tench help

Hi guys, im gonna be targetting tench this spring (if it ever arrives) and was looking for some pointers to get me started. Im planning on fishing cheddar reservoir, iv heard theres some good ones in there. Any tips on cheddar or general tenching would be appreciated. Cheers guys.

Hi PC,don't know the water so can't help you there sorry but a simple tip from me is use sweetcorn and worms as bait,look for the fizz ..by that i mean the bubbles that Tench give,they are very disstinctive and look like fizzy pop bubbles,if you notice those then a few freebies of bait followed by your hook bait can be very effective...im sure someone else will give you better advice than this,good luck.

STAN.

And get there early, in my experience with tench, you're lucky to get a nibble after 9:30 am on the waters I've fished.

Hi mate ,I fished it quite a few times without getting a bite from the tench ,and found it to be very deep even a few rod lenghs out.
Was sitting there again last year when an old boy came down and started chuckling and told me I was fishing too far out.
His advice was to fish just where the water got deep enough so that you couldnt see the bottom ,which was only about 6 or 7 feet out.
Not believing him ,he told me to join him on the top off the dam wall and borrrow his polaroids.After care fully looking and waiting for 10 minutes about 5 hugh tench could just be seen skirting along the bank.Makes you think ,when the reservoir is over 260 acres.
I managed to get one around 6lb and will be there again this year.

I don't know the water either but I'd also recommend locating the fish and using natural baits. The first thing to do is locate the fish. Locating tench is usually pretty easy, it can be time consuming but by putting time into looking for rolling and bubbling fish you will be saving a lot of frustration later on. Look out for features - they love anywhere that they can hide and feel safe.

The underwater detail is likely to have an influence regarding what measures will make the tench more catchable. In shallow water (for instance) the light is likely to penetrate to the bottom and if there’s a lot of light then the tench will easily be able to see an your terminal tackle. The lake-bed composition and contours are important because they dictate the best choice regarding tactics Also as tench are very shy fish it is important not to let them know you’re there if fishing close in.

Tench prefer natural baits. They can be caught on boilies and pellets, just like carp because in many lakes this is become a natural food source for the fish as anglers continue to use them. However if I’m targeting tench then I would not use boilies or pellets.I prefer to use baits such as worms, maggots, sweetcorn, luncheon meat and chickpeas.
Jerry
PS Also get to know your water. Although tench can be considered early morning feeders on many waters, there are a couple that I fish where you are lucky to get a bite from a decent fish until after 10.30.

Hi PC, welcome to FM.

One bait that hasn`t been mentioned is bread. Don`t underestimate a bit of flake.

Freelined luncheonmeat or a nice big lump of breadflake. Maybe use a small shot if using breadflake to aid casting and get it down on the bottom a little quicker.

I fish for them the same way as I do carp, method/cage feeder 8mm hair rigged coarse pellet banded close to the hook. Fish close to features or signs of feeding activity.

We have one club lake where they are often caught on the pellet waggler along with carp and bream. Normally about 2ft deep in 15ft+ of water.

As I live in France I've never heard of your water, but tench are tench.... I agree that fishing the close margin can be very effective. I've actually seen shoals of tench feeding right on the marginal shelves of our lakes.
A couple of years back, while sorting a tangle on my reel, I'd left my plastic corn bait it the edge, inches from the bank. Before I could finish a tench had taken the bait right at my feet.

There's loads of info in the above posts, which will certainly see you catch tench. I guess you'll have to adapt the advise to your type of fishing. Personally I like to target big tench in a traditional specimen hunters approach.
I come at things from a carp angling point of view as in the past, while carping, I have often been pestered by tench using boilies.

These days though, I target big tench using scaled down carp tactics. They love hemp so I often spod out a bed of bait to keep them in the area.
Probably the most attractive groundbaits out there now are halibut pellet based ones. I make a mix of ground up mixed pellets, some crushed up boilies, a few handfuls of whole 2mm betaine pellets and some halibut oil... you can add some hemp and sweet corn if you like. Just add some hot warter and this makes a great, fairly heavy, sticky ground bait that is deadly for tench, carp (and barbel on the rivers).

