Tench in the swim no bites?

[lozza]

I had my first tench session of the season yesterday I had a couple of good hours were I managed four fish for around 24lb including a 6lb 10 male fish which almost pulled my arm off (forgot how hard tench fight) a little different from my recent skimmers from the canal. I got to the lake a first light I had my first fish 10 hours later but then followed buy the others. Th fish were obviously feeding in the morning but I could not buy a bit the swim. It looked a little like a jacuzzi yet no movement of the float at all same bait same place same fish different time produced the results just got a pain in my back from sitting down all day. If the the fish were feeding in the morning why could I not get a bite? I changed bait, depth, line diameter and hook size but nothing any body got any ideas? Does this happen to anybody else. They were deficiently tench because I had one roll over the line which was incredibly annoying.

[Anthony78]

I had my first tench session of the season yesterday I had a couple of good hours were I managed four fish for around 24lb including a 6lb 10 male fish which almost pulled my arm off (forgot how hard tench fight) a little different from my recent skimmers from the canal. I got to the lake a first light I had my first fish 10 hours later but then followed buy the others. Th fish were obviously feeding in the morning but I could not buy a bit the swim. It looked a little like a jacuzzi yet no movement of the float at all same bait same place same fish different time produced the results just got a pain in my back from sitting down all day. If the the fish were feeding in the morning why could I not get a bite? I changed bait, depth, line diameter and hook size but nothing any body got any ideas? Does this happen to anybody else. They were deficiently tench because I had one roll over the line which was incredibly annoying.

 

Hi Lozza,

First of all, congrats on your cracking tench. A 6lb 10oz male is a fantastic specimen.

 

Now I do not pretend to be an expert at catching tench but I do know that they can easily get preoccupied on small food items. What bait were you feeding? If it included hemp or groundbait then it could well have been that they were eating only that? Did you continue feeding the same bait all day or did you put a load of bait (hemp or groudbait) in first thing and then feed something else to top the swim up over the course or the day? as they may have eaten all of this initial feed and then moved on to your "trickle" feed as the day proceeded.

It could also be that you happened to be fishing over a bloodworm bed which are extremely active this time of the year and they were feeding on this in the morning and the slow introduction of feed from yourself over this has slowly turned them onto your bait.

Either way I think bait is the key and I would try changing this until you start getting bites. Personall I would try caster and hemp 50/50 split or, if there are not too many small fish, red maggots which can be a fantastic tench bait.

 

Sorry, probably not much help but I do know how frustraiting tench fishing can be but also know that the answer usually lies within your choice of bait.

 

Regards

 

Ant

[Renrag39]

I was going to say bloodworm bed too. Everything is waking up and the bottom will be teeming with fish noms. They can get preoccupied. Only thing I would have done differently is put a bed of the above mix down at first light but thats only with the help of retrospect. It can and does go either way as you know.

Fantastic fish there, all worth it in the end. As the season progresses and more bait is introduced to the water, the trickle feed method will come into its own as they will recognise it once again as a sustainable food source.

 

Just another possible outlook. I have no real experience targeting Tench to be totally honest.

 

Renrag

[lozza]

It is a very silty bottom not sure if thats were blood worm live? But I would seem to make sense I could not present a small bait because the lake is full of small rudd roach and perch so maggots and casters , hemp and worm did not even hit the bottom I only fed a couple of hand fulls of 4mm pellets to see if that made a different but did not seem to help. The tench in this lake seem to have very small mouths the biggest fish I had had a mouth no bigger than a pound coin I had trouble with opening it mouth and fitting a disgorgea in its mouth with my finger. Can you get 6mm boile? all the traditional bait that I would usually use were getting hammered and paste would not cast the distance I would be looking for would tench eat a couple of seldom plastic maggots if there was no lose feed?

[lozza]

Can you get bloodworm flavor, paste, boil?

[Renrag39]

'Solid' groundbait mix. Hard to describe how to mix it but I use it on the broads when the rivers are flowing or to get the bait down through smaller fish. Mix in your usual loosefeed withy whatever groundbait you prefer and ball it up REALLY tightly. A small cloud will form on impact, keeping the smaller fish occupied nearer the surface, the main mass sinks like a stone (especially when you put stones in, only needed on rivers really), then breaks apart slowly when on the bottom, creating a nice concentrated baited area. Horlicks/molasses helps the groundbait bind better I've found.

 

Renrag

[Steve Walker]

I'd try fake red maggots on the hook, seems to deter the tiddlers to some extent.

 

And a bolt rig

 

That will probably make catching tench preoccupied with bloodworm beds easy - then the question is, do you want it easy, or do you want it traditional?

[Dick Dastardly]

Quite common when "fizzing" and I would agree its normally preoccupation with small food items such as bloodworm.The "Fizzing" is often caused by them filtering the worm from the silt.

 

For me Steve has hit the answer on the head,Have a look at the recent posts about bolt rigs making "difficult" tench easy.

[Anderoo]

This is classic tench behaviour, they can be infuriating at times! You know they are in your swim, feeding away, and yet you get no bites.

 

As Steve and Budgie said, have a look at the recent bolt rig topic, which is very relevant. If you want to continue to fish traditionally, the best way I found was doing exactly what Anthony78 suggested, float fishing with casters on fine tackle over a light sprinkling of hemp and caster. They'll still drive you mad though!

 

A bolt rig should sort them out, if that's your thing.