ATTENCHON

only 6/9 but what beautiful fish tench are

I love tench, as many of us anglers do and I wish there were more waters where they dominated catches instead of those endless carp. 

low double nuisance fish - lovely colour though

Since catching lots of big roach in April, I’ve been trying to catch a good tench and have struggled to get past the carp, so I write this out of frustration :

‘How come a club chooses to spoil a prime tench water by stocking ever more carp when there are dozens of carp waters everywhere you look?’

Rant over. I’ve enjoyed the struggle and caught a few tench but non of the bigger ones that the water holds. I note in the press that most good catches come after a couple of days baiting a swim but I don’t have the time to fish on more than one day so what should I do?

a lovely spot but too many carp for us tench anglers

Some advise minimising the feed by simply casting a maggot feeder to the same tight spot every so often, tho’ maybe adding a spomb or two of particles if you think the tench will tolerate the disturbance.

Others might put down a good bed of bait but then there is the risk of attracting the mud suckers. As the saying goes, you can put bait in but you can’t take it out … and once I’ve done it, I sit there questioning if I did the right thing. I’m sure you’ve all done the same but that is part of the fun ... and so is the wildlife. The chaffinches fed better on the red maggots than the tench.

even when nothing is happening, something always is

If we knew what was going to happen every time we went fishing, most of us would die of boredom or even worse, take up golf. I should correct that ; playing golf is enjoyable too.

May was a bit wet

Perhaps the weather didn’t help because the tench were feeding well in April when I was enjoying my roach fishing. ‘You should have been here last week syndrome’ for in May the rains came and water temperatures fell. One day I sat there for five hours in rain that was too heavy to pack up in without getting even wetter. It was cold and horrible ... but I caught a carp.

 the worst weather I think I've ever fished in - it was windy too

The tench went off feed and though I did catch one each time I visited, the carp became increasingly greedy and dominated my brief sessions. Not quite what I had in mind but they don’t half pull on tench tackle.

21/3 of battling mirror

peace and tranquility at Sway Lakes

In the end I returned to Sway to catch a few of my favourite roach and what did I catch, tench and carp of course. 

6/5 of battling tench - didn't half test the 3lb line

an all muscle male

However, the common was immaculate and was as beautiful a creature as you could wish to clap your eyes on … and landing it was a tense battle on 3lb line.

absolutely immaculate common of 13/3 - what a fight close to the lilies by this beautiful creature 

I did catch lots of roach too, eighteen over a pound, including four over two and the best a massive roach even bigger than the 3lb5oz giant that I caught in April -but having recently spawned, it weighed ‘only’ 2lb15ozs. 

very long but very thin

However, it was caught at night with a little starlight attached to a tiny pole float and was my PB pole caught roach. No pics to do its size justice as I was alone but it was certainly a monster and at eighteen inches long would have weighed maybe 3/8 or so if caught three weeks ago. A cracking roach all the same.

this is the 3lb5oz roach I caught in April - a PB to savour

dawn magic over the barn owl reeds

I might head up to the place I grew up to start the season, the beautiful Fens. 

a fat Fenland tinca

I can catch tench there without being pestered by carp, though the bream might provide me with plenty of ‘nuisance’ fish! Whatever happens, it’ll be wonderful to be sat watching barn owls, bearded tits and marsh harriers under those glorious wild skies.

the place of my childhood - I just love it up there

RUDDY MARVELLOUS - ANGLING ADVENTURES 2

A midsummers dawn - simply the best time to be alive. The longest day had just passed and there was everything to look forward to as we headed towards the best of the years river fishing … but not yet.

There is one species of fish that I have an even greater passion for than roach and that’s rudd. Growing up in the Fens at Ely on the Gt.Ouse and enjoying family holidays on the Norfolk Broads in the late 50's, I grew to love the gorgeous, golden beauties and even today the mere thought of them gets me excited.

