo is simply to activate the swim again and draw the fish in with the sound and smell of new food. The kilo before dark is to make sure there is something there for the fish to find overnight. I would repeat this baiting whether I caught or not for the first 3 days, if nothing happened by then and now fish had shown on or near me I would then leave it until I got a bite. Hopefully you will have caught by then.
Whatever you do stick to the plan! Select a range comfortable for you that Danny the bailiff says is a good bet and fish all 3 rods a rod length apart at that range. If you stick to the plan you will get action!
Keep rigs simple and strong, make sure the hook is always sharp, I change them frequently even if I haven’t had bites, just to be sure. Pin everything down from the hooklink to the antitangle system and the line, flying back leads and back lead and slack lines are the order of the day. Our new Fluorocarbon reel line will be out by then, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. It sinks like a brick and definitely gets me more takes not just there but everywhere.
Tight lines
Danny
Tags:
Gigantica
