New to tench.

[James stewart]

Can experienced tenchers give me some advice please.
I usually fish for pike but this summer have been turned on to Tench by my fishing partner "Des the Tart Tobin".
When raking how much should be removed ,does over use of the rake make tench uncomfortable ,do they miss the cover ? Just how much should one remove .
Secondly how much ground bait should I put in at present not very much with a sprinkling of corn and a a few casters . Does a boyant bait beat one fished on the bottom ,are they more likely to go for a visible bait ?
Any advice gratefully recieved.
My best to date is 6lb 4oz , the water I am preoccupied with is a hard water good fish but they tend to be shy and hard to get , not a big head of tench but what is there is good.
Tight lines lads and Cutties (A Fermanagh word for young girls !).

 

[GrahamM]

Rake only as much weed as necessary to allow you to fish. If you fish two rods it's better to rake two narrow tracks than one wide track. Tench do like cover and will feed more confidently if the minimum is removed. Always pile the weed you remove at the edge of the water so that the food creatures it holds can crawl back into the lake. The amount of groundbait you use depends on the head of fish in the water that are likely to use the swim (not just the tench), which of course will vary from one water to another. So start off with a little bait and keep topping up with loose feed if the tench feed well. Experience will then teach you how much to put in to start with. Assuming you can fish two rods try a bouyant bait on one and a bottom bait on the other until you find which they prefer. Better with a bottom bait when there's a choice as they can be used on simpler rigs.