Another Attempt At Tench Fishing

When I arrived at the lake I was surprised to find only one other angler there, fishing the swim I'd fished previously. He was pole fishing and mainly taking small roach and perch. I set up a couple of pegs further down it a peg with a bit more room. My intention was to fish double maggot to one side and sweetcorn next to the lollies to the right. A bit of plumbing around showed the swim to be a couple of feet deeper than the corner one. The waggler floats were trapped between a couple of float stops with all the shot in a bulk a foot from the hook in order to bypass the tiny rudd up in water.  I did fond one of the largest water snails I've ever seen. I knew they grew to this size but most of them I see are only half the size.

Having chucked out a few balls of groundbait laced with sweet corn by the lilies and similar with maggots to the left I settled down to fish. While not much happened to the sweetcorn the maggots attracted a fair few perch and roach Before a pike grabbed one I was reeling in and wrecked the swim for quite some time. In the mean time the carp were crashing about in the lilies. The other gent suffered a similar fate. By tea time the perch and roach had turned up again and I was the only one on the lake. I spent a little time trying to take a picture of one of the grass hoppers, but they're reluctant to stay still. When I did get one in frame another jumped in as well so two for the price of one.

As a chomped on a sandwich the maggot float shot away out into the lake, the ratchet on the centrepin panicked the moorhens. . After a while had whatever it was under control and heading back to the swim. A double figure carp came wallowing up to the surface and was heading to the net when it went barbel on me and shot off again through the lilies to me let before coming the a halt in the next swim. I wandered down there to find it stuck in piles of Canadian pond weed and silk weed just beyond the reach of the net. I left it for five minutes to see it it would swim out before opting to just heave and see. This seemed to work as it was heading towards me but it then decided to set off the other way. The float jammed in the pile of weed and the hook length gave. Bugger.

As I tied on another hook-length the float above the sweet corn lifted and slid away. After charging around the swim like a lunatic a two and half pound tench made it's way into the net. I put the last few balls of sweetcorn laced groundbait in and recast. For the last hour before dark the swim was fizzing but nothing seemed interested in the sweetcorn on the hook. I tried replacing it with a bunch of maggots but that didn't make a difference. The final bite of the night was from a tiny perch that took four maggots.

 

I suspect the tench in this lake my be morning feeders in the main.

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.