TIME FOR TENCH

There’s something very appealing about tench, a quietly living fish of limpid waters, beautiful to behold with their golden scales and bright red eyes. 

Rotund and muscular, they provide us anglers with an exciting challenge, difficult at times to trick into taking our bait but if we get lucky, fighting very hard for their freedom.They are true tackle testers. 

My tenching starts when the roaching and river season ends, the first gold bar a cause for celebration on chill March days.

 

Three small lakes not far from home provide peaceful dawn fishing and now the club have stopped destroying the ecosystem by killing the weed with chemicals, the fishing has increased our chances of some serious pole elastic stretching. 

The fish aren’t big by modern standards, two to three pounders being the norm, though I once caught one of 6lb 4ozs, a good ‘un by any standards and a serious challenge when it stretched my elastic so far that it nearly circumnavigated the nearby island. 

My pal Chris and I have bagged as many as twenty tench in a mornings session but that was in the good old days before the previously mentioned weed killing removed their cover and provided the cormorants with a free meal ticket. Stupid! Luckily, the club have seen the light and stopped the chemical treatment that removed their food and the fishing and tench are already improving. 

Our catches might reach six in a few hours now and though some are scarred by the cormorants hooked beaks, tench are thick skinned and tough. I call them ‘Popeye Tench’, obviously fed on spinach because they fight so hard! 

I soon promoted myself to tougher challenges and started fishing another local water where the fish are bigger and more elusive. 

My pal John has been catching some good fish in the three large lakes these past couple of years, some ledgering, many others on the float or pole. I’d hardly ever tried there, so this year I was determined to join him, if only for the chance to natter to an old friend. 

That should read ‘friends’ because the three lakes are part of a local syndicate that I’ve shared for years, so fishing too little and talking too much is part of the fun. John, Brian, Pete, Mike and Rodger provide news of catches and wildlife sightings.

Rodger with a splendid twenty plus common carp

The lakes are magical, so peaceful but also noisy with bird song and blessed by regular visits from ospreys, marsh harriers, kingfishers and red kites. 

 

 

I decided to start trying to catch the elusive tench by using full on modern tench tactics with two rods, bite arms, spombs and ‘wrap sticks’, light carp methods really but very effective [sometimes!], baiting a tight spot and using worm kebab rigs. 

And so far I’ve been lucky enough to catch 19 tench to over 6lbs in just three visits and with all the wildlife and friends thrown into the mix, it has made very enjoyable fishing, even more so because these are ‘Popeye Tench’ too and in the shallow waters, they fight exceptionally hard. 

Another of my favourite tinca spots is the Cotswold Water Park, marvellous for wildlife and the lakes I fish hide much bigger tench, if you can catch them. 

I’m sure all tench fishers have been cursing the cold nights and relentless NE winds this spring and my pal John is one of them. Being a local, he fishes the lakes regularly and we shared several happy days there last season, both of us catching several big tench, John’s best being this one that I was privileged to share, a stunning beauty of 9lbs 5ozs.

 

I was lucky enough to catch a few ‘eights’ to this best of 8lb 13ozs, both of us benefitting from a lovely spell of warm south westerly winds to cast into and leaving me to catch that elusive nine pounder this year. 

However, this cold spring has suppressed the tench’s enthusiasm in our lakes and in spite of John being a very fine angler, he has struggled to put any significant catches together, though not nearly as much as I have! 

Choosing to face into the icy wind on the opposite side of the lake, I reasoned that the hot sun would warm the water and wake the fish, the breeze driving them into my swim. But I was wrong and almost all I caught was hypothermia. 

One male tench of over six pounds plus two small pike was all I managed in two visits, though I was so convinced the swim would come good and produce a biggie that I stoically stuck to my guns instead of moving to the sheltered side. 

A brutal three hour work out clearing the thick weed at forty yards was intended to improve my chances but all I did was shiver for my obstinate foolishness and carried on blanking. 

However, I love the swim because the wide views provide the best birdwatching on the lakes, with endless cuckoos, buzzards and red kites passing by. A bittern kept calling too, even landing in the reeds beside John's swim as he struggled to catch.  

‘Tench Time’ it was but unfortunately, they hadn't set their alarms.