On the chin?

[Alan Whitty]

Do you think river tench often 'dissappear' due to trends of tackle and more importantly baits being used, the Ouse in Bedford used to have a reasonable amount of tench, then they were gone for a decade or more, last year I decided to try for the roach on the pole feeding mash with flake on the hook, I had some nice roach, odd skimmers, then bang a nice tench, I think they are present bit most anglers are fishing light tackle for the roach, then are quickly seen off by Mr. Tinca....

 

[no-one in particular]

Do you think river tench often 'dissappear' due to trends of tackle and more importantly baits being used, the Ouse in Bedford used to have a reasonable amount of tench, then they were gone for a decade or more, last year I decided to try for the roach on the pole feeding mash with flake on the hook, I had some nice roach, odd skimmers, then bang a nice tench, I think they are present bit most anglers are fishing light tackle for the roach, then are quickly seen off by Mr. Tinca....

My baits are general, mostly bread or sweetcorn fished just over margin weed about 6 -8ft out, with a bit of mashed up bread and sweetcorn thrown in as groundbait. 4 5lb line, float , the only thing I change is hook size going 14 to 10 depending. This will attract every fish in the river bream, roach ect, usually mostly roach turn up first but, occasionally tench would turn up, generally just caught one or two although did have one freak couple of hours when I had 8 once, these are usually good fish 3-5+lb. So, I don't think it is the bait or tackle as have not changed much. Then they just stopped about 5 or more years ago, I think it maybe nearer ten years, could be just a coincidence sort of thing however, along another stretch 20+ miles away the same thing happened, different river but part of the same system, had one or two in there most summers but then nothing for a very long time. Hard to say why, I know of no pollution event so a bit of a mystery. Could just be a coincidence but it is a long time to never see a tench in a place, although not prolific where there was always some.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I should have added the way cycles of success in breeding, or survival of fry may have depleted numbers of any species, I can remember roach going through very lean years, perch, chub too, in fact on the river Ivel at Biggleswade the river used to have a massive head of bream, in fact there was hardly a swim upstream of the mechano bridge where it wasn't possible to catch several but they slowly disappeared and I've only heard of one in about ten years, they were gone before the otters arrived, so can't imagine why....

 

[no-one in particular]

I should have added the way cycles of success in breeding, or survival of fry may have depleted numbers of any species, I can remember roach going through very lean years, perch, chub too, in fact on the river Ivel at Biggleswade the river used to have a massive head of bream, in fact there was hardly a swim upstream of the mechano bridge where it wasn't possible to catch several but they slowly disappeared and I've only heard of one in about ten years, they were gone before the otters arrived, so can't imagine why....

I was thinking last night after my post, always a dangerous thing however, it occured to me the one thing that has changed in the last 10 years is the amount of flooding and water that goes through this river system. I have seen it at its highest a few times breaking previous records, there is a ea measuring station on one part, I think this maybe has something to do with the tench decline, the river stays pretty calm and sedate most of the year except when there is a lot of rain and the lock keepers open the sluices and let it out, this must have been happening a lot more in the last 10 years, when they open the river just rushes through and goes down in level a lot, maybe it has got too much for the tench; what do you think?

Another peculiar one is the same river, I started fishing it about 20 years ago with a mate, we always caught a few chub, always about 1-1.5lb. We thought maybe there had been a pollution event that got them and these fish were a recovering weight class, we caught them well for a few years, noticed they were getting a bit bigger but then they disappeared altogether, my mate has passed since but I have not had a chub on this stretch in 5+ years. I am sure they may have moved up river (or not, I don't know) but why no more all of a sudden. As I said funny old game river fishing, I don't worry now, just go with the flow but it is a shame sometimes especially with the tench, loved catching those, I think my biggest was about 6lb, 6lb of fighting river tench was a moment..

 

[Alan Whitty]

I would think it's the younger tench that would succumb to flooding and after a few bad years the adults population dwindles and the gap is there, I'd imagine this happens to all species of fish to some degree...

 

[Ray Roberts]

I fish three stretches of the Eden in Kent and have had some nice river tench (best 61/2 lb) I think many come in from Hever Castle lake in the floods, so it’s receiving a steady stocking when there’s a flood.

 

[Philip]

I used to catch some nice Tench on the Kennet round Aldermaston and Burghfield way...they probably came from the pits in flood too.

I know one stretch of the River Seine were I used to catch quite a few Tench when after Carp... but that has little in the way of lakes round that section for them to come from so perhaps they were just out and out river bred fish. It was always a welcome surprise to see them. It was noticable that they always used to come to the rod fished on a shallow plateau and never from rods out deeper.