Recently ive been looking into one or two new waters to try this closed season and one in particular keeps sticking in my mind . Im amazed ive never fished it before to be honest considering its only 15 minutes from my front door and the fact that its got some clonking Tench in residence so today i decided to redress the balance and wet a line there .
The weather over the last week has cooled off dramatically, so much so that my car had a dusting of snow on it yesterday morning when i got up for work! Not good Tenching conditions but i had already purchased my ticket and bait so it wouldve been a shame to waste it.
I arrived at the lake at 6am and found i had it to myself, a mate had tipped me off on a good starting area so it was here i duly setup. A quick lead around told me the spot was quite shallow, certainly no more than 4ft with large patches of thin blanket weed. Id been informed that the whole lake was no deeper than 5ft at most so the shallow water didnt concern me. I decided on a PVA stick and maggot approach to begin with to try and gage the fishes feeding activity without overbaiting the swim. There was a cold breeze blowing in and the rainclouds were looming, i took a water temp reading and it came back at 8 degrees, i wasnt condfident.
After about 4 biteless hours and with no fish or signs of fish seen i made the decision to fine my gear down to see if it would make a difference. The PVA stick rigs were replaced with my trusty bolt feeder rig with a 5lb hooklink and a smaller size 14 hook baited with 3 red maggots. The maggots were put directly on the hook instead of the maggot clip arrangment i usually use when the weathers a bit warmer.
Soon after casting i began to get one or two twitches and about 20 minutes later one of the rods was away and after a short scrap, where i played the fish very gingerly due to it being the first hookup from a new water, i landed a small Tench.
Considering what id found out and knew about the place prior to my visit, at 3lb2oz it was probably the smallest Tench in the lake and certainly one of the ugliest but it had saved a blank bless it so i was well chuffed.
Shortly after recasting that rod the twitches started up again exept this time it was due to all the birdlife on the lake swimming through my lines to get to the bread that some numpty was chucking in for them next to my spot! After that the bloody Geese and Swans wouldnt leave my spot and were a complete nightmare, the situation was made worse by several more people coming down to feed them too. I wouldnt have minded but they were feeding them either side of me so the birds were backwards and forwards every five minutes, you gotta love the great ignorant british public!
All this was quickly forgotten though when , by some miracle, i managed another bite and found myself connected to a heavier fish. I managed to get it to within about 10 yards out when, youve guessed it, the hook pulled. I wasnt overly gutted as i was pleased to have caught one already and another take had proved i was doing something right at least anyway.
I gave it another hour with no further action and decided to pack up before the rain started proper, ill definately be back on that lake soon.
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