Dutch angler Ben Voltijn has sent us another cracking looking fish – they usually are from Holland! Concerted effort on a big pit and a change of baiting tactics produced the goods – you can’t go wrong with good old tiger nuts!
This year everything looks so different doesn’t it? Very warm in early spring, a cooler summer and then a much milder autumn. That brings me back to a couple of weeks ago, when I was fishing a big pit in the south part of the Netherlands. I ran out of boilies because I was catching loads of the smaller fish and going through loads of bait! So with fish on the spot and nothing left over in the freezers I did not know what to do next??? Should I buy some bait from the local Dutch boilie brands, or wait to go to England to pick up some bait from Premier Baits, with no fishing in between… no, no good either. So I decided to give it a go with some nice old skool Tiger Nuts with Muscovado sugar! Any port in a storm will do…
Rigwise: I made a special balanced hook bait; on the hair I put a big tiger nut and cut out some from it on the underside with the ESP nut drill and filled it up with a cork stick, just enough to have a sort of slow sinking wafter style hookbait. The rig itself was and still is my ever so reliable combi-link from ESP Ghost and ESP sinklink all in 18lb and a small size 8 ESP curve shank hook blow back style. After I pre-baited the spot for four days with loads of tigers I fished it and caught the one I was after! A nice old girl with lovely winter colours at 40lb 12oz. I have started using the ESP Syncro XT 18lb and had no troubles with fishing over rocky stones etc, the line wasn’t damaged at all!
So my point is, never give up make the best of it and have confidence in what you are doing, then the result(s) you are after WILL come!
Cheers
Ben