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The Flying Tench

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Blog Entries posted by The Flying Tench

  1. The Flying Tench
    7.30 - 9.30pm
    During the last 2 years I did some fishing with 8mm pellet. It worked well in the lake, but was pretty dead in the river. So I decided to try 6mm pellet to see if that would be more to the taste of the quality roach which are my main target. I used 3mm pellet in the feeder.
     
    Just one skimmer bream, plus a number of bites including a couple which got off. I would say mostly skimmers. Maybe the roach were up in the water?
  2. The Flying Tench
    At the start of a new season, in case it's of any interest to anyone, here are my pbs so far. The question is, how to improve at least one of them this season given that I'm a bit of a cushy 'pleasure angler', not into all night stints and with health issues hindering also:
     
    roach 1lb 9oz River Farm Lake, Fareham Oct 2009 float single caster
    rudd 2lb 2oz Aquatek Lake, Woolhampton May 2009 float single maggot
    dace 7oz River Kennet, Newbury Nov 2014 float 4 maggots
    chub 6lb 9oz River Kennet, Newbury Nov 2003 feeder 2 dendrobaena
    barbel 8lb 0oz R. Kennet weirpool, Thatcham Aug 2006 ledger luncheon meat
    bream 6lb 6oz Orchid Lakes, Dorchester May 2019 feeder 8mm pellet
    carp 18lb 14oz Bell Wood Lake, Newbury July 2000 2 floating dog biscuits
    crucian 1lb 11oz Dixons Lake, Thatcham July 2002 ledgered sweetcorn 3' tail
    goldfish 1lb 5oz North Lake, Greenham April 2008 float lift method (maggot?)
    tench 6lb 4oz Wylie's Lake, Newbury May 2000 float pellet paste
    perch 3lb 6oz Aquatek Lake, Woolhampton March 2010 feeder - popped up lobworm
    zander c 1lb Rutland Water Sept 2018 jigged lure
    pike 22lb 4oz River Thames, Goring Dec 2014 wobbled smelt
    eel 2lb 3oz Wingham Lake May 2009 feeder lobworm
    grayling 1lb 4oz River Lambourn, Newbury Dec 2011 float single maggot
    brown trout 3lb 4oz River Kennet, Newbury June 1998 wobbled smelt!
    rainbow trout 2lb 14oz Pond near Salisbury May 1985 fly fished - fly plus pellet!
     
    So there it is. One or two good fish, and many happy memories. 6 on float, 6 ledger and 5 other. I still hope to improve on a few of them. Comments and insults welcome!
  3. The Flying Tench
    I've always wanted to fish the middle Stour since someone told me it was a place where you could reasonably rely on a good bag of roach with a good chance of a fish over 1lb. I was able to combine it with visiting a family member. Would the fishing come up to expectation?
     
    15 Nov 1.30-4.30pm. The fishing shop steered me in the direction of a 'mill pond', weir pool really. But this immediately raised a question. Where on earth in a weir pool do you find roach? Such experience as I have of weir pools involved perch, trout, chub and a few dace, but never roach! I felt the most likely place for fish generally was near the tail of the weir pool where the flow curled nicely against the bank, but my health requires me to sit for fishing most of the time nowadays, and there wasn't a suitable spot. In the end I sat on a stanchion where I could fish the back flow and tried casting a maggot feeder into likely places. My theory was that, even if I only caught very small ones, it could give clues as to where the fish were. But after nearly an hour - zilch. So I moved to a spot on the main river 100 yards below the weir pool.
     
    As I was set up I continued with maggot feeder. The first fish was a small roach, and I became hopeful that there would be more. But the next fish was a perch, and the next, and the next...… It was a relatively short session as I had spent a fair bit of time exploring and moving swim, but I had about 8 perch with a couple over half a pound, not too bad on maggot feeder.
     
    16 Nov 11.30am -2.30pm A different 'mill pond', but I decided to try the main river again. It was quite narrow but about 10ft deep with a nice medium flow. I decided to feed roach specific ground bait (as I thought) to avoid the perch, and started with feeder to ensure the feed ended up where I wanted it. I planned to switch to float when I had a reasonable layer of bait laid. I started with single maggot on the hook. After a few minutes a gentle bite - perch. After a few more minutes - big perch, 2lb 6oz no less! Well that made sense, my ground bait was attracting lots of little roach which attracted the big perch. But then a 3 inch perch, what led him to be there? And so it went on, always perch, though none over 4oz except the big one. I tried trotting a maggot through - perch. I switched back to feeder with bread on the hook - nothing at all.
     
