Tench in Weed - Conundrum!

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bullmoose_jackson

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Dear all,

I fish an urban canal harbour that holds some good tench.

The problem is, it is full of weed. Choked with the stuff. I prefer standard waggler tactics, but bait presentation is impossible - the trailing hooklength invariably wraps around a strand on its way down, and I am never confident that my bait is visible. Even accurately plumbing up with so much weed is very difficult.

Raking is not an option - the last time I tried it, I was questioned by police who thought I was attempting to recover a body. :eek:mg: I supposes dredging a canal in the middle of a dangerous neighbourhood at 5.00 am on a may morning is slightly suspicious.

With these constraints in mind, how would you approach the fishing?

All thoughts appreciated.
 
Bluenose

Bluenose

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I think you need to be careful about removing the weed.

A swim I used to fish regularly, I inadvertently cleared a lot of weed by regularly feeding micro pellet and hemp ove, as such the fish were constantly mooching and much of the weed in one spot, just off a bed of lilies, was almost totally removed.

Thing is, as the season progressed it became a far less productive swim, the weedier swims, with all their problems, produced more tench, whereas 'my' swim wasn't as good towards the end of June!

If the weed is that bad, I'd persevere with the rake, if that's not possible use a pole, by reading your float and the ability to raise and lower the bait you will be able to tell when/if the bait is on the bottom.
 
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Tee-Cee

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Clear a decent size area, bait up regularly with the usual goodies in the evening and fish early morning. In such situations I would freeline to allow the bait to sit on top of the remaining weed (unlikely you will clear it all!) or with a single swan shot to give casting weight....
If your cleared swim is surrounded by heavy weed I suggest its best to keep things simple with as little on the line as possible although others may disagree...
I decent rod with power will help depending on size of fish expected.

Personally I suggest you have to persevere until the fish become more comfortable with the regular baiting although you may end up with others fishing your prepared spot if its an open water....
Lots of alternatives but this would be my approach

Good luck anyway!
 
barbelboi

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As earlier said, if it's not against the rules rake it - the tench usually appear by the time you set up a rod.
Jerry
 
john step

john step

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This may sound flippant but do you have an alternative scenic venue that isn't "urban". It may be a question of travel difficulties or cost but I know what I would prefer if I had the choice.
 
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captainbarnacles

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as i said rake and feed the night before you fish , then fish early morning , fish this spot twice then change swim and so on , you'll keep them coming.
 
barbelboi

barbelboi

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chubberbob said:
as i said rake and feed the night before you fish , then fish early morning , fish this spot twice then change swim and so on , you'll keep them coming.
Click to expand...

Surely that defeats the object of raking a swim? Rake and fish within 20 minutes or so when the fish are up for it - they'd have possibly lost intrest the next day.
Jerry
 
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captainbarnacles

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well i've never fished a raked swim that way , as the disturbance normally to my mind clears them off , yes they do come back but i found not for a while , thats why iv'e always fished the rake method this way and its always worked for me , just my way perhaps not yours , and thats not saying your wrong its just my way that iv'e found works for me , just trying to help, nothing wrong with trying both methods and see what works on the on that water ,if your strugling then you got nothing to loose. And in the event that they do feed in 20 mins , they will probably come back in the early hours for some more of the same, kind regards Chubber
 
barbelboi

barbelboi

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Chubber, bare in mind that raking a swim is not just about removing the weed. I often rake 'weedless' swims to churn up the bottom - within the time I set up a rod the tench are there investigating, if I fish that same swim the next day I will often rake it again - weed removal is just a part of the equation.
Jerry
 
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captainbarnacles

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yes jerry i quite agree , raking is not the be all and end all your method sounds good , but its never worked for me on the waters iv'e fished , i fished the same method last year on a small lake ,well more of a pond deep and holds a lot of decent tench ,i got there early and raked it fed it and never had a bite all day , so next time i done my usual rake the day before and fished early next day and it worked , so now i stick to the way iv'e always done it , bit more work involved as its a long walk but you get out what you put in , also sometimes in the past when i fished say on a sunday then friday rake and feed , sat feed , and fish sunday . i,m realy up for anything that works and take all comments on board as we never stop learning, if one thing dont work then try something else that you have heard or read about , if it was easy i'd go bike riding lol.
 
chav professor

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I had a similar problem fishing a weedy river for tench.... I could fish gaps in the weed by using an onion float as a slider... everything could neatly drop down and presentation could be achieved..
 
S-Kippy

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Faced by the same problem I tried raking but how ever much I dragged out seemed to make no difference...it was absolutely solid but full of bubbling tench. I ended up fishing a heavy-ish lead,short link and bombing the bait through the weed. I did catch fish like that but I wouldn't say it solved the problem. In the end I gave up & hoyed off somewhere else.
 
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