Every now and then the subject of raking a swim for Tench crops up.

Am I the only one who has serious doubts about the wisdom of destroying the habitats of thousands of aquatic creatures?
Surely can't be good for the lake environment?

And what about the next bloke that comes along a day or two later and fishes a swim that has been raked over and is probably devoid of insect life?

Strike me as the worst possible way to treat a swim IN THE LONG TERM.

Den

[ 01. April 2005, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: poledark ]

When I rake - I NEVER dump the weed on dry land but will leave it in the margins for the critters to escape back....


C.

There is a huge difference between "raking" a swim, and "Clearing" a swim.

When raking, the intention is to stir up the bottom, to a depth of about 2". This is enough to cloud the water and release a ot of natural food. If you bait at the same time, I like to throw in a few handsfull of corn and hemp, when the fish come along because of the atractive cloudy water, they will dig around a bit and nose into the mud/silt, picking up te free offerings.

Usually, the only weed disturbed, is stuff like canadian pond weed (which shouldn't be there anyway, as it's non-indigenous)or similar weed, which will grow back in very short order. Again, like Chris, it all goes back anyway.

I don't like it when people use the rake/grapple or such, to rip weed and lillies out, in order to clear a patch to get a bait inot. A few lily leaves can be cut off with no problems, bu pulling the roots and maon stems out, should'nt happen. if you actually disturb the roots of large plants, it often fouls the water anyway, so fish aren't interested.

As far as cutting back the undergrowth on the banks goes..why not just take less kit?

Chris, I regularly clear weed from my ponds and leave it by the side "for the creatures to crawl back"...totally pointless, they get trapped under the weight of the weed and DIE.

Dunk, I fully understand the reasons for raking and it is to stir up the bottom....and destroy the film of silt that has formed and in which the majority of the insect life has made its home.

Just imagine if everyone set about raking the guts out of every swim on the lake or pond every time they turned up to fish...but of course you didn't mean that did you?

Spodding would seem like a quiet days fishing in comparison.

Lecturing me about "canadian pond weed which should not be there in the first place" has absolutely nothing to do with the point I made about destroying the homes of the insect life.

Clearing weed to make a swim is probably acceptable, but only just.....I had occasion to use a drag/rake to clear weed which had drifted into a swim I had been baiting quite recently and was shocked to find small tench of 2-5ins long wriggling about in it, plus dozens of tiny roach/rudd?.
There were probably thousands of tiny insects which I did not see in the weed as well.

I gave up on that swim and left it to nature to sort out, which is why I raised this question in the first place.

Den

[ 01. April 2005, 11:03 PM: Message edited by: poledark ]

Dear Den,

I don't understand this raking nonsense.

Respecting tench would howl with laughter at 2" being stirred up for their benefit! A tench is perfectly capable of doing that for itself. Ten tench? Navies in green jackets. How does one rake to a depth of 2" when the silt is near 12" deep and very fine? I'd like to see the angler that can pull that one off!!

I fish for some quite big tench near home catching a fair few without having to employ a rake in over twenty years. And the pit is covered in Canadian pond weed which might not be indigenous, but it’s been over here for long enough now to have obtained its citizenship and passport.

Den, my favoured method is to present baits on clear patches no matter how deep the silt might be. And for weed fishing I introduce soaked red rape seed boiled for just a minute. Roach and tench love red rape and go berserk for it. In no time at all they clear away the weed in feeding frenzies to get at the small seeds. The clearing process can take as little as four or five days. Hemp can be used but red rape is far better. A few such cleared places can be created around a pond/lake/pit/canal giving the angler lots of swims to visit. Not quite the thing if one lives far away or the venue is over busy admittedly.


Regards,

Lee.

I like to rake for tench, I generally run the rake through my swim 5 or 6 times, and like Chris leave any weed I drag out in the margins to give the insect life a chance to return to the water.

I've seen measurable differences in my catches when raking as opposed to fishing the same swims in similar conditions without raking.

I really don't see that I cause much if any damage, the carp in the lake probably stir up more silt and disturb more weed in a day than I do in a season!

I do also make a point of checking with the baliff/owner of a new fishery before raking, and go to great pains to avoid disturbing other anglers - which means generally being the first to arrive at my favourite tench pond in the morning (no overnights allowed on this water)

Mat

I often rake out a swim in summer. On Sywell year before last and over 90 degrees, we raked out a swim. With a rake kindly loaned to us by the head bailif there, we took an hour to open a gap in the weed which only started about 50-60 ft.Very knackering and eventually fruitless. 24hr solid fishing for one fish.