tricky tench

[Mat Hillman]

Maggots are a big no no in the lake I'm fishing, theres so many small rudd that maggots simply don't make it to the bottom ;-)

 

but I do have a nice big tub of worms, I was thinking of trying the rake, feeding some broken worms and float fishing a dendrobeana or two! I'll probably blank again, but at least I can say I tried!

 

Mat

[Chris the Fish]

mat, considering that the tench love to burrow, i suggest wanging in a load of hemp just after you have raked, i use this mixed with castors and choppy and score well on my local tench swim of the canal.

 

granted that canal tench will have different habbits to lake/pit tench, but if your not catching then everything is worth a try once!

[Mat Hillman]

Well just got home, I think there something in this raking lark!

 

fished a four hour evening session after raking, float fished worms and fed hemp and trout pellet.

 

Hooked 3 tench, landed 2, one made it to the safety of the lilly pads ;( But this is a water that I've previously only caught two tench from in four full dawn to dusk days fishing! I'll be getting the rake out again next time I go.

[Bonzo]

We have found more success when we pre-bait and only rake on the day you are going to fish, put more feed in but keep it very little and not often, couple of puches of maggot or hemp every 20 minutes or so and dont feed any more ground bait in as these somtimes puts them off completely.

[edd]

i went 2day fed all day then by 7 o clck the tench bubbles started and carried on till bout 9 o clock but i only had 1 tench and the bubbles were coming up all the time arggggggggggggggghhhhh those pesky tench ill get them. i pre baited 2nite and gonna try at dawn hope i have better luck #

[frodo_uk]

makes me feel a bit better to know that I'm not the only one that finds this species illusive. I will continue with determination until I catch my first "big" tench.

[edd]

wooohooooooo 12 tench in an hour this morning from 1lb and a half up to 5lb.thats 8 more than ive caught there b4.will defanatly be giving pre-baiting ago again.oh yeah vitalin with sweetcorn in it was the grounbait and huge lobs as bait.

[Ian FG]

My bit for what it's worth:

All of my best tench catches have always been on hot, flat calm days in the middle of summer, always at dawn or dusk (and I mean dawn as in 4am not 6am). I prefer a pool with a clean bottom ie. no pond weed but near some lillies is always good and a decent depth of water. They love bread, corn and meat but more than anything they need the bait to be absolutely motionless so I always sink my line between rod and float but if there is any drag effect on the float I switch to the lead. One other thing is that they love the margins and are often caught very close to the bank, I mean right under the rod tip. Hope this helps but you seem to have cracked it now anyway