Like many of my generation, I was inspired by Bernard Venables' book, 'Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing' and still enjoy going down memory lane when looking at my battered copy. It's pleasing that the great man is being honoured with a TV series and new version of the book right now.

I was keen to 'live the dream', convinced Mum and Dad that I just had to visit the Broads and when finally there, carefully followed Bernard's lessons to Peter.

I only caught small ones when using the anchored bread trick, but remembered to keep my little boat well away from a large shoal I'd found in a remote corner of Hickling Broad.

I really was 'living the dream'

In the evening I rowed back to them in my little dinghy and remembering to keep well away, made a long cast to the reed edge with bread flake under a stubby waggler. I caught 22 of them before it was too dark to see. The smallest weighed 1/10 and ten of them were over 2lbs, with the best going 2/5 and 2/3. I’ve never really recovered. 

Sorry about the bobble hat but I was only sixteen

With so many happy memories still fresh in my angling memory bank I had to return, so this last two years I’ve made a pilgrimage back to the Fens, exploring the rivers, drains and lakes in the hope of beating my PB of 2/9, a figure I’ve managed to equal in five different waters, including Ireland … one day I might beat it … one day?

red maggots lured them in front of the camera

2/11 and 2/9 - a perfect brace

I had my chance when filming 'Catching the Impossible' with Martin Bowler, a shoal of 14 large rudd swimming beside us in the crystal clear water. I had to film the underwater shots first, then Martin had to catch a couple for the camera before it was my turn. Sadly, my turn never arrived because the shoal just drifted away ... one day ... one day.

 tranquil tench time

In 2011 I tried the River Cam and the drains and lodes, the first time I had fished them for fifty years. Back then, us energetic schoolboys used to cycle over there from Ely, catch rudd and then cycle all the way back. Funny how the wind was always against us whatever direction we were travelling! It’s still a wonderful place, 'the land of sky’, as inspiring as ever and even better now than in my childhood. 

The Land of Sky

c. Danny Green

c. Richard Brooks

Wicken Fen didn’t have breeding marsh harriers and bearded tits then but it does now. I spent as much time birding as I did fishing, harriers regularly drifting over cruisers on the Cam, the occupants blissfully unaware poor souls. In 2011, I managed rudd to 2/4 so a return to the Fens was inked into the diary, especially as all the  locals like Chris Hammond had made me very welcome.

Fish don't get any more beautiful do they?

Yes, that is a swing tip - very effective too

Last year, with help and advice from Graham Tweed – thanks Graham – President and Sec. of CFPAS – enjoyable company on the bank too – I decided to try Milton Country Park, a complex of crystal clear weedy lakes … classic rudd country. Friend Chris said he thought the decision was a bit ‘left field’ but ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’! I picked the lake with the biggest ones of course and started well, the first rudd going a respectable 1/9. [No picture as it had two ugly cormorant slashes across it’s body]. However, I never managed another much over a pound and I blamed the weather. Strong wind and heavy rain battered into my face all week, the mud getting deeper and the rats more numerous.

I did enjoy the challenge though, especially when of all things, a marsh harrier hunted a nearby reedbed. It was such a rare bird when I grew up in the 50’s, restricted to just three surviving pairs but here it was now, floating over houses by the A14 in Cambridge – wonderful. Just goes to prove the cliché that there’s more to fishing than catching fish. It also proved that not all is gloom and doom out there in the wild.

I did catch plenty of small rudd, some splendid tench to 6lbs or so and several ancient, wild looking bream. They certainly were wild when hooked, one clearing the water by a good two feet. They all weighed about five pounds, their impressive bids for freedom making up for their lack of size, a highlight of the trip.

Believe me, it really did fight

The low point came at the end when the rats got to me ; a dose of what felt like Wiel’s desease or leptospirosis, the symptoms matching perfectly. I felt so awful I delayed driving home for a day. Hospital blood tests and stomach analysis were inconclusive but it took me three weeks to recover. Those big rudd still beckon though ; I saw them out there.