Adur Tench refusing to co-operate - why?

[john frum]

I fished the upper Adur on part of the Henfield club stretches the other day. I've not often seen a better spot (mind you I resumed coarse angling after a 40 year break recently...) a nice deep bend on what is predominantly shallow-ish and lily-pad covered. Started at 6.0am with mist still on the water. There were quite a few Tench-y bubbles about and wherever I fed the groundbait (commercial stuff plus breadcrumb, maggot and sweet corn) lots more bubbles appeared.

 

Nothing worked. I was using a 16 on 3lb line straight through float fished on or close to the bottom (depth varied a bit but about 10 ft). Tried all kinds of bait - the above plus bread paste with and without cheese, & also worm (distibuted lots of freebies; yet more bubbles).

 

The only bites I got were from small roach on maggot. I tried varying the shotting so that the bait fell quickly or slowly etc. Several hours of this left me well puzzled. As the day got hotter - much hotter - the activity fell off although I could still get a few signs of life with more groundbait from time to time.

 

Anyone like to suggest what I was doing wrong? Or is it just the everlasting unpredictability of fish?

[Richard04091979]

Are you sure the bubbles were from Tench and not your Grounbait some active mixes send little bubbles up to the top?

 

 

Ricky

[A Worm OOE]

At this time of year deep water may be best avoided. I would find some clear water of about 6ft with lillies near by and fish there. I often find when fishing these type of venues (have fished there myself years ago though not for Tench) that choped worm and caster is often better than a goundbait aproach. As said above I wouldnt assume the bubles are Tench.

I would save this deep swim for later i the year when the Bream are having a go.

[Leon Roskilly]

If there is a ready food supply, many fish will become pre-occupied feeding on that to the exclusion of all else.

 

Tench usually feed quite well at the very beginning of the season, but as weed grows, and with it abundent natural food such as newly hatched water snails, insect larvae, bloodworm etc, they become much