They are a magical fish,i remember a session on an Oxfordshire gravel pit,i'd dragged a peg on the evening of the 15th of June(back in the days of the close season),pulling out a mass of Canadian pondweed(put it along the bank),pre-baited with two cat litter trays of g.bait,full of corn,two pints of maggot,hemp and two loaves of mashed bread,midnight came and the isotope float had hardly cocked then shot under,a crazy fight ensued and i landed a 14.8 mirror,now this was back in the days when carp were rarely hooked,let alone landed,when I tell you I was disappointed,just because it wasnt a tench,the thing was I caught 21 rudd between 12ozs and 1.8 and didnt hook a tench until first light,then it was one after the other,41 to just under 5lbs,days that will always stay in the memory i'd like to think....
If you target a certain species of fish.....
- Thread starter tigger
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They are a magical fish,i remember a session on an Oxfordshire gravel pit,i'd dragged a peg on the evening of the 15th of June(back in the days of the close season),pulling out a mass of Canadian pondweed(put it along the bank),pre-baited with two cat litter trays of g.bait,full of corn,two pints of maggot,hemp and two loaves of mashed bread,midnight came and the isotope float had hardly cocked then shot under,a crazy fight ensued and i landed a 14.8 mirror,now this was back in the days when carp were rarely hooked,let alone landed,when I tell you I was disappointed,just because it wasnt a tench,the thing was I caught 21 rudd between 12ozs and 1.8 and didnt hook a tench until first light,then it was one after the other,41 to just under 5lbs,days that will always stay in the memory i'd like to think....
I guess we are all different and whatever floats our boart at any given time is fine and dandy.
Personally I spent almost a decade fishing for Carp and Tench to the excusion of everythig else.
Since those days I have changed to fish for whatever species takes my fancy at the time but typically in the warmer months it might be; carp, tench, dace, rudd and chub whereas in the winter then grayling, roach and chub dominate most of my time. I rarely if ever fish deliberately for barbel . . . .
The springtime however is reserved 100% for trout on the fly with many a summer dry fly trip on the river.
Personally I spent almost a decade fishing for Carp and Tench to the excusion of everythig else.
Since those days I have changed to fish for whatever species takes my fancy at the time but typically in the warmer months it might be; carp, tench, dace, rudd and chub whereas in the winter then grayling, roach and chub dominate most of my time. I rarely if ever fish deliberately for barbel . . . .
The springtime however is reserved 100% for trout on the fly with many a summer dry fly trip on the river.
Mike, If tench are thin on the ground then its a difficulty isn't it. My lake was absolutely superb for tench a few years ago but it went through the doldrums but seems to be recovering now. Fingers crossed for the Spring.
rayner
Well-known member
Different species, anything does me, even a 1oz roach when I'm bread punch fishing. If it were possible stick would be king.
Size has never bothered me, if bigger fish come along I'm OK with the odd one. I've fished all day for bleak, on the other end of the scale I've fished all day for chub.
What I'm more concerned with now is getting on the bank. I've been avoiding my first choice venue for different reasons, firstly it seems to every peg there's a ramp to negotiate to get to the platform. second the access road is a bomb site with what are nothing short of craters to cope with. The risk of damage to our car is not worth the trouble.
I've settled on a British Waterways venue that is stuffed with carp with the odd skimmer. Not my favourite water but it's the only water that accommodates for my situation, so there's no way I will disrespect the water or the stocking to anyone.
It's either match sized carp with the odd skimmer and tench thrown in, Bigger carp with skimmers. Fish that are really too large for me to handle, I've never failed to land a fish from that particular pond but need to rest for a while before tackling another hungry fish.
There is one smaller pond that's got roach but coupled with big carp so I avoid that.
I prefer bomb fishing, I do attempt pellet waggler and catch a few but I'm far from proficient. It's very tricky trying to keep casting and feeding constantly but just being busy makes a days fishing enjoyable. I've fallen out with fishing a feeder, to catch fish it's the bomb and for enjoyment it's casting a waggler, with waggler a few fish are a bonus.
Size has never bothered me, if bigger fish come along I'm OK with the odd one. I've fished all day for bleak, on the other end of the scale I've fished all day for chub.
What I'm more concerned with now is getting on the bank. I've been avoiding my first choice venue for different reasons, firstly it seems to every peg there's a ramp to negotiate to get to the platform. second the access road is a bomb site with what are nothing short of craters to cope with. The risk of damage to our car is not worth the trouble.
I've settled on a British Waterways venue that is stuffed with carp with the odd skimmer. Not my favourite water but it's the only water that accommodates for my situation, so there's no way I will disrespect the water or the stocking to anyone.
