Large Day Ticket Tench

[Dales]

There is a picture and article in the Mail this week of a giant Tench 13lb 12oz from 5 Acre Plantation Lake on West Sussex's Furnace Lakes.

 

Looking at the picture I was filled with awe, but I became a little dismayed and disillusioned as I read the article and the Fishery Manager said it was the only Tench in the lake they created 4 years ago and it was stocked at 8lb. Why would anyone stock a single fish of any species in a water? It just does not seem right. Is it just to produce a monster specimen?

 

If this Tench has growth left in it and carries on at its current growth rates it may well beat the British Record. So is this where we are going with our record list. Stock one specimen of a species in a water and let it grow to an extreme size and bang thats the record. I know record lists don't mean alot but this just seems the wrong way to run a fishery.

 

Tench seem to go around in groups and I know about the theory of the big loner and if it is true it's there choice and even the loner theory assumes they are still in very small groups of 2 or 3 fish.

 

Stocking just a single fish is just wrong and mean

[Tigger]

I don't agree with the theory that the larger tench are loaners. I think they shoal just the same as all the others. I have actually caught large tench mixed in with small tench and even witnessed them patrolling in shoals of all sizes, no really small ones but fish ranging from 2lb up to nearly double figures. At the end of the day the tench is a gregarious fish as is the bream whish I think even the larger specimines stick to groups also all be it smaller ones of a similar year class.

[Anderoo]

That is a very big tench - very few genuine 13lb+ tench about. Stocking just 1 tench is no guarantee that it will grow to such a huge size and also unusal for a single fish of any species to be stocked, so perhaps it was an accidental stocking? If it was done on purpose with the aim of growing a monster, I wouldn't be surprised, although that is a risky strategy as it may have topped out at 9lb!

 

I expect it would much prefer to have some mates around, but these concerns are not high on many people's priority list.

[TrevBoy]

....and when you think about it, we (anglers) can be a bit hypocritical about creature welfare - we all tear worm to shreds, stab maggots and even livebait all in the name of our hobby, yet still we claim to be animal-welfare concious. Just another example of the imperfect world and imperfect human in it I guess (me included)

[mike1234]

Its common practice with a lot of the so called fisheries here to have a specimen pool, which is basically a lake smaller than the mixed lakes on the complex but contains the biggest fish, sometimes an extra fee is needed to fish this specimen lake.

 

Usually when a carp grows over 15lb its taken from what ever lake on the complex it as been living in and is moved to a smaller lake with other large fish.

 

I don't know what effect this as on further growth but i imagine its not good animal welfare letting something grow large in a big open space then once it reaches a certain size to be packed into a smaller area with no other smaller fish just other large fish to compete with for food and space to move.

[Steve Burke]

I don't agree with the theory that the larger tench are loaners. I think they shoal just the same as all the others. I have actually caught large tench mixed in with small tench and even witnessed them patrolling in shoals of all sizes, no really small ones but fish ranging from 2lb up to nearly double figures. At the end of the day the tench is a gregarious fish as is the bream whish I think even the larger specimines stick to groups also all be it smaller ones of a similar year class.

 

 

Waters will of course differ. However at Wingham there is no doubt in my mind that some of the tench are nomadic loners, or at the very least are in much smaller groups. These nomads have a higher average size and so I deliberately target them.

 

It's interesting that all 3 of the ten pounders caught at Wingham were the only ones the captor had that day - Glyn's, mine and Tigger's!

[Anderoo]

I definitely agree about the loner/small group behaviour of the biggest tench in a water. The nomadic theory interests me though. If this is the case, then it could help to explain why these tench are the biggest in the first place! For example, we know that there are usually tench in every swim, but depending on conditions, the tench at one end of the lake will feed while those at the other end won't. These biggest tench could simply travel all over the lake to where the conditions for feeding are most suitable, and therefore grow on to a higher average size.

 

Just a theory - is there any info that would either back it up or blow it out of the water?

[Steve Burke]

I definitely agree about the loner/small group behaviour of the biggest tench in a water. The nomadic theory interests me though. If this is the case, then it could help to explain why these tench are the biggest in the first place! For example, we know that there are usually tench in every swim, but depending on conditions, the tench at one end of the lake will feed while those at the other end won't. These biggest tench could simply travel all over the lake to where the conditions for feeding are most suitable, and therefore grow on to a higher average size.

 

Just a theory - is there any info that would either back it up or blow it out of the water?

 

This is exactly what I've maintained from the early years at Wingham.

 

I also think that the bigger tench may also feed for longer as they often come after the normal feeding time is over.

 

Additionally, they may also feed in more adverse conditions. Both mine and Glyn's doubles were caught in NE winds, and apart from one other I had on a different day were the only tench to come out that week.

 

For more details see http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/10-06-r...ml&hl=tench .

[Anderoo]

Oops, sorry Steve, I didn't realise it was already accepted! Despite agreeing about the loner/small group part I'd never really thought about the wandering before. It sounds then that they behave more like the bream than the other tench. It's all really interesting.

 

Apologies if this is all off topic.

[Tigger]

I think I'd go with small groups rather than loner fish. Maybe it's certain year classes that have stuck together throughout their lives and through age (predation,illness etc) they've dwindled down in numbers as the fish have grown large leaving just the small groups of biggies.