First foray into tenching
Entry posted by Rusty
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Knotts Lake, Sunday 3rd April 2011
Well here’s something I didn’t think I’d be writing about in the blog, a stillwater session targeting tench. In two seasons NAA membership I’ve visited their lakes just once and that was to test the rod that I refurbished last year. Apart from that I’ve been dedicated river man even to the extent that I stopped fishing during the close season.
Spring and Autumn are my favourite seasons, it seemed churlish to deny myself some of the pleasures the early year has to offer and as many of these are to be found near water off to the lakes it was. Tench were the target primarily because I’ve caught about 3 during my angling ‘career’ and none of them ware much bigger than the palm of my hand. Practical considerations also influenced the decision, bait (corn) was readily available from the supermarket and was less likely to be devoured by crayfish. I would have to buy hemp but I needed end tackle anyway so had to go to the tackle shop, a big pot of ready made would last a few sessions hopefully.
What followed was a long list of stuff that I’d need, the list was very different to the kit that I normally take trotting but to my surprise most of what I needed was stashed in a dark corner of the shed. I was short on wagglers so they were bought and I didn’t have a rake so an evil looking device was knocked up from two butchered pound shop rakes (£2.99 each) and a length of nylon rope. Groundbait was two cheapo loaves of bread liquidised and lobbed in my camo bait bucket, corn and hemp were then mixed in. That was about it, I assembled all my gear in the garden and apart from the Sainsburys plastic bag containing the rake I reckon I looked like a seasoned tench angler.
I hadn’t been too fussed about the time of day to fish, words of wisdom from the forum suggested that feeding time can vary between waters and as I was starting from scratch it didn’t really matter. In the event I woke up Sunday morning at about 5 o’clock and as the car was loaded I thought I might as well try an early start. This proved to be a good idea as the dawn arrival saw an empty car park. I was still unsure about how my raking would be viewed by other anglers so practising with nobody else there would be ideal.
Two trips from the car later all of my gear was at a swim which I’d recced the day before, a small sheltered bay at the far end of the lake (peg 1 actually). I’d like to say it looked tenchy but I can’t, I don’t know what tench swims look like, but it did look a nice spot. The rake was launched into the water with gusto but several kersplooshes later all I’d managed to retrieve were a few dead leaves and a plastic bag, either the weed hadn't grown yet or the lake doesn’t suffer from too much growth. It was stirring up the bottom though so I had achieved something and to be honest it was great fun.
After the raking plumbing commenced, this revealed quite shallow water in the bay itself but directly in front of me it was much deeper (about ten feet) and importantly the lake bed was consistent. I was fishing just a couple of rod lengths out so shotting was adjusted as per the AN lift method instructions and after a few attempts I got it spot on. The hook was baited with corn and the first proper cast/retrieve resulted in the float cocking with just the tip of the waggler showing, perfect. A couple of balls of liquidised bread were thrown in and I waited…….and I waited…….and I waited.
I fended off time for three hours before the same feelings I got as a kid started to creep in. Getting a bit bored, do something else whilst watching the float (you can’t really do that) anything to kill a bit of time before the first bite. Somehow I managed to last four hours and then the float dipped, all that effort to set it up correctly and it didn’t lift at all, it sort of bobbed and slid under. I struck and felt a couple of thumps before the line went slack, it wasn’t huge but it was a fish. Buoyed (but not totally un-bored) I cast out again and topped up the groundbait but no further bites were forthcoming. I’m sure they would have been indicated had the tench been there. If the lift method is set up correctly there’s little chance of a fish even mouthing the bait without you knowing about it.
It was another couple of hours before I decided to move swims and change tactics. A simple running ledger has served me well in the past and so one of my old arsley bombs was brought out of retirement. I fashioned a makeshift method feeder by moulding liquidised bread around the bomb and gently flicked it alongside some reeds in the margins. A couple of line bites made this a little more interesting but nothing made my ‘sqeezy’ bottle top lift in earnest. By mid-afternoon I’d had enough and called it a day.
I was disappointed but not disheartened, it was my first serious attempt and most things had worked well. The float setup was right, a fish took the corn and my groundbait worked perfectly, breaking up into a cloud depositing corn and hemp just where I wanted it. I’ll be trying again this weekend but won’t be changing too much initially, same bait, same setup but a different part of the lake I think.
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