    On the way back I met an angler who'd had a nice bag of roach up to a pound, as I'd been led to expect, but my experience from two sessions was that the river was full of perch. Of course I was delighted with the 2 pounder, and if I can arrange another trip I shall go armed with lobworms!
     
    Out of interest, has anyone else fished the middle Stour?
  5. The Flying Tench
    6.45 - 8.15pm
    I've caught very few bream above 3lb with a pb under 6lb, so it wouldn't take anything too gigantic to please. Fished two rods with 8mm pellet. Very pleased to get 3 bream, 2 skimmers approx 1.5 and 2lb, and one nice fish (to me, at any rate) of 5lb 7 oz.
     
    All bites in the last half hour. That's the trouble at this lake, you are not allowed to fish beyond dusk. But I was encouraged and will be back.
  6. The Flying Tench
    7 - 8.45pm Cloudy. Almost no flow after lack of rain. A new stretch
     
    I wasn't expecting much with so little flow, but pleasantly surprised. I ledgered maggot for the first hour, and then sweetcorn. Bite a chuck small skimmers and some roach bream hybrids up to about 5oz on maggot, and then 4 nice roach 6-8 oz on the corn.
     
    I'll be back for a more serious session.
  7. The Flying Tench
    Local lake 7 - 9.30pm
    Aim was to catch some quality roach on float and sweetcorn, feeding hemp. At the first peg I couldn't get past an army of skimmers, so switched peg. Almost immediately I had a nice fish of 1lb 13oz that looked roachy, but I am sure wasn't. The scales weren't bright enough for a silver bream, so I concluded it was a roach bream hybrid. But to be sure I took out my camera that I had put in the bag a year ago when a similar fish identification issue came up, only to find the battery had gone dead. Grrrrr...
     
    Next fish was 1lb exactly, but there was more of a bluey silver sheen, as with a roach, at least at the back, and the fins were quite orange, more so than pics of roach bream hybrids I have seen; but it still didn't look quite right for a roach. The final fish was 1lb 2oz, and even more roach like! But still not quite right. I can't think what else they were, so I'm counting them all as roach bream hybrids.
  9. The Flying Tench
    My experience of sea fishing is limited, to say the least. The first fish I ever caught were in the sea, when I was about eight. My dad took my brother and me out in a rowing boat at Hastings for an hour. Hand lines and bait (lugworms) were supplied. From memory we only went out about 30 yards, but we had 27 small whiting and three dabs. It all seemed remarkably easy! But future attempts have normally resulted in failure, the main catch being seaweed!
     
    The last week was a family holiday, but I managed to do a little sea fishing, though nothing too ambitious. I started fishing with ledgered ragworm, first from a jetty and then the pier. I was pleased to catch 5 small wrasse - the same thing that everyone else was catching. At last, I've caught a fish from a pier!
     
    I then booked a four hour trip on a boat, the San Gina. We caught some mackerel on feathers on the way out, and then fished 2 different marks, I would say 400 to 800 yards out. The captain, Jack, knew what he was doing, and I caught a 1lb lesser spotted dogfish, a 1.5lb spotted ray, and a 2.5lb thornback ray. I've been out on a boat like this a couple of times before and caught nowt, so was delighted - and impressed by Jack's skill and professionalism.
     
    As a coarse fisherman the last week was an encouragement. Part of it was the sheer uncertainty of what might take the bait.
  10. The Flying Tench
    A trip to the Middle Severn on a quest for big roach. I stayed in a B&B at Bewdley for 2 nights. On Sunday night I fished the Northbrook stretch on the BAA ticket, and got off to a good start with a lovely roach that tipped the scales at exactly 1lb. Bait was ledgered 8mm pellet No other bites, though, which turned out to be a bit of a theme for the couple of days.
     
    On Monday morning I went to visit Arley, 3 miles north, which is a bit of a mecca - but I think mainly for barbel anglers. On the west side, where I parked, the swims I could access were very fast and shallow, and many were taken. Someone advised me on a stretch just south of Bewdley on a Kidderminster AA day ticket, and I decided to give it a try. I fished 8mm pellet most of the time. Certainly it looked good, and anglers there spoke highly of it for roach as well as other species, but I didn't catch - just a couple of small dace and a chublet on sweetcorn. Actually, a lot of people were saying the river was too low. Most were fishing for barbel, and one or two had success, but the maggot anglers just had dace and chublets. No-one I spoke to had a roach, even a small one.
     
