How to catch tench

[davedave]

Never catching one before, i'd love to catch my first tench. A nearbly lake i fish a lot is well stocked with roach, rudd, perch, carp, tench and others. Ive never seen a tench come out of there so im guessing theres only a fairly small amount of them if there are any left in there, but with the large amount of carp in there i dont know how to try and catch them. Any ideas?? Cheers

[jason.p]

I suppose one of the most important things, if you know they're in there, is locating them. Walk around as early or late as possible and look for the tell-tale "spray" of bubbles typical of feeding Tench. If at all possible raking the swim can work well. Tench almost always will feed on the bottom so if float fishing, make sure you're hard on the bottom. Baits can vary, worm, maggot, bread corn (it's said they prefer red).

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

(as the water gets colder from now on they will get much harder to catch)

[Chris Plumb]

Getting a little late in the year now for tench - though should still catch if temps hold up. Raking the swim works well if its a hard gravelly bottom - not so good if its silty with a lot of leaf litter. I've had all my tench this summer float fishing - using the lift - method whereby you over shot the float with ALL the shot being around 3 inches from the hook. The float is attached by the bottom end only with a float rubber (this is important you don't want ANY shot near the float). You need to plumb the depth really accurately so that the float just cocks. Bites are registered in 2 ways - the traditional disappearing act and with the float rising and going flat - need to strike AS THE FLOAT RISES - before the fish feels the weight of the bulk shot alerts the fish to its mistake. Nearly all of my tench this summer (and most of the crucians) have given this type of bite.

 

For bait I'd add meat, pellet, cockle and black pudding to the list above all have caught me lots of tincas in the past....

 

 

C.

[davedave]

Getting a little late in the year now for tench - though should still catch if temps hold up. Raking the swim works well if its a hard gravelly bottom - not so good if its silty with a lot of leaf litter. I've had all my tench this summer float fishing - using the lift - method whereby you over shot the float with ALL the shot being around 3 inches from the hook. The float is attached by the bottom end only with a float rubber (this is important you don't want ANY shot near the float). You need to plumb the depth really accurately so that the float just cocks. Bites are registered in 2 ways - the traditional disappearing act and with the float rising and going flat - need to strike AS THE FLOAT RISES - before the fish feels the weight of the bulk shot alerts the fish to its mistake. Nearly all of my tench this summer (and most of the crucians) have given this type of bite.

 

For bait I'd add meat, pellet, cockle and black pudding to the list above all have caught me lots of tincas in the past....

 

 

C.

 

 

thanks very much

[Klaus]

thanks very much

small lake I fish the Tench are still taking 8mm drilled pellet hair rigged , halibut or similar on the feeder. cage feeder or method,size 14/16 4" length on quivertip, 2&half, 3 pound, only trouble is carp to 20lb . small bream 6oz to 4lb also like, nice catches but the carp over 8-10lb smash you. Red maggot if you read all the weeklies, killer as all the pics show. Double white size 14 float fished excellent as well, many choices of bait for you to try, Sure you will catch 1 soon

 

Klaus

[Anderoo]

The best advice I can give (although possibly not what you want to hear) is wait until next April/May and then fish somewhere that has tench in it! They can be caught on virtually every method and bait, but this time of year you really will be scratching around for bites.

[Dales]

The best advice I can give (although possibly not what you want to hear) is wait until next April/May and then fish somewhere that has tench in it! They can be caught on virtually every method and bait, but this time of year you really will be scratching around for bites.

 

Good advice, around this time last year I got a bee in my bonnet about trying to catch a big Tench as my partner was putting together an album of my big fish to get printed for me and I had no pictures of any real big Tench.

 

It was hard work. I caught a few small ones, but not the large fish I wanted and so I ended up wasting good fishing days that could have been better spent targeting more seasonal species.

 

What ever you decide, good luck.

[watatoad]

Your best hope this time of the year would be to fish on a bed of grated spam and chopped worm but it is a hope.

[Anderoo]

In my opinion, it's impossible to give specific advice on methods and baits unless you know the water in question. Having said that, half the battle in catching a particular species is managing to avoid the rest - very difficult if there are lots of other fish present, especially carp and bream.

 

Best bet is to get to the venue very early (before dawn) in the first proper warm days of April. If tench are present, you should see evidence of them, like rolling (they look kind of like a mini seal) or clusters of tiny bubbles. Fishing in those spots will give you a big head start. Beds of fine groundbait can encourage good competitive feeding. I have found (on gravel pits) that big, obvious baits (pellets, mini boilies, corn) work best in very early spring, and then when the bloodworm beds kick off, red maggots. However, each water is different and will present different challenges in avoiding the fish you don't want to catch.

 

If there are lots of small-medium sized carp in there, it will hard to avoid them. The reality is that virtually every bait and method will catch you a tench, if it's in the right place. But the first warm weather in spring is the time to put the effort in.

[davedave]

thanks for the advice, very useful, had a horrible feeling id left it too late, oh well try next year. Serious perch, carp and chub time i reckon