Tench fishing in full swing.......

dezza · May 27, 2011

How do you fish for them?

Me, whilst admitting that there might be better ways to catch the big ones such as method feeders with boilies and bolt rigs, I prefer where possible to float fish for them. There is nothing in all angling as exciting as watching a float dip and dither to an enquiring tench, whilst at the same time those characteristic "lemonade bubbles" burst in profusion at the surface.

I don't bother fishing early these days as I am sure that this is a myth. Old Peter Stone was dead right when he stated that tench don't really start feeding until about 11 am and normally end about 4 in the afternoon. Well this appears to be the case with most of the waters I fish.

I like to get there early however to sort out a swim and to do a little pre-baiting.

My favourite tench groundbait is a mixture of Expo, sweetcorn, mashed bread, casters, maggots, pellets and chopped worms. Put a fair amount in, along the drop off if your lake has one and leave it a few hours. You can start fishing about 8-00 am but generally you won't get any signs until about 10 am.

And then the bubbles start.

And what is a big tench?

If I lived in the south near gravel pits I would want to have a chance of catching fish in the 8 pound plus bracket. Where I live now I am delighted with 4 to 5 pound fish. In the Fenland drains I have caught tench to 6 1/4 lbs. I don't expect to get them much bigger than that.

And are such fish worth catching?

Of course they are if you keep a sense of proportion.

Jeff Woodhouse · May 27, 2011

Ron The Hat Clay said:
And are such fish worth catching?

You mentioned his name earlier and he would say "They all count!"

Pity that no one wants those bubbles, they used to collect decent bream bubbles for putting into spirit levels, didn't you know.

dezza · May 27, 2011

Bream bubbles were the best and were placed into spirit levels which were termed: "Buckden's Breamers".

**** Walker's uncle Ebenezer was Head Globulist for Buckdens which stood on the banks of the Great Ouse at Offord. Tench bubbles were much too small, although many thought that if large tench bubbles could be found they would make the ideal spirit level bubble.

ash gordon · May 27, 2011

I have always done better with tench in the evening than in the morning. I am hoping to get out this weekend after a few all being well. And yes, float fishing is the only way for me.

barbelboi · May 27, 2011

barbelboi-albums-letter-america-picture2571-stoke-place.jpg

[FONT=&quot]Had a tinca session at a local lake this morning with a couple of friends (7am-1pm) float fishing to the near pads in approximately 3’ of water. Six tincas all over five pounds with the best a male of 7lb.2oz. The two females had spawned with one coming in like a bream on tranquilisers the other fought like a tiger on steroids, buried herself in the far side of the pads which resulted me netting it from a friends swim next door (saves all the commotion in your own swim – especially a shallow one). :wh

PS Thanks Jeff
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waggy · May 27, 2011

Jeff Woodhouse said:
You mentioned his name earlier and he would say "They all count!"

Pity that no one wants those bubbles, they used to collect decent bream bubbles for putting into spirit levels, didn't you know.

Ah, but they were fish farts.

Wobbly Face (As Per Ed) · May 27, 2011

One club I'm in, the tench are morning feeders. Another club, the tench are evening feeders. Yet i have fished other waers where I've caught tench at any time throughout the day.
Nothing worst than a jacusi of tench bubbles around the float, but they won't take the hook bait.

little oik · May 27, 2011

Nearly all of the lakes over here only fish well either early in the morning or late at night ,you get the odd vagrant during the day but not worth hanging around for .the Commercials however fish all day .
Dont forget the dreaded eel bubbles as well

dezza · May 28, 2011

I have fished a lot of fenland drains for tench over the years and although I like to get some groundbait in early morning, the tench don't start feeding until 9 to 10 am and often continue all afternoon.

In one large Irish lake I fished a lot in the 60s, the tench would often start feeding at midday, even in bright sunny weather. I don't suppose there are any hard and fast rules as to when tench will start and stop feeding, except that the traditional times are often all wrong.

The most frustrating part of tench fishing, is as Wobbly says when they are in your swim, bubbling all over the place and will not take your bait. Often if you are float fishing your float will dither and dip all over the place. This is often caused by the fish upending as tench often do, the wash from their fins causing the float movements. Pete Stone used to pin his hooklength down on the deck with a 1/4 oz Arlesey Bomb and them wait for the float to slide away.

This wasn't always successful I might add.