It's either match sized carp with the odd skimmer and tench thrown in, Bigger carp with skimmers. Fish that are really too large for me to handle, I've never failed to land a fish from that particular pond but need to rest for a while before tackling another hungry fish.
There is one smaller pond that's got roach but coupled with big carp so I avoid that.
I prefer bomb fishing, I do attempt pellet waggler and catch a few but I'm far from proficient. It's very tricky trying to keep casting and feeding constantly but just being busy makes a days fishing enjoyable. I've fallen out with fishing a feeder, to catch fish it's the bomb and for enjoyment it's casting a waggler, with waggler a few fish are a bonus.
theartist
Well-known member
mikench
Well-known member
I cannot comprehend 41 tench in my fishing lifetime yet alone a session.
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Don't you usually put rubber on your blanks?
That sounded so wrong
I’ll treat that remark with the contempt it deserves.
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
I generally floatfish for roach but I'm happy with most species and over the course of a year get a good variety; yesterday I fished a small stillwater for roach and had roach, skimmers, a rudd, a nice perch and a couple of tench, and lost a carp, all on light waggler with a 22 and maggots. My river fishing has produced plenty of roach on the good days. What has changed this season is that conditions since the start of autumn have made catching dace, chub and grayling (none caught) a difficult proposition on the waters I fish; my favoured chub venue has been over the fields more often than not so just one chublet, dace seem very scarce and I've had barely a dozen since October, and my favoured grayling water has been flooded since the 1st November opening and it fished very badly last season, partly due to cormorants, partly poor conditions and partly being hammered the two years previous by relentless feeder anglers. There was a time when a good day's dace fishing was upwards of a hundred, sometimes more than twice that but I've had just a couple of hundred all season.
I fancy a go on the tidal Stour before the season ends if only for the chance of a silver bream or two, and maybe some dace, but whether it'll settle enough I'll have to wait and see.
I fancy a go on the tidal Stour before the season ends if only for the chance of a silver bream or two, and maybe some dace, but whether it'll settle enough I'll have to wait and see.
mikench
Well-known member
theartist
Well-known member
Copycat!
Yeah but his had comedy timing :wh
Nor could I these days,but ive had as many as 108,50+ tench on at least three waters if I remember correctly,the numbers stick in the mind,but in all honesty,the regular bites from quality fish mean more,seems odd as i remember these numbers,but thats just me,I do have a good memory for most things,especially routes and fishing,happily...
sam vimes
Well-known member
Tench are just all about the venue. Even on a venue that's fairly well stocked with them, if there are a decent number of carp, you are going to struggle to catch them in numbers. I didn't ever expect to better thirty in a day. That was an exceptional day on one of the best local tench waters. However, I got invited to a water a fair distance away from me and had what appeared a fairly average day for the venue and still smashed my best out of sight. (see 15/5/19 in HDYGO)
sam vimes
Well-known member
John Keane
Well-known member
Quite a lot of what I do is for specific species anyway. Salmon on the double handed rod and fly, brown trout & grayling on the Czech Nymph, deadbaiting for pike, winter grayling trotting with a ‘pin.
Summer coarse fishing tends to be exclusively on a club lake so a lot of carp and F1’s on pole, feeder or waggler is a nice, lazy way of fishing.
Summer coarse fishing tends to be exclusively on a club lake so a lot of carp and F1’s on pole, feeder or waggler is a nice, lazy way of fishing.
I would indeed - I'm happy to acknowledge it's a special place! As I remember, those tench certainly put a bend, or numerous bends, in one of your Browning Sphere's. I always get a bit bored in the close season, but that's a place to brighten up a few April and May days.
sam vimes
Well-known member
Absolutely. I suspect I could have gone two miles from home and caught a bigger tench. However, I don't know of anywhere that I could catch a greater number.
no-one in particular
Well-known member
My best tench catch in one session oddly was on a river. It always held a few but seldom caught, the odd one or two here and there but good fish; to 6lbish sometimes. One day I just plonked the float over the edge weed and caught 8 virtually one after the other in about an hour, then they disappeared. very unusual event, my mate who was fishing 30 yds from me never had one, he loved tench and was well miffed about it.
Sadly those tench have declined in that river, haven't caught one for quite a few years now.
Sadly those tench have declined in that river, haven't caught one for quite a few years now.
It wasn't the best or biggest catch, but some unexpected river tench made my evening once. I was fishing in Ireland and realised I was only half an hour from a hot water outfall at Shannonbridge that I'd heard about, so I set off to spend the evening. All the swims were taken - I hadn't seen an angler all week, so I'd forgotten they existed - and the anglers catching good bream. It was too late to move, so I settled for plonking down, feeling a bit sorry for myself, next to a little backwater pond well away from the action. I thought I might catch some bits and pieces, so half a dozen tench of 5lbs made me really pleased I'd come.