Selecting Larger tench !

[Mat Hillman]

Over the last season or two one of my favourite tench waters has had a real explosion of smaller size fish!

 

Now while this is great news for the future, it's getting a little frustrating right now, I used to be able to fish this water and expect a decent bag of 3-5lb tench along with the occasional larger one (the venue has produced a couple of doubles)

 

But I noticed last season, and it's worse this season, the place is overrun with fish around 8oz to a pound! just about every cast is producing a baby tench, they seem to be everywhere, and on the bait long before the bigger ones show up!

 

Any suggestions on how to select the larger fish? My preferred method at this lake has always been a float fished cockle over a light sprinkling of trout pellet!

 

Or should I fish somewhere else for a couple of years and give em a chance to grow up a bit

 

Mat

[azrael]

all i can think of is going up bait size

 

fishing large boillies and donkey pellets not the best idea as i think small baits are best for tench

[RUDD]

Not much you can do - this happens at many waters, dont know why but you get a sudden explosion of small Tench for a few years, they will then go off the radar and the bigger ones return and vica versa. Most likely something to do with breeding cycles.

One strange thing is that in the past week I have caught more Tench than any other species and some nice sized ones at that - for some reason they are having a big feed, I have caught them in three sessions using different tactics in different pegs on several different baits but all on the same water?

[robtherake]

If you don't mind going on the lead it might be worth trying a corn or maize stack, balanced with foam or fake corn. It can be pretty selective when you're being tormented by smaller fish - it's possible that the shape makes it an awkward mouthful for the little uns.

[Steve Burke]

Mat, it may not be relevant on your water but at Wingham I've been able to avoid the small tench by cutting down on the amount of attraction in my groundbait. High levels of flavours seems to attract a lot of the shoal tench at Wingham. I combine this with very precise casting, having tried to work out the patrol routes of the fish. Whatever the reason it appears to work as I've barely had any female tench under 6lbs for many years.

[Tigger]

I'd do much the same as azrael and use a larger bait...pellet, boilie, chunk of meat etc and try to fish just on the edge of the feeding area if you have no joy slap in the middle.

[Mat Hillman]

The water doesn't have much in common with Wingham - it's a small shallow gravel pit, about 4-5 acres and average 5ft deep. I tend to feed hookbait samples and a little pellet rather than groundbait as it also hold a lot of bream!

 

Mat

[Phone]

Mat,

 

Surely the pond has "some features". I tend to agree with Steve B in that the largest fish (not only tench which we really don't have, but fish in general) will have the preferred location for feeding with the least effort. Perhaps a subtle drop-off - a crease of darkness or detritus? Also, it is my limited experience, stealth can be an asset with larger fish. A commotion tends to attract small fish first. Sometimes no baiting at all is best for big fish. As gentle a cast as you can make with an attractive morsel to the "right spot" works. Fly fishermen exploit this best I think. Like realestate - location location location.

 

Phone

Edit: polaroid glasses may be your biggest asset if the water is clear.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Phone