The tactics behind the week’s best fish, and expert advice

52lb common falls to tiger nuts during quick overnighter

THE pulling power of tiger nuts as an autumnal bait was proved this week by Dave Ashford, who used them to land one of the country’s biggest common carp weighing in at 52lb.

The 58-year-old had spent the last three years trying to catch the impressive fish from his southern syndicate water, and finally slipped the net under his target following the only bite of a quick overnight session.

It came from a swim that Dave, a race car builder from Cambridge, had been trickling bait into over recent weeks, and fell to a critically-balanced rig presented over a light scattering of particles.

“Upon arriving at the venue I saw that all the so-called ‘hot swims’ were taken by the usual crowd, so I decided to fish a swim where I’d had a go the week before and had been keeping primed with a little bit of bait,” he said.

“After a bit of difficulty setting up in a really strong head wind, I put about a dozen Spombs of Hull Particle Winter Mix laced with skinned tigers over my spots on the edge of a bar in between two Islands, before casting a snowman rig made from a standard tiger and one with a cork insert over the top of the loosefeed.”

After an uneventful first night, Dave topped up his spot again the following morning with a further six Spombs of particles, and not long after received an aggressive take on one of his rods which resulted in his biggest-ever

common carp being netted.

“I’d been after this fish for a few years and had never seen it on the bank, only in pictures. I still feel a little overwhelmed by the capture, to be honest. It just goes to show that you don’t always have to be in the ‘going’ swims to catch the biggest fish!” added a delighted Dave.