For tench my preferred technique is a couple of method feeders. ESP have just brought out some brilliant flat Mega feeders with a mould for getting a perfect feederful each time.
I vary the hookbaits, but generally use, Prologic plastic corn (very realistic); a small boilie, a fluro pop up or a piece of Frolic dog biscuit in a bait band. Hooklinks need to be short 4 or 5 inches tops. The presentation is spot on and has seen me bank numerous tench to over 8lb.

Another good tactic over a bed of hemp is a Drennan maggot feeder with a couple of artificial maggots threaded on a hair.

With all these feeder techniques the essential is to keep the bait trickling in, by casting regularly. I start off every ten or 15 mins for the first hour or so then every hour or after a fish.

cheers
Gareth

Thanks guys, i have heard that the tench do patrol the concrete steps (margins) and the water is very clear so should spot them moving. My approach will probably be an inline maggot feeder and short hooklink but il have to see on the day. I was thinking plenty of maggots and hemp should get them going.

pcollins82 said:

Thanks guys, i have heard that the tench do patrol the concrete steps (margins) and the water is very clear so should spot them moving. My approach will probably be an inline maggot feeder and short hooklink but il have to see on the day. I was thinking plenty of maggots and hemp should get them going.

Click to expand...

Yes this works well... use plastic maggots or caster on a hair... Will stand up better and not get sucked dry by roach etc...
cheers
Gareth

I too have found tench feeding close in.

The first time I found this was after a fruitless couple of hours fishing a baited swim I paddled out a few feet to wet some groundbait and immediately after that wound in while I had a cup of coffee. The float was literally 6" from the rod end and less than a foot of water. While I was drinking my coffee the float glided away and I had a 5lb+ tench on. I managed another ten or so from exactly the same spot and the only problem I had was having to put the keepnet a few yards down the bank.

I reckon the tench were attracted to the muddy disturbance where I'd been paddling to wet my groundbait so after that I used to add mud or clay to my tench groundbait mix.

Wow, they do like the margins then. What lake aas this from m8?

There are a few articles here by Mark Barret that are worth a look.

http://www.fishingmagic.com/feature.../16014-tench-fishing-tinca-time-part-one.html

http://www.fishingmagic.com/feature...tench-fishing-–-time-for-tench:-part-two.html

http://www.fishingmagic.com/feature...nch-fishing-–-time-for-tench:-part-three.html

I went to Cheddar once last spring. Albeit with little success I feel confident on return of catching something. Definitely locate the fish first. We got there for 4am and started blindly fishing the bank near the skate park. By 10.30am neither my mate or I had had a bite. We spent the hottest part of the day scrambling up Cheddar gorge, had a little kip at the top then made our way back to the res.

After having now walked the whole way round the reservoir twice we'd found a few fish. All the fish we found were on the bank opposite to the skate park/tower. As people have said right at the bottom of the steps seemed to be the spot. I only had one rod with me at uni and unfortunately it was 2 1/4lb tc and 13lb line. I don't think this helped with bites at all although I did hook and lose 1 fish of about 4lbs which got into the weed.

The guy in the swim next to me was fishing a pole at full length to a gap in the weed (which was extensive, if you could make a rake I imagine it would be well worth the effort). I believe he had 4 fish and lost another 3 using heavy elastic hit and hold tactics.

Saw an eel caught which was a first for me and also watched a different fish patrolling in the margins, quite a sight, there was definitely something slightly spooky about the way it moved through the water.

Hope to get back down there and catch one of the tench before leaving Bristol this spring. From what I heard worms, maggots, casters and sweetcorn all seemed to be a solid choice of bait. Managed to get them feeding on the maggots although catching them didn't go to plan.