| MARK WINTLE |
| Mark Wintle, an angler for thirty-five years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish, tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises. Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular weekly column. |
Tench Fishing – Traditional Meets Modern Like many coarse anglers I have often enjoyed summer tench fishing. Hard fighting and great to look at, it is hardly surprising that they are the favourite fish of many coarse anglers. The boom in gravel pits and stillwaters has greatly increased the opportunities to catch tench, many of tremendous size. The great thing about gravel pit tenching is that you don’t need to get up really early. Furthermore it is possible at times to enjoy some excellent sport during the winter and early spring catching good tench on light float tackle in mild conditions. Although the winter fishing is slow at times it is rare to get bothered by small fish such as roach and rudd despite using small baits like maggots. During the summer months it is a different story. I love fishing for tench with float tackle. One rod at close to moderate range is my ideal. I have legered for tench using feeders, and have no doubts as to the effectiveness of legering methods but using a float increases the pleasure. A variety of waters and is pellet the answer? Now, I fish for tench on a variety of waters but one particular Hampshire gravel pit is a favourite, along with the adjoining pit. It’s about 20 acres and has been a fishery for over thirty years. I first started to fish it on a regular basis about twenty years ago. At that time the tench ran from a pound to about five pounds, crucian carp also showed, good ones up to two pounds. At that time a simple float approach using bread at the edge of the many overhanging willows produced bags of up to ten tench. Then as the years went by other species were introduced, bream and rudd, and the roach and perch that had previously only been present in small numbers increased greatly. Groundbait and bread, though remaining attractive to the tench, became ineffective as the swarms of small fish hooked themselves. After a few frustrating sessions attempting and failing to catch the tench over the years I abandoned the lake during the summer and only fished it in the winter.
The quick way back was to buy a pot of hookable 4mm pellets of similar flavour to my feed pellets and take it from there. One of the pleasures of fishing is finding things out for yourself, and from my match fishing days I know that experimentation can lead to better catches. At worst I won’t get a bite, though this is more likely through poor swim location and feeding than poor bait. If they ain’t there you can’t catch ’em. So with the bait situation sorted it was time to find a swim. For insurance I did pack some slices of bread. A swim between two willows On the first Saturday of the new season (this is a lake with a close season) and the sun shining, I fully expected to struggle to get a swim but the car park was barely a third full. With a stiff South Easterly breeze blowing, I walked down the West bank of the lake looking for an available swim that had the twin criteria of the wind coming in and overhanging trees. I was spoilt for choice, as there was only one angler on this bank. In the hot sunshine I looked for some shade and settled for a comfortable swim between two large overhanging willows.
Feeding I planned to introduce about 20 pellets every five minutes to feed the swim on the left hand side and about ten by the right hand tree. I was not at this stage fully confident in using pellet on the hook so decided to use a large piece of punched bread on the hook until I’d at least had a bite or two. I didn’t have to wait long.
The constant feeding quickly attracted a different kind of fish. Though the bread punch was nearly half an inch in diameter a succession of small rudd made continuing with bread a frustrating option. Time to try the pellets. My first discovery about these hookable pellets is that they float. Secondly the size 11 hook was a bit on the large size so I changed down to a size 13. I added another no. 8 shot just two inches from the hook to hold the pellet near the bottom – just like a popup really. Small rudd my a***! After an hour or so the pellets started to attract more fish, and bubbles from the baited area encouraged me. There were some tench down there but maybe the popped up hookbait was catching into the fish because two good bites resulted in foul-hooked fish. Both came adrift very quickly leaving a tench scale or two embedded on the hook. A little later, an on-the-drop bite appeared to me to be a small rudd as the float jerked up and down. I ignored it as I was taking a drink. As I put the drink down the line tightened and I struck. Small rudd my a***! Big carp more like as it ploughed into the willow. After three hours a slow bite resulted in a fast and furious battle with a tench. I just managed to steer it clear of the branches to my left before it charged to my right. It failed to make it and I was able put the net under a fine male tench of four pounds that felt the fight should continue in the landing net. After that a succession of good roach took a liking to the pellet, no monsters but all between four and twelve ounces, and in good bright condition for early season. A final lost tench that slipped the hook wrapped up the session as the fierce sun threatened to turn me into a lobster. I returned to the swim a couple of evenings later and hooked two more tench, landing one female of just under five pounds, plus some more decent roach. From these two short sessions I have learnt some lessons. First that standard match gear isn’t quite up to the job. These aren’t monster tench but a specimen match rod with at least five-pound line is required. Secondly I need to find a hook that gets a better hookhold. For the short sessions that I have in mind float fishing is as pleasant a way to fish as any, and bite detection is excellent. Finally I’m going to look at different hook baits, perhaps mini boilies in a sweet flavour. Two weeks later I have returned, with the right rod, Drennan carp barbless hooks and Manic 6mm sinking pellets. Now the gear is right, the bait is better and I’m landing good tench. Cracked it. NEXT WEEK: Christchurch Harbour |
