Time for Tench

Saturday 27th March

With the closed season now firmly upon us ive decided to switch my attentions towards catching some Tench and Bream. Theres a gravel pit near my house which is a prolific Tench water and it was here where i decided to kick off my Spring campaign mainly to get a few under my belt and build up some confidence.

The day started off as a bit of a nightmare, firstly the gate to the fishery was late being unlocked which left me sat there for half an hour. When i got to my chosen spot i unpacked the rods only to find id brought the tip from a completely different rod which meant one of the rods i had to use use was actually made up of two. The wife then rang and i accidentally dropped my mobile in the lake completely buggering it in the process and then i realised id forgotten my unhooking mat too.
All these setbacks aside i eventually got two baits into position on some nice clear spots and sat back to await developments. One rod was on a bolt feeder setup with maggots and casters on the hook and the other was on a standard semi-fixed rig with a source boilie and a PVA bag of crushed pellets.

After about an hour the boilie rod was away and i hit into a fish which kited into heavy weed and the hook pulled. As i was rebaiting that rod the maggot one registered a stuttery take and i soon had a small Tench of around 3lb in the net.



After this i had a flurry of twiches and pulls on the maggot rod and even though i struck at a couple i couldnt connect with anything so i put them down to being liners. I decided to sit on my hands until a fish hooked itself and this seemed to do the trick as 2 more Tench were soon banked. These were slightly bigger than the first, being around 4-5lb apiece.

The sun then decided to put in an appearance and with this all indications ceased completely. There was a lull for a couple of hours and i thought that id had all the action i was going to get, that is, until the sky clouded up again. Almost as soon as i did the boilie rod was off and i netted another Tench after a brief tussle. The very second i did so the maggot rod began to judder towards the lake as another fish made for the far bank. I had no choice but to try and secure the first fish in the net as best as i could and then play the second one to the net. Thankfully all went smoothly and i was soon taking a pic of a nice brace shot. The fish were around 4lb apiece.

That was pretty much it, i stayed on for another hour or so with no more bites so i packed up happy with what id caught.

Water temp was a whopping 12 degrees, air temp was up to 14 degrees and the prevailing wind was a stiff North Westerly.

Final trip of the season

Saturday 13th March

After Wednesdays action i was chomping at the bit to get back down the river. I felt a real breakthrough had been made mentally especially after having struggled so much on other stretches of the venue in the past. Paul and i arrived at around 1.30pm to find quite a few other anglers already in residence, mostly roving up and down searching likely spots. Fortunately the spots we had in mind were free and we quickly commenced fishing.

I chose a slightly different spot to my previous trip only to find it was a complete snagpit and considerably shallower to boot. On the face of it, it looked the part but I wasnt confident at all and decided to move to wednesdays swim. Shortly after moving i looked downstream to see Paul connected to a decent Perch which turned out to be a real cracker of 3lb6oz.

Confidence was sky high now and it seemed an age before my own tip pulled around and i latched into my first Perch of the trip. At around 1.5lb it wasnt the monster i was hoping for but it was a start and certainly wetted the appetite for some more action. I didnt have to wait long and soon found myself connected to another Perch. This one was in a different league to the previous fish and after a short scrap i slid the net under what looked like a real lump. Sure enough the dial went around to 3lb7oz and confirmed my second personal best in a week!


I was over the moon and even though i missed a couple more hard earned bites it didnt matter, after such a harsh winter my season had ended on a real high, roll on the glorious 16th!

Last week of the season (cont)

Tuesday 9th March

After yesterdays Perch action i thought id go back down and have some more but the fish werent playing ball at all today. Bright sunshine didnt help matters and despite walking miles of riverbank all i had to show for my days efforts was losing one very large Pike which i hooked on a worm placed under an overhanging tree. It gave me the run around for about 10 minutes ,during which time i dont even think it realised it was hooked, before biting me off.

Wednesday 10th March

Today i had arranged a trip to a river a fair distance away with my mate Paul. The plan was to fish for Chub during the day before switching to Perch as it got dark. Neither of us had fished the stretch before so we were a little unsure as to what to expect.
I didnt have to wait long to find out as, 20 minutes after making my first cast, my feederfished breadflake was snaffled by a fin perfect Chub of 5lb exactly.
Chuffed at the early success we fished on till mid-afternoon to no avail at which point we decided to prime up a couple of swims in the hope of some evening Perch action.
After a couple of hours drowning some worms i eventually had a pull which resulted in a lovely Perch of 2lb10oz, the biggest id ever had from the river. I had a couple more bites in quick succession, one which i missed and another which resulted in a heavy fish hooked and lost. Paul also got in on the action with a mid-2lb Perch.
All too soon it was too dark to see the tips and we headed home promising to return at the weekend.

The last week of the season

Hi all, this is the first post of my new blog. I will be updating on a weekly basis and seeing as last week was the last one of the 2009/2010 season its seems as good a place to start as any.

After such a long and cold winter with few opportunities to get out with a realistic chance of a good days fishing i decided to book a few days off work to try and cram in a few last gasp river sessions before the season ended. Fortunately the weather was starting to take a turn for the better the previous week so things were looking promising for the week ahead. I planned to target some Perch and Chub as i had some good results at the end of previous seasons fishing for them.

Monday 8th March

Having met up with my mate Steve we both headed for a stretch on a local river which has been good to me in the past. Steve hadnt fished the area before and with the river running as clear as id ever seen it and a biting cold wind, prospects werent looking great. Still, youve got to be in it to win it and after a short walk upstream we set up on the outside of a sweeping bend about 50 yards apart.

I dropped a large worm around 10 yards downstream under the inside margin where it was quite rocky but quite deep at around 6-7ft. The flow was deceptively quick and I began trickling in a few maggots every couple of minutes to see if i could draw anything up from downstream. After 10minutes of this the quivertip slowly pulled around and i hit into a heavy fish, by the way it was jagging the rod tip and keeping deep i thought it was a good Perch but unfortunately i would never find out as the hook pulled.

A few minutes later after recasting, a repeat performance ensued only this time i saw the culprit and it turned out to be a small pike which promptly bit through the hooklink. At about this time a dog walker decided to start chucking things in the river for her mutt to retrieve about 5 yards from Steves swim so a move was most definately called for................

Once we got to the new spots we quickly settled in and began fishing in earnest as the Perch witching hour was fast approaching. After about half an hour i had a decisive pull on the tip and hit into a decent fish. After a short battle the net was slid under a stunning perch which took the scales round to 3lb6oz, a new personal best!

I recast to the same spot and had another bite almost imediately which resulted in another hook-up and another Perch on, that is until a Tench slid into the net!


After this there was a bit of a lull for an hour or so till a couple of bites in quick succession as it was getting dark resulted in two more Perch including a fish of 2lb1oz. Steve never had a bite despite trying spots either side of mine which shows just how localised the fish were on the day.