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Bag o' tench!


Steve Walker

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May I make a confession? During yesterdays tench session I reached the conclusion that I really do hate ducks. They are swines. Every time I 'pulted out some loose feed I had Mrs Duck and her horde of stupid little teenage ducklings home in and paddle round my float. Waving a pole at them just about chased them out of reach, but with the next batch of feed they were back again. What with confusion with line bites from the ducks and missed bites while waving six metres of carbon at them I reckon they cost me a lot of fish.

 

What is it with waterfowl? Imagine a birdwatcher. Got it yet? Sort of like an angler, but slightly better dressed? Somewhere between a pig farmer and a tramp? Possibly with a beard? OK. What's he got round his neck? That's right. binoculars. Why is he carrying binoculars? Well, it's because for the vast majority of the time human beings and small birds have co-evolved on this planet, our relationship with them has largely involved pointy sticks, camp fires and the licking of lips. It wouldn't take many days of empty supermarkets for this situation to reassert itself and at a deep instinctive level birds know this. Most birds. Not ducks. Stand up, wave your arms, attempt to tw@t them with a carbon pole, they won't take the hint. I've previously seen a fox prowling round this particular lake (who, incidentally, treated me with an appropriate degree of respect for a wild animal). I bet they don't hang around when he's acting menacingly.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love wildlife. I love to see birds. I just prefer them to be wild, not semi-domesticated water pigeons. When I am made Grand Dictator Of The World I'm going to have them all served up with pancakes and hoi sin at my celebratory banquet. Apart from those big white farm ducks, which I will permit. Because I like duck eggs.

 

Now that I've got that off my chest, the fishing. I thought it was worth giving Dabchick Lake another try now that we've had a prolonged warm spell. Dabchick is deep, and Last time I fished there it was still cold and very clear, and I had a tiny tench for my troubles. This time it looked a lot better, with plenty of colour. After walking most of the way round the lake scanning the water with polarising lenses I picked a peg fairly close to the car park. It looks as if the submerged weed has been cleared better at that end. There are also some wide swims where I thought I might be able to cast my 'pin if I got round to setting it up later (I didn't). I had a nice overhanging tree to my right, and decided to fish close to that.

 

 

 

 

 

I arrived at about 3pm and started off by setting up my pole. You can plumb the depth so much more accurately with a pole. Also, I thought that there would be little tench action until the evening, and planned to entertain myself catching some silver fish. I found about 11 feet of water by the tree. I set up a heavy float rig, using 4lb Drennan DoubleStrength, a .75g carp float and a barbless size 14 hook designed for commercial carp fisheries and my heavily elasticated top set. I was after roach and bream but wanted a fighting chance if I hit anything better.

 

Fishing three maggots on the hook and loose feeding maggots, hemp and pellets I soon started to get bites. I had two nice roach and a couple of perch within a few minutes before something pulled all of the elastic out. The hook pinged free. It seemed that the tench were not waiting for the evening to feed. Next cast resulted in a "scale model" tench of about half a pound. Cast after that was another elastic-puller, and again the hook didn't hold. I decided that a running line rig was needed.

 

I set up my 1 1/2lb TC avon with a six pound mainline, 6lb doublestrength hooklength and a size 8. I was using a 2 1/2 swan crystal waggler rigged as a slider, and a couple of worms on the hook. I put in a little groundbait and continued loose feeding. I soon had a nice tench of 5lb in the net. I continued to catch tench over the course of the evening. I had the occasional foray with the pole whenever the swim went quiet or the ducks became unbearable, one of which resulted in a few bream of a pound and a half or so, and every one of which ended with the size 14 pinging free from something powerful.

 

I ended up with 14 tench (13 really, one was foulhooked in the pectoral), three bream, two roach and two perch. Two of the tench were less than a pound, one about three pounds. The rest were all in the four to five pound range. No one fish was really big enough to photograph, and shots of nets of fish are frowned upon these days, so no photos I'm afraid. So, no really big tench, but a cracking haul all the same. Those tench really go some. A good day, despite the ducks :lol:

 

 

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