Double figure tench on the Method

“The way my fishing’s been going I think I’d better go out and buy a lottery ticket.”

These were the words of Phil Spinks who, just a week after banking one of the country’s biggest carp at a weight of 52lb on light tench gear, landed one of his intended species - this impressive 10lb 4oz specimen.

A prolific two-hour feeding spell was all that the Korum consultant  needed to get the better of eight fish that came from his local Lenwade Charity Lake in Norfolk, the same venue that produced the huge mirror known as Babyface seven days earlier.

This time round Phil headed to the opposite end of the lake where there’s much more weed present and put out a bed of maggots, casters, hemp and pellets over a clear spot at 55 yards with a small spod.

Over the top of this he cast a method feeder rig constructed with a Korum Dura-Method and a short 3ins Xpert Power Braid hooklink attached to a size 12 Xpert Specimen hook baited with three hair-rigged fake maggots.

He spent the night behind silent bite alarms, but at first light the fish started fizzing over his baited area.

“I was beginning to get a bit worried that I hadn’t had a bite as they were obviously feeding hard,” Phil said. “I kept recasting every 15 minutes or so and at 7am my alarm finally burst in to life. Over the next couple of hours I went on to land seven more tench, including the 10lb 4oz specimen, and a number of roach to over 2lb.

“There’s no doubt that this is the rig of the moment and the beauty of it is that anyone can use with complete confidence – it’s so versatile at a whole host of different venues.

“I visiting the River Trent for the first time soon to have a go for the barbel so hopefully my purple patch will continue,” he added.