Tench fishing a silty lake

[tommos16]

It's early days, but my mind is turning to Tench fishing for the coming months. I've identified a water with Tench in, but it's extremely silty. Sometimes several feet of silt, along with low lying weed.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to approach it, save for Helicopter rigs with light leads, almost Chod style.

Lift method is an option, but is new to me and I feel I'd struggle to plumb the depth with the soft silt I'm faced with. Any tips would be hugely appreciated

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[Keith M]

Even on silted up lakes there is usually the occasional areas that are virtually siltless like raised bars or areas close to inlet streams. But if not you can still catch them over thick silt.

Plumbing the depth can be a little hit and miss but if you use a smallish flat bottomed plumb weight or just an SSG shot pinched over the bend of your hook then that can make it a bit easier; you will normally be wanting to fish a little bit over depth anyway.

Have you ever watched the clouds of pin bubbles moving towards your bait and then continuing straight on right past your bait with little more than a tremble on your float as it passes by? Ive often had this happen to me and I think that this might be because the Tench have been too busy burying their noses deep amongst the thick silt looking for bloodworm and other things that can be found in it; and the hook bait has been sitting proudly right on top of the silt and has not even been noticed.

This doesn’t always happen of course but it often does on really deep silt when there’s very little visibility and lots of clouds being sent up by feeding Tench. However eventually a Tench will find it so don’t despair too much.

On some days like this I’ve often tried slightly heavier baits like sweetcorn or small boilies which will sink a little further into the silt; or used a smelly bait additive like a seafood or some spice or worm extract flavouring either above or amongst the silt.
One flavour that I’ve had some success with in the past was a ‘sweet Wasp grub’ spray flavouring which used to be sold in my local tackleshop and which I still have in my bait store.

Anyway best of luck and let us know how you fared.

Keith

 

[tommos16]

Thanks Keith! Very much appreciated mate

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[Peter Jacobs]

Have you considered the Carp anglers Zig Rig using pop up boilie as bait?

 

[tommos16]

Yeah I had actually considered going down a carp route, unfortunately. I had a few approaches in mind:

1) long hook links over a baited spot, with a pva foam nugget so the bait floats slowly onto the top of the silt

2) an almost Chod rig with a fishmeal type pop up

3) firing out a maggot feeder and just hoping they come across it in the silt

4) stinky baits and bolt rigs, fished over a bed of particles and boilies in the silt.

But all feel, just, not right? Or not John Wilson enough maybe haha

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[liphook]

Swan mussels float fished over depth on fairly crude standard waggler tackle (ie not lift) have proved to be the killer for better tench on a similar sounding water for me. There's definitely something in the heavier/denser bait approach so try hemp etc in the loose feed. A useful alternative has been long link and longish tail legering of bunches of maggots threaded on floss with a sliver of foam in the middle, tied to a hair loop and with a pva bag of gots nicked on to the hook. I like the sound of DC''s maggots doused in fizzy cola too and will be giving that a go this summer - see his diaries for more info. I've a feeling that Dr Pepper could work for old tinca?