Tench

[davedave]

Morning,

 

I've been fishing a club pond that i've recently joined. It's been stocked with carp, tench, roach, bream and others i believe, but it's mainly a carp water, with lots and lots of smaller carp from the 2lb - 6lb mark, with bigger fish. At first it was nice to fish an easier water (something i've never done) and i enjoyed catching 6 or seven carp in a day, and trying out new methods i'd never previously used for carp fishing. But the thing is, now, i'm getting a little conscious that it's 'too' easy. The funs wore off a bit and it's not really a challenge. But i do like the place, it's a small pond that used to be a millpond i believe, only twenty pegs and lots of lilies, trees etc and even woodpeckers and kingfishers. So i've decided to go for the tench in there, i've only had one out at a pound and a half, which admittedly is my first tench, and i want to catch a few more, they go to 5lb plus but anything 3lb and up would be great, it also offers me a new challenge which is this:

 

How can i catch quality tench (which have a habit of being quite elusive), whilst avoiding the many, many carp?

 

 

Thanks guys

[Rob Ward]

A difficult task indeed as both your target species and the species you're trying to avoid will fall to the same baits and methods.

 

It's going to be very difficult to be selective so you might be best just fishing for mixed bags and trying to work out what the Tench prefer, what their feeding times are and which swims they like and then over time you might see a pattern develop.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Rob Ward

[Anderoo]

Catching one species from a water full of another species is always going to be hard, whether that's bream in a lake full of tench, carp in a lake full of bream, or tench in a lake full of carp. Your best bet might be in very early spring, on some waters the tench wake up before the carp and you might have more chance then. Baits and tactics will be very similar for those two species, so I'm not sure you can do too much there.

[Steve Walker]

Pretty much anything that works for tench also works for carp. I think you will struggle, unless you can find times and places the tench feed and the carp don't.

[gozzer]

Good Luck Dave, I've had this problem for years. It depends on the stocking levels in the water. If the carp greatly outnumber the tench, then you're going to catch carp more often than not. Add the fact that tench tend to spread out, after spawning, the chance of finding them in any numbers is smaller. As Rob said, they both fall for the same approach, so unless you can drop on the tench, the carp will take over. Then it's just a case of wading through the carp, hoping a tench turns up.

If you do find the answer then please let me know, I've tried everything I can think of, and many ideas from others, and never managed it.

The only other thing is to try and find a water with fewer carp in it. Sorry.

 

John.

[Chris Plumb]

You could try raking your swim immediately before starting!!! This will often scare off the carp - but attract the tench - who will come to investigate out of curiosity. Has worked for me on a couple of waters I fish that have a lot of carp AND tench - and I'm after the tench. Crucians also seem to be attracted by the commotion - my previous PB (to this season) was caught just minutes fate I'd raked the swim......

 

 

C.

[davedave]

Thanks for the quick info guys, really appreciated.

 

So i get the impression it could be a hard task! My first thoughts were a few early mornings, light float rig up against the lilies, dead bottom depth with single corn, maggot or casters as bait.

 

I tried last time i went down with a similar method, i used 4lb straight through to a size 14, at 8 o clock i was in the water with a delicately shotted pole float rig (on running line not a pole) with corn, i didn't feed any bait at all really, and couldn't buy a bite, which surprised me, for two hours i had nothing, not even from the carp, so i don't know what happened there.

 

My other thought was to stab in the dark and go back to where i caught my other tench, this could be a tricky one though because to get up against the lilies you'd have to cast over them, making it bloody hard to get a fish in if i was on, and if i bulked up my line to 6 or 8lb then i'd loose all finesse of it. Last time i was on the opposite side of the pond and cast my ledger to the lilies (admittedly for carp) so a ledger could be an idea to get up close, but again i'd have to use 6lb minimum that close to snags because if (more like when) i'd get a carp i'd have to get them out of the snags.

 

Maybe a light ledger with corn or a few casters on the hook in open water would do it, then i could go relatively light (4lb ish) and if i didn't put any feed out i might not get too many carp. A maggot feeder crossed my mind but again i reckon the carp would close in on it.

 

I think possibly my best solution, if possible is to try and access a spot where i can float fish to the lilies and basically hope i get lucky. Another issue is fishing in between swims is banned. <_<

 

 

It's going to be tricky!! Thanks again

[davedave]

Thanks for the quick info guys, really appreciated.

 

So i get the impression it could be a hard task! My first thoughts were a few early mornings, light float rig up against the lilies, dead bottom depth with single corn, maggot or casters as bait.

 

I tried last time i went down with a similar method, i used 4lb straight through to a size 14, at 8 o clock i was in the water with a delicately shotted pole float rig (on running line not a pole) with corn, i didn't feed any bait at all really, and couldn't buy a bite, which surprised me, for two hours i had nothing, not even from the carp, so i don't know what happened there.

 

My other thought was to stab in the dark and go back to where i caught my other tench, this could be a tricky one though because to get up against the lilies you'd have to cast over them, making it bloody hard to get a fish in if i was on, and if i bulked up my line to 6 or 8lb then i'd loose all finesse of it. Last time i was on the opposite side of the pond and cast my ledger to the lilies (admittedly for carp) so a ledger could be an idea to get up close, but again i'd have to use 6lb minimum that close to snags because if (more like when) i'd get a carp i'd have to get them out of the snags.

 

Maybe a light ledger with corn or a few casters on the hook in open water would do it, then i could go relatively light (4lb ish) and if i didn't put any feed out i might not get too many carp. A maggot feeder crossed my mind but again i reckon the carp would close in on it.

 

I think possibly my best solution, if possible is to try and access a spot where i can float fish to the lilies and basically hope i get lucky. Another issue is fishing in between swims is banned. <_<

 

 

It's going to be tricky!! Thanks again

[Andy Macfarlane]

Fish with prawn on the bottom and take the carp along with the odd tench. Bound to show up sooner or later with stanky prawns on the go.

[Lee Enfield]

Fish with prawn on the bottom and take the carp along with the odd tench. Bound to show up sooner or later with stanky prawns on the go.

 

 

Hi DaveDave,

I would also do has Andy says! fish hard on the bottom with a full prawn But if you are up tight to the lilly pads

you will have to be quick or they will bolt for the lillies.

Lee Enfield