The Flying Tench

Sadly I don't think the Kennet is still there for roach, though it's a great river for other fish. I've just looked up John Bailey's 'Roach - The Gentle Giants', pub 1987. He rates the Wye as 'One of the great roach rivers of the 90s', though of course that prediction may not have come true. I don't have experience of the Hants Avon or Dorset Stour. According to JB's book the Avon had very few roach at that stage, but the few it had were specimens. The Stour was a more balanced river. There's got to be somewhere good for roach. A few years ago the angling papers were heralding the Severn for a roach comeback, I don't know if that still applies. I was talking to a Reading AA angler the other day who claimed that the Thames is quite good for roach at the moment, though I guess it must depend which part.

I'm reading 'Modern Specimen Hunting' by Jim Gibbinson which Peter Waller kindly sent me. During 1980-82 the author logged every 2 pound roach reported in Angler's Mail, and found the most productive rivers in descending order were: Kennet Hants Avon Dorset Stour Wensum Wye and Yorkshire Wharfe and Northants Ise also got a mention. They're doubtless all still great rivers, but not always for roach. Which are the best roach rivers today?

I firmly believe there's a market for sexist lures as a joke present for wives to give hubby at christmas: Essex girl Wendy wobbler Diving daisy Mazing mermaid Big bertha etc Even my wife agreed with me over lunch today. Just sorry I haven't time to develop this marketing masterpiece!

Perhaps. On the other hand he might be handy to have around if he can RUSSELL up a pike or two at the appropriate time. Come to think of it, if he can show me how to summon some flying tench we could make ourselves a fortune!

The smallest I've ever used is a 20, and it's never been successful - I've missed bites, lost fish, and not had any obvious increase in bites - so I've gone back to my usual 18 or even a 16. But maybe I'm missing out? The angling writers seem to agree that small hooks are sometimes necessary. W.O.O.E. what sort of water were you fishing? I normally fish a river. I can see it could be different on a canal.

By the sound of it pretty terrible fishing weather this week, cold with melting snow going into the rivers etc. But could be bonanza time next week, with the weather really warming up well, and the rivers fining down nicely. How will people be using bonanza time?

Indeed, and I certainly got it wrong here in Newbury,on the same day. Just fished for a couple of hours with deadbaits, mainly statics - just got one take from a jack, wobbling, which at least supports the need for a moving bait. But why hadn't I predicted it was a day for spinning? I thought you really needed a mild day in winter for spinning. Wouldn't have called it that - water temp 6.5C, air temp approx 5C or less from memory. Air pressure about 1020, slightly high but not mega, surely? Admittedly I didn't take into account the coming weather change, but is that a trigger for spinning rather than deads? Would value your comments PW, as I am someone who wants to learn from my blank days! And would I be right that, with the water temperature low, I'd need a very slow retrieve?

Great stuff. I've been itchen to hear how you've done!

So why didn't they catch? I mean, with 12 rods, you'd have thought they'd have got something other than jacks?

Nearly 9pm, and no news from you folks. AN expects! Hope you've had a good day.

I test my line from time to time by tying some round a post and pulling on my spring balance till the line breaks. But I've noticed in the instructions for some new scales that I should on no account do this! Maybe that's what ruined the old ones - the sudden jerk when the line breaks, maybe? So how do you test whether you line needs changing?

A useful tip. But am I right you have a mobile approach, an hour here, half an hour there? Rudd's approach of feeding maggots for an hour before you start fishing blows my mind a bit. I see the point if you know where the fish are and they're very wary, but if you've picked the wrong swim an hour is a big investment!

A bit cold for that kind of thing, Jonah! Seriously, let us know how you get on. Anyone who fishes for 13 hours in February deserves some good fish!

Strange, I've got to admit. You'd also have thought that, yesterday, with the fish obviously wanting a moving bait, they'd at least have tried some wobbling even if they didn't have any lures. There's another thought. Would a better deadbait angler have caught, or was it simply that the fish wanted a moving bait? As I recall the pressure was reasonably high, though nothing exceptional. Many on AN go by the rule of low pressure for deads and high for lures, though I seem to remember Steve Burke believes high is good for both, though better for lures. Such a victory by one rod over twelve would seem to support the former view unless they were doing something very basically wrong. What do PW and others think? By the way, I forgot to congratulate you on the good fish, Peter!

Peter, it's not obviously the inference, though you heard his tone of voice. Couldn't the inference have been 'Drat, if he'd said a lamprey I'd know what to switch to and might even catch myself'? I've got to say I've never met an angler who derided lures, though I've met plenty who've said they haven't had much success with them. I'd be amazed if those guys didn't have a go with lures next time they went out. But will they catch? Just possibly if they try to copy exactly what you were doing because that will give CONFIDENCE which, in my limited experience, is even more important in lure fishing than other types of angling. When I get to a swim where I've caught on or two fish before I'm full of expectation and I do something different. Don't know what it is!

So are most of us , really, and that's why more people don't use lures. Peter, what are the 2 commonest faults that stop the average angler who has a crack at lure fishing from catching good fish?

What's the best way to hook a floatfished Herring? I've only done it a few times and have had the Herring ride horizontally, but the trouble with that is it looks very artificial as I wind it in, and I even wondered if it could spook any pike nearby?

It still happens! I take weddings where there are page boys dressed up like that, but they're always a lot younger, 3 or 4, and amazingly they don't seem to mind!

I've never done it, and I'm sure some would disapprove, but I think it's a good idea. EITHER 2 hooks on a big bait, such as a worm, to stop them biting the end off; OR 2 different baits, to see what they want. I've very little experience of carp fishing, so maybe someone will tell me this isn't realistic, but if you're waiting all night for a bite, surely the probability of 2 fish taking simultaneously must be incredibly low. Wouldn't it make sense to have a lobworm on one hook and a boilie on the other? However I can see there's a 'slippery slope' issue here. Where do you draw the line? No-one would want a string of 50 hooks laid out across the lake, I'm sure!

It's certainly very appealing arwork. As you say, great for anglers to be taken seriously.

I assume the Kennet they refer to is the one in Berkshire, as I hadn't heard of one in Cambs. I'm sure it must be a real problem - we're aleays hearing about it on the Kennet. But I don't quite understand it. Doesn't the water taken out go back into the river a mile or two downstream through the drainage system? So why is the problem so serious?

Thanks, Liam. I'm not actually a member of Thatcham at the moment as Newbury has so much water I can't get round it all. But Newbury has similar swims, if not quite so fast.

I have this vision of an etherial, flowing surplus clad flying tench swooping through the night's mist, dodging grave stones, and putting the fear of God into some terrified thirteen year olds! Serve 'em right!! You've got a good turn of phrase there PW! We possibly have the basis for a blockbuster film! (Real ghost, of course). It wasn't in the graveyard as such, though some of the children often ask me if there are ghosts there. If someone like me appeared out of the mist clad in a surplice it would probably scare the daylights out of them! Sadly we've been getting a number of 'needles' in the graveyard of late, so there are bigger issues for some of them as they get a bit older.

Come to think of it, aren't there one or two clubs actually with waters on the upper Derwent?