What I often do is to plumb the depth as accurately as possible and have the float set so that the bait just and only just touches bottom. Strike when you see the first movement of the float. I might add that this doesn't always work either, especially on silty bottomed estate lakes and fenland drains.

barbelboi · May 28, 2011

Ron The Hat Clay said:
What I often do is to plumb the depth as accurately as possible and have the float set so that the bait just and only just touches bottom. Strike when you see the first movement of the float. I might add that this doesn't always work either, especially on silty bottomed estate lakes and fenland drains.

I find the lift method works well on the silty bottom of a local estate lake that I fish for tench (also IMO using the'lift' minimises the liners from vertical feeding over silt - I wont mention the fizzing). The tincas there are responsive to small baits which helps. Also, in respect to 'time of day', I have also found that late morning to early afternoon is the most productive time at this lake, as well as some of the Yately pits that I used to fish regularly whilst with RMC/CMEX.

dezza · May 28, 2011

barbelboi said:
I find the lift method works well on the silty bottom of a local estate lake that I fish for tench (also IMO using the'lift' minimises the liners from vertical feeding over silt - I wont mention the fizzing). The tincas there are responsive to small baits which helps. Also, in respect to 'time of day', I have also found that late morning to early afternoon is the most productive time at this lake, as well as some of the Yately pits that I used to fish regularly whilst with RMC/CMEX.

I have used the lift method quite a lot, but these days I must admit I haven't used it as much as I did 14 years ago.

And the timing you mention Barbelboi is very similar to the feeding pattern I experienced on the Oxfordshire gravel pits. The first time I fished Manor Lake at Stanton Harcourt, I started at 6-30 in the morning. For 5 hours I never had a touch, although I could see tench in my swim hovering over my groundbait. At 11-30am or thereabouts I got my first bite, a male tench of 5 1/2 lbs. After this very spirited scrap I caught 4 more tench all between 7 and 8 lbs, before I packed at 2-30 pm.

I phoned Stoney who confirmed that it was a waste of time fishing Manor or even the other Linear pits before 10-30 am.

A couple of years later I happened to be fishing Smith's Pool at night for roach. I was the only angler on the lake so I decided to do a little experiment. I shone my very powerful torch into the water, which in no time at all attracted a number of big roach and rudd into my swim. Out went my float rod baited with bread flake and I quickly caught several roach and rudd well over the pound!

I also caught one tench, a female of 4 lbs, which also didn't seem to mind my powerful torch!

I mentioned this to Stoney who confirmed that he had caught several big roach in the beam of a torch, but daren't mention where.

Mention is made of the affinity of roach to lights in Peter's book on Gravel Pit Angling.

guest61 · May 28, 2011

I'm a bit of a misery with things like Tench fishing, or if I'm honest most specific species fishing - I get to go fishing when I can and so catch what ever is feeding - I've caught a few Tench this season using the lift method and a soft pellet on the hook

barbelboi · May 28, 2011

Ron The Hat Clay said:
And the timing you mention Barbelboi is very similar to the feeding pattern I experienced on the Oxfordshire gravel pits. The first time I fished Manor Lake at Stanton Harcourt, I started at 6-30 in the morning. For 5 hours I never had a touch, although I could see tench in my swim hovering over my groundbait. At 11-30am or thereabouts I got my first bite, a male tench of 5 1/2 lbs. After this very spirited scrap I caught 4 more tench all between 7 and 8 lbs, before I packed at 2-30 pm.

[FONT=&quot]I'll be tinca fishing again a couple of times next week, after the bank holiday, and the only reason my friends and I arrive reasonably early is for the peacefulness (I’ve rarely seen more than six anglers on this 6 acre lake), the anticipation, a chat and a cup of tea or three. Also, as you previously mentioned to bait up the swim prior to fishing.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]However, even though it is unlikely to get a bite before late morning I’m sure I’ll have a float in the water by 8 o’clock[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]About 8 or 9 years ago I was fishing a lake with my son ‘up in the water’ for carp. Early afternoon the water that we were fishing, some 20m out, turned very brown. Our first thought was that it was some sort of algae. Not so, it was a very large shoal of tench possibly brought to a feeding frenzy by the stream of pellets hitting the water. For half an hour it was a tinca a chuck – then they disappeared as quickly as they came. Although I have caught many tench, also some bream, up in the water I have never seen anything like this before or since. [/FONT]

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Eric Edwards · May 28, 2011

My best ever tench session comprised six fish, two sixes, two sevens an eight and a nine. All were caught in the afternoon after the fish had given me just line bites between 10am and 2pm. That said, I'm currently fishing a water where they feed early and my best fish of the season so far came at 5.30am.