    On Tuesday morning I got some maggots and returned for a couple of hours to the Northwood stretch. Ledgered maggot gave bite a chuck - dace, chublets and a perch, but no roach still. I must say it was encouraging do be hitting some bites at last after the endless tremors on Monday as they nosed the pellets in my feeder. And the dace were reasonably solid, up to about 5 oz. Maggot is clearly a viable bait on the middle Severn, unlike the Thames. I nearly continued on maggot to try and get a bigger dace, but decided to finish on 8mm pellet, to no avail.
     
    For some reason the roach weren't feeding, except for the nice pounder that graced my net right at the start and saved a blank.
  11. The Flying Tench
    7-10pm local lake
    My aim was to catch roach on 8mm pellets. I started using a float with the bait mid water and caught 6 roach and rudd up to 6 oz or so in the first hour, but decided the bigguns weren't around. So I switched to feeder. No roach at all, but a 2lb 4oz perch would-yer-believe-it, and a carp of about 15lb which took an age to land on the light tackle. I didn't have adequate scales to weigh it.
  12. The Flying Tench
    10am to 11am local lake
     
    What should I fish for? The carp, tench and bream are probably spawning, the roach are doubtless recovering from it. I decided to try for perch using prawn as bait. I've almost no experience of perch fishing at this time of year, but decided to get out for a couple of hours, hopefully dodging the forecast rain.
     
    The first fish was a surprise. It looked breamish, but with no slime. Could it be a silver bream? I wish I'd taken the camera. I estimated it at about 12 oz. Since I've never caught a silver bream before, except possibly a very small one as a teenager, it would be a pb by definition, and a reasonable sized fish as well. Why on earth didn't I weigh it? On getting home I checked the web, and I'm confident it was indeed a silver bream! So I'll count it as a pb at 10 oz, a couple of oz less than my estimate. A good start! And I now strongly suspect a 1lb 7oz fish I caught about 3 weeks ago was a roach-silver bream hybrid. It looked exactly like one of those in one of Mark Wintle's books, though I'd been cautious in thus labelling it as I didn't know there were silver bream in the lake.
     
    The next fish was an 8lb carp. Not really what I was wanting on 4lb line, though welcome enough. But I didn't want any more. Then the next one was a heftier carp, which broke the line - surprising, as I thought I was being gentle with it. At that point the light rain got heavier, and I decided to go home and play chess on the web against someone from some far flung country - and look up what a silver bream looks like!
     
    No perch, but an interesting if very short session.
  13. The Flying Tench
    2.30-5.30pm the Club Lake, Orchid Lakes
     
    My original plan was to have 2 baits in the middle for bream, but few bream were coming out and a catfish angler told me you could get good tench in the margins. On reflection I think that is often the case at this time of year with the margins warming up faster than the deeper water. So I had an 8mm pellet a quarter of the way across, and 2 pieces of sweetcorn 5ft from the bank.
     
    It was bright and sunny, and day anglers have to leave by 7pm, so it wouldn't be possible to fish dusk. After an hour and a half I hadn't had a touch, even from small ones, but then I was really pleased to get a 6lb 0oz tench and an approx. 9oz roach, both from the margins.
  14. The Flying Tench
    2.45 - 5.15pm WT 4 deg C
     
    An attempt at the perch in this local lake now that the ice has melted. I float fished a whole prawn, which a lot of people use in this lake. I skimmer bream and 7 perch, all but one of which over a pound, the best two being 2 lb 1 oz and 2 lb 8 oz.
     
    I have only fished prawn a few times before, and was pleased to get more bites than previously, though the size of fish was a bit less than expected. Next time I will try bigger prawns!
  15. The Flying Tench
    3-5pm AT 4 deg C WT 0-4 deg C Beautiful clear blue sky, little wind.
     
    The fishing shop manager had warned me that this high stock density lake might be iced up, and he was right. But along the north bank which had had most of the sun there were a few inches of water, and under a willow tree the ice only started 15 feet out. I cracked the ice at one point to put in my thermometer, and it came back registering 4 deg C, but presumably the temperature over much of the surface was lower at 0 deg C!
     
