First Spot Of Tinca Fishing In A While

While fishing the pit the other day I was pondering the fact I hadn't done much tench fishing for an awful long time. A change of plans meant I had time to give it a go. I didn't arrive as early as I'd of liked but a nice looking swim near the car saved some time. The other anglers there all seemed to be of the carpy persuasion. With some defrosted ground bait and red maggots left over from my trips to the pit also saving time. A plumb around showed it to be a tad over five foot deep. Two rigs were set up. One with a size sixteen hook and five pound hook length to fish double maggot and the other with a size twelve to fish either pellet of four maggots. I loose fed maggots to the left were the double maggot rig went and groundbait to the right where the pellet rig went.

Little roach were soon on to the double maggot. After half a dozen or so I struck into something bigger. Because i thought it was just another roach I was a bit slow heaving it away from the lilies and it crashed into them and shed the hook. More roach followed before I was into something heavier again. This time it shot away from the lilies and embedded itself in a load of silk weed. After a lot of heaving all I got was a load of weed and no fish. Things then went quiet for a while before the float above the double maggots rose in classic tench style. This time I struck and heaved and had it circling in the clear area. Another heave and a lovely tench of one and a half pounds was in the net. Things then went quiet again as the carp angler to my left battled a sixteen pound fish out in front of me. I chucked the last of the ground bait to my right this time laced with red maggots and changed the hook bait to four reds.

By now we were into the first of the drizzly showers. A small carp leapt over my float before a larger one mouthed the float. The next shower was a bit heavier and had me contemplating packing up as I had no brolly with me. A look at the rain radar showed another clear spell coming. so i stuck it out. A couple more roach put in an appearance before the right hand float rose and dived away. Again the hit and heave tactic was employed to good effect  and a tench around the  two and half pound mark was soon in the net. Another quiet spell and an other shower had me sat in the shelter of the car while I had a cuppa. The carp anglers had all departed by this point, not wanting to get everything soggy before packing it away. I had one last go as the sunshine appeared and again the right hand float rose. Hit and heave and into the silk weed it went. It managed to shake most of the weed of as I heaved it to the net and make another dash for the lilies. With my thumb stuck behind the handle of the 'pin it wasn't going anywhere and a tench around the three and a half pound mark was in the net. It was now time to go. I was quite pleased with the session on a lake I hadn't fished for some thirty years.