Never had too many tench during the night whilst bream fishing although the hour just before dawn seems to produce a few fish.

dannytaylor · May 29, 2011

Im as happy ledgering as iam floatfishing for tench, whatever is the most appropriate method for the angling situation at hand, cant understand how people can be dismisive of a method because it dosent suit there perception of what is "correct" tench fishing.

I do as much floatfishing as ledgering for tincas but i have to confess that i have yet to have found the need to rig up a float "lift" style can somebody outline the advantages of this method over a standard float rig. Surly a float that has to lift its whole length and tilt over will give the fish more time to eject the bait?

(please forgive me if i come across as ignorant

)

barbelboi · May 29, 2011

dannytaylor said:
Im as happy ledgering as iam floatfishing for tench, whatever is the most appropriate method for the angling situation at hand, cant understand how people can be dismisive of a method because it dosent suit there perception of what is "correct" tench fishing.

I do as much floatfishing as ledgering for tincas but i have to confess that i have yet to have found the need to rig up a float "lift" style can somebody outline the advantages of this method over a standard float rig. Surly a float that has to lift its whole length and tilt over will give the fish more time to eject the bait?

(please forgive me if i come across as ignorant )

I think this guy explains it quite well, it will also save my fingers

The Fishing Coach :: Using the lift method for tench :: April :: 2005

Dave Slater · May 29, 2011

I have to agree. I use the lightest float possible and can see no advantage in using the lift method. I use an insert waggler taking 3 No 4 shot if I can get away with fishing close in. The tench often patrol the marginal shelf.
I also use feeders, maggot, groundbait and method plus straight ledgers using both conventional baits and boilees. These are all used running or as bolt rigs as situations dictate. These can sometimes be fished quite close in or at long range if the fish are there. This often depends on where features like bars and weedbeds are.
Like Danny I am not a slave to a particular method as I think what is effective on one water can be next to useless on another.
When I can my favourite method is using a light float close in but this is not practical on quite a few waters I know.
Also feeding times can vary greatly. On a lot of waters I fish the best time is between 6 and 12 am. Some waters, however, fish better in the afternoons and evenings. I have also encountered waters where my best fish have all come at night so there is no fixed rule.
This year the tench fed very well from early April and were particularly active in cold nights for some reason. They have altready spawned on many waters this year which is very early, so I would expect them to go on a big feeding spell now as they always seem to do this after spawning, a great time for bagging up but not necessarily for a really big fish.

Fishing Gimp · May 29, 2011

I don't dismiss those who prefer to ledger, as that would be hypcritical, having fished in that manner for many years....if you enjoy ledgering in a responsible way, why not?

Personally I now fish for my pleasure only and derive the greatest pleasure from float fishing, especially margin fishing for tench and crucian right under my feet with old tackle and a 'pin or trotting a tricky bit of river for roach and chub; just pure magic!

I suppose it is an age thing but I am no longer impressed by giant fish and the nonsense talked about them by 'earnest' tyros, having perhaps belonged to too many specimen groups and being a NASA 'stalwart' in the past. Now, I prefer to fish in pleasant surroundings, in a simple manner and catch my target species on the float. For me, it doesn't get any better than that.

Now that I am retired I only fish on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, when the fisheries in my area are empty. I suspect I may have become the quintessential pleasure angler!!!

dannytaylor · May 29, 2011

barbelboi said:
I think this guy explains it quite well, it will also save my fingers
The Fishing Coach :: Using the lift method for tench :: April :: 2005

thanks for that makes some sense although i still think that the tench would feel resistence long before the float has time to rise and fall flat. In the instance of the tench feeding and blowing/dislodging the hookbait would fishing further overdepth with the float not solve this problem and inturn still offer little resistence? Also could a stret-pegging sett-up not be as good in the situation outlined by the angling coach?

guest61 · May 29, 2011

dannytaylor said:
I do as much floatfishing as ledgering for tincas but i have to confess that i have yet to have found the need to rig up a float "lift" style can somebody outline the advantages of this method over a standard float rig. Surly a float that has to lift its whole length and tilt over will give the fish more time to eject the bait?

Its just a traditional method, I can't outline any specific advantages other than your bait remains static, you can fish big baits - without adjusting your float shot, you can get your bait down quickly too - for instance, if catching small Rudd on the drop were a problem.

To me its a 'different' method than say, using a pole or fishing a straight forward waggler, and when fished correctly it is very sensitive. The best bit for me is some of the bites that you get. NB - not all bites lift the float out of the water.

You pays your money and you take your choice.

Tench fishing in full swing.......

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