    I was hoping for roach or perch and float fished maggot and caster under the willow tree just inside the ice line. It was a bit cramped with my 13 foot rod, and I had to gently hand to hand it out, a bit like pole fishing. Likewise landing the fish. I started with a size 20 barbless hook, but lost the first 2 fish so switched to an 18. Perhaps really small hooks are better with a barb? I tried the technique I had learned earlier in the week in a Thames lock cut of jigging the float in case a fish had the bait but was not moving with it, but only had one fish this way. For all the rest there was a definite if gentle bite.
     
    The eventual catch was about 16 fish, all roach, with several around half a pound and the best two 10 oz and 14 oz. These both took caster. I was pleased to be out on such a beautiful day, and delighted to have caught some fish that needed the landing net despite the cold water.
  16. The Flying Tench
    3.15 - 4.45pm
    Thames lock cut, hoping for some roach on float fished maggot or caster. A cold day with WT 5 deg C. Much more water coming though the weir than I had expected after what I thought was average rainfall, and a lot of colour in the water. With the amount of flow I thought it was a safe bet the fish would be in the cut, but either they weren't feeding or else I just didn't find them. I tried two places with slight flow from an eddy with not a touch, and then settled for 12 ft deep still water. A ruffe, 3 small roach and a perch.
     
    The only point of interest (at least to me) was that I was fishing under the rod tip and experimented with lifting the bait every minute or so. This was suggested in a recent thread to induce bites from perch, but I figured that roach, too, may like a falling bait. 4 out of 5 of the fish were caught this way. I'm not suggesting it induced bites, more that they had the bait in their mouths but gave no indication on the float, so when I lifted the float the bait was already in their mouth.
     
    I guess pole anglers do this as standard technique? Makes me wonder what you should do when ledgering in cold weather. Maybe fish a short lead, and keep winding the bait in an inch or two?
  17. The Flying Tench
    10.30am - 12.15pm AT 5 degC WT 6 degC
     
    A cold day, but this high stock density local lake fished well in the past on a cold day so I though I had a chance. I didn't fish my normal time of dusk as rain was forecast in the afternoon. The question was, what should I try for, the roach or perch? Since my two baits of maggot and prawn could attract both it was partly an academic question, though I fished tight to a bush with the perch in mind.
     
    I started float fishing maggot, but the small fish were more active than I expected in the cold, so I soon switched to prawn. I had one small perch, then a nice one of 2lb 9oz, then I lost one perhaps a fraction smaller. The first 2 bites came immediately after I cast in, so they took it 'on the drop'. This had me wondering how frequently you should cast when perch fishing - I will start a thread on this. I re-cast about every 5 minutes.
     
    Then it started to rain, so I left a bit sooner than planned, nevertheless pleased with my catch.
  18. The Flying Tench
    2.45 - 4.15 pm
    A typical brief session for the normal mixture of good and bad reasons. I had brought lobworms and maggots for perch, but the air pressure was high, and most of the morning cloud had disappeared, so I wasn't too optimistic. But I chatted to an angler on the bank who told me of a 'deep hole' where there might be some good perch. At least, there USED to be a deep hole. I have been told of such holes before, but when I tried plumbing the depth I have never been able to find them, but this time I did find a stretch of about 10 yards where it was a foot or so deeper than elsewhere. Worth a go.
     
    I started trotting maggot on the basis that, if it was devoid of prey fish, the sergeants were unlikely to be there either. I fished full depth for about 10 trots. Zilch. Then on an impulse I went 6 inches deeper, and immediately had a small roach. Then another 6 inches deeper, and had more small fish and a couple of nice roach of 8 and 10 oz. This surprised me. I have read of going over depth trotting, but I've normally found I catch on weed, and in fact often have to be LESS than full depth. What was going on? Some of the time I was holding back when, obviously, the bait rises in the water, so that made sense. But even when I wasn't holding back the fish preferred it fished over depth. And I didn't snag the bottom.
     
    I then switched to lobworm with no success. I retrospect, the flow there may have been too fast for perch. But I shall try again for the roach.
  19. The Flying Tench
    2.15 to 4.15pm Thames lock cut
     
    The last time I was here I fished for roach with little success, but when dusk came the pike went crazy. Each time I threw in some groundbait the bleak would leap from the water chased by the perch, and then one or two roach would surface followed by a massive explosion from 2 or 3 pike. Given that, today, we've had 3 days of very mild weather after a cold spell, and the air pressure is high, I had hopes esox would be in similar active mood.
     
