How hard do you try?

[Anderoo]

Yes, good point. I only go fishing if I've got everything else (work, home life, jobs around the house) ticked off. That always comes first. I am very lucky though, in that I have a partner who understands how important it is to me and doesn't make life difficult. In return, she gets some peace and quiet

 

Aside from the few Wingham trips I do in Spring/early Summer, most of my fishing is short sessions of just a few hours here and there. All the more reason to be prepared and work hard at it though...

 

Another good point is that working hard at it pays off in the long run. It means that you can go straight to spots you've thouroughly sussed out in the past and make the most of your limited time.

[Kappa]

I'm toying with the idea of getting a bit more serious about my tench fishing, but I'm not sure that catching more and bigger tench is going to make me happier than float fishing in the margins for them like I usually do.

 

Hopefully the two aren't mutually exclusive!

 

Before I fished Wingham my two biggest tench (by some distance) both came to the float (one on the pin too!). It took ten years of trying more modern methods to better them! I've promised myself not to be so blinkered about my approach this year!

 

Rich

[RUDD]

My local river, very definitely in Suffolk, has produced, for me, pike to over thirty pounds, bream to over twelve, carp to eighteen, catfish, also to eighteen, roach just shy of two pounds, perch to over four, chub to four, dace over a pound, rudd to just over two plus I've had minnows, gudgeon, one burbot, lamprey, ruff, flounders, mullet, bass, sea trout and salmon, although of no size, brown trout to over a pound and eels, some quite big too. I have witnessed a catfish of over sixty pounds, a forty three pounds carp and have heard of some very fine roach, numerous twenty pound plus carp and a bream of fourteen. Not bad, for a Suffolk River!!

 

Pete - we dont all have back garden access and a boat (which you need to fish the lower Waveney effectively).

 

The Gipping has its moments (once a year) but has been so badly managed over the years its not worth the effort.

 

To fish the Stour you need to join several clubs.

 

Not much in the Deben (Tidal part good for Bass and flatties)

 

The other rivers are not much more than streams, are highly inaccessable and you have to join loads of clubs.

 

Like Elton mentioned, River fishing in Suffolk is poor.

 

Back to the thread - I do plan ahead on occasion and have had good success but when things dont go so well I blame myself fot putting in to much thought.

I do much prefer spur of the moment (feeling in the gut) fishing as I have found I tend to do better than when on a planned trip.

I do plan for spur of the moment trips - All of my rods are in ready holders with reels and rigs strapped on ready to go, I have plenty of bait stored in my garage (pellets, corn, meat, boilies, pastes, hemp, wheat, liquid foods, groundbaits and worms) and I have various bags of end kit / sundries depending on the species / venue I am going to.

 

When I get a feeling its due to near on thirty years of experiance of species, methods, conditions etc

You cant ignore a gut feeling.

[Steve Walker]

Maybe - it would seem that the carp boys have had numerous double figure tench by accident, while the largest my float tactics have yielded have been a little over 6lb.

[1superken]

I love to prepare as any of my mates would tell you, even if im going to a new venue ive gotta have a good idea of what im going to be doing . One of my mates has a big transit van & he,s built a shelf in there & all of his tackle & i mean all of it lives in his van so all he has to do to go fishing is get dressed , he also misses the nightmare of getting home & putting it all away again . Quite often he,ll ring me at 10 o'clock at night ( usually after a few stellas ) & say do you wanna go fishing tomorrow ? its taken me ages to finally start convincing him it doesn't work like that for me, i need to know where im going, what im gonna be doing, what im gonna need , then i need to start getting it all together . Just recently a few of my mates have been saying to me i like how you fish you seem to have everything planned but ive been trying to tell them for years Fail to prepare , Prepare to fail .

As for the big Tench point in the last 3 years ive had at least 30 over 7lbs all on the float & i cant recall one over 5lbs on the Carp rods or the feeder

[Worms]

My local river, very definitely in Suffolk, has produced, for me,............. one burbot............ Not bad, for a Suffolk River!!

Not bad for any river! I thought they were extinct in the UK?! :notworthy: :notworthy:

[Steve Walker]

As for the big Tench point in the last 3 years ive had at least 30 over 7lbs all on the float & i cant recall one over 5lbs on the Carp rods or the feeder

 

I think it depends where you fish. The place I have in mind is a large, relatively shallow gravel pit, with features at distance and mostly fished by carpers. I think it could be that the big tench are expecting to find food where the carpies expect to throw it, which isn't in the margins - or that the tench which have come to rely on feed for carp have got big - or that the smaller tench tend to get to the floatfished baits first.

[Moodyboy]

I will always do a recce if I have not fished the area before. I will then make a mental note of the various swims and pack tackle accordingly. It adds to the excitment, seeing new swims, working how to tackle them, spoting large chub etc. I have a number of times gone for "a nice country walk,just the two of us" along various rivers......

 

It's true that the preparation bit, the night before for me, is all part of it. The excitement of what the next day will bring, although there is also something to be said for the "sod it" let's grab a couple of hours

[Kappa]

Maybe - it would seem that the carp boys have had numerous double figure tench by accident, while the largest my float tactics have yielded have been a little over 6lb.

 

Thats very interesting, I used to fish a pit that the carpers caught lots of big tench. I never saw any and I have doubts as to how many were weighed! Interestingly talking to the carpers some caught loads of tench some had never caught any I never did find out why! Maybe carpers get the big ones because of their rigs and the smaller tench tend not to get hooked if you are float fishing the first fish to the bait is the one you catch which could be the smaller ones?

 

Incidentally after all the scaled down carp tactics, the only tench I caught from the pit that was over 7 was an 8lber I caught very close in on the float and pin!

 

Rich

[Anderoo]

Thats very interesting, I used to fish a pit that the carpers caught lots of big tench. I never saw any and I have doubts as to how many were weighed! Interestingly talking to the carpers some caught loads of tench some had never caught any I never did find out why! Maybe carpers get the big ones because of their rigs and the smaller tench tend not to get hooked if you are float fishing the first fish to the bait is the one you catch which could be the smaller ones?

 

Incidentally after all the scaled down carp tactics, the only tench I caught from the pit that was over 7 was an 8lber I caught very close in on the float and pin!

 

Rich

 

(Rich - thought you might enjoy this topic: http://www.cemexangling.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=107538 Good twist at the end...!)

 

I think on lakes that are heavily carp fished, the tench change their 'normal' behaviour, abandoning the margins for areas of the lake which are quieter and that have more, easy to obtain, food. As the carpers never seem to fish the margins and are always stomping about and shouting, it makes sense. Hence the tench are at range and eating carp food like boilies and pellet.

 

This isn't a go at carpers - I'm describing the lake Rich mentioned. At that lake, I've done much better for the tench fishing further out with little boilies, and especially at night. I.e. carping, really!

 

The other thing is that these boys sit it out for weeks sometimes - they may catch a double and a few good back-up fish in a season, but compare that to the amount of time on the bank, and it's put into perspective.

 

I also doubt the tench are weighed very carefully, if at all, but I've no doubt there are some very big tench there. If it wasn't so busy I'd fish it regularly, but it's just not worth it.