Tiger Nuts

[Woodytia]

I've got a couple of bags of these, I want to use them my club water. In the past after soaking (48h), cooking (20 min pressure cooker) and fermenting (48h) the final product still seems very hard, I know carp and other large fish have surprising powerful teeth at the back of the throat, but I still worry that my cooking technique isn't right and cause harm. Any advice from those of you who have used them would be welcome.

[BJMason]

Hi woodytia.
Tiger nuts are a great bait but only loose feed about a dozen around your hook bait. I use to cook mind the same as you have but leave them for a lot longer soaking till they go all snotty, that seams to make make them a bit softer. These days I buy them in a tin that way you know they are cooked properly and you can't over feed with them which has been a problem in the past Of course a lot fisheries have ban all nuts on there water so best to check it is ok to use them first.
Bernard.

[BJMason]

Hi drbleep.
A great read on tiger nuts. I love to use them buy most of the fisheries around here have banned them because The media says.
Bernard.

[Snape]

Remember the angling headline?
'TIGER NUTS KILLED BENSON'.

And wasn't the evidence that there was an open pack of unprepared tiger nuts left on the bank? :brickwall:
(sometimes the media are so stupid! :hairout: )

[Dave Burr]

A lot of common sense here, thank you Dr Bleep. Maybe you can talk to the mad swan woman in Worcester about the lead shot allegedly killing all her little treasures, talk about a little knowledge but a big opinion

It is one of the great problems in fishing in that anybody can do it but a little knowledge is often a dangerous thing and the over hyped media must take some responsibility for it. At least with everybody now pushing the zig like its the only way to fish there's little chance of people over feeding with zig bugs :D

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Excellent bait. Don't worry about how hard they are - the carp can deal with them OK. As others have said, don't use too many - if you want to create a big carpet of bait there are better alternatives (hemp, partiblend, maize, pigeon conditioner, maple peas, dari seed etc) but for stalking and margin fishing they are very effective. You can mix a couple of handfuls with a similar quantity of corn in a pint or two of hemp to good effect if you want to fish over a larger patch of bait. If you prepare your own, add a teaspoon of Talin per kilo (or equivalent pro-rata) which sweetens them and adds extra attraction.

The only proviso I would suggest is that you don't use them over silt as they are quite dense. They still work in silty spots, but only if the fish can find them. Peanuts are a better bet for silt, used as per the guidance so ably given elsewhere. In fact I think peanuts have a more instant attraction than tigers, but it tends to be more short-lived - especially if you put too many in as they fill the fish up very quickly. I found this out on a small one-acre pond I used to fish, which held a good number of carp - a mix of 'wildies' and regular commons up to ten pounds; a handful of peanuts would get them bubbling away within minutes, and you might get a quick fish or two, but if you put more than half a pint volume in the bubbling ceased and the carp disappeared. Little-and-often is a better feeding approach with the peanuts - say half a dozen every half hour or so. You don't need to buy in bulk - I get the 500g bags from health food stores, which is enough for three or four day sessions once cooked.

[BJMason]

Hi drbleep.
You are right they jump and ban tiger nut because somebody says the are bad for the carp, but you don't hear to much about the some angler that are bad for the carp. I use to one of the techno carp anglers, but weening myself off the addiction now. Started fishing for carp in the mid eighties, then it was a bit of secret society where I fished at that time, you had to all most do an apprentiship I use to sit chat to a couple of the carp angler while the wife went shopping. You could just go fishing for carp you had to get to know the angler that did, because he had the info needed you didn't have media coverage then like you have now plus back then you could not walk in to a tackle shop and buy all needed like you can now, so that means any numpty can fishing for these big beautiful carp with the minimal information. Think I better off my soap box now.


Sorry waffled a bit their what I was trying to say as well bait care fisheries need to more a where of the angler that are fishing there lake and make sure they know how to handle fish big or small.
Sorry about waffling again not that good with the written word, hope you can understand what I was getting at.
Bernard.
Ps my uncle taught me not only to fish but how to handle the fish when I was seven, because if there are no fish then there will be no fishing.

[Woodytia]

Thanks for the advice, they are not banned on the water I have access to, I wanted a bait that is relatively immune to the attentions of all the small bream that are in the lake and hoover up everything else, I really don't want to use boilies. I hadn't considered peanuts though. I've never believed in throwing in loads of bait so the amount I have will be more than enough.

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Thanks for the advice, they are not banned on the water I have access to, I wanted a bait that is relatively immune to the attentions of all the small bream that are in the lake and hoover up everything else, I really don't want to use boilies. I hadn't considered peanuts though. I've never believed in throwing in loads of bait so the amount I have will be more than enough.

In my experience tiger nuts are pretty well the least attractive to bream of all baits; I don't recall ever getting a bream on a tiger nut - though I have had plenty of big roach on them. Boilies are not bream-proof anyway, particularly those that contain any amount of fishmeal.