    But no, it was a different river, with no surface evidence of fish at all. I started off roach fishing, mainly to attract the pike, but nothing liked my maggot or bread. So I put the roach tackle away and fished a deadbait on the bottom for half an hour, also with no success. You may ask, why didn't I have the deadbait out while I fished for roach? Simply that I was a bit restricted for space which affected my field of vision, and I didn't want to miss a bite on the pike rig and get a deep hooked fish.
     
    So the magic hour arrived, and I switched to wobbled smelt. About third cast there was a fish on, I assumed a small pike, but it turned out to be a nice perch. In fact it looked huge, easily 3 lbs, but the scales said 2lb 12 oz. Still my best perch from the Thames, and best fish this year, so I was very pleased.
     
    But it had swallowed the bait right down. With 2 trebles I didn't know how on earth I would get the hooks out, but somehow they came. But perhaps I should switch to a single hook rig for this type of fishing?
  20. The Flying Tench
    3.30-4.45pm Brief session on the Thames. Clear blue sky, but nice flow in the river. Slow at the start, but a nice perch of about 1lb 4oz at the end on a change of lure. It was good to meet Kappa, who originally introduced me to ultra-lite, and gave some more valuable tips today.
  21. The Flying Tench
    11am to 3pm
    The forecast was a bright clear day with high pressure, and I was unable to make dusk - and unwilling to make dawn! I decided to visit a weir pool which I used to fish when I was in Newbury, and which used to hold a good shoal of decent sized perch, to see whether my new art of ultra-lite, taught to me by Kappa, landed more fish on the bank than I used to get by traditional spinning. Though the water level was very low, and I wasn't sure how 'up for it' the perch would be.
     
    Short answer - yes, ultra-lite got more! At the start it was bite-a-chuck, and I got about 10 perch in 20 minutes. But none were over a pound, and most were under half a pound. My switching to a bigger lure coincided with the sun breaking through, and the feeding spree stopped. So I really need to go again in better weather conditions to try for some better perch.
     
    After that I switched to ledgering bread flake, and picked up a couple of bream. Then from about 1.30pm it all seemed to go dead, with little tweaks and tugs on the quiver tip with no proper bites.
  22. The Flying Tench
    I booked into a B&B for one night to enable me to explore this well known fishery where there are still big roach. Though not for me on this occasion. The first thing that struck me was how amazingly clear it was, and I fully understood it when Stuart, the river keeper, told me there wasn't enough colour for roach. So I spent my time exploring and catching rainbow trout, plenty of grayling, and some small chub. Nothing big, but enjoyable fishing. And I shall return when the conditions are more suitable for the redfins.
  23. The Flying Tench
    7.30 - 8.30pm
     
    A hot, bright bank holiday Monday, and there was only about an hour of reasonable light (not too bright, not too dark) to try for roach. Float fished hemp 'n tares. Two nice roach of about 8 and 10 oz, plus some smaller ones. Quite encouraging, and I shall be back in more roachy conditions. Perhaps I should have 'lit up' and carried on a bit? But the bites seemed to have tailed off, and din-dins appealed.
     
    Point to remember next time. I started with an 18 hook, but failed to hook them properly. With tares it needed a 16, even though the hook looked very visible beside the bait.
  24. The Flying Tench
    2.30-5pm
     
    On the web you can find stories of amazing roach sessions with hemp and tares four or five years ago on the Thames near Oxford. I tried a few times last summer with limited success, but thought I'd have another go on a different stretch. I fed hemp, and alternated tares and caster as hook bait, a six foot deep swim only a rod length or two out.
     
    About 20 roach up to half a pound. An enjoyable session, but I never really got them going. My aim is to find some roach around the pound. I will have a go at dusk, but I find it hard to see the float when the light is low, so I may need to ledger.
  25. The Flying Tench
    7-9pm. Bright warm day, so decided just to fish dusk in the hope of some decent roach. Started on caster, and it was soon clear they were up in the water, so I fished half depth. Bite a chuck small roach, but no big ones so switched to a bigger bait. Prawn is popular for perch and roach on this lake in winter, so tried half a prawn on the bottom, but just had a couple of modest perch and 2 monster gudgeon. Finished off with double caster on the bottom, and had roach of 10oz and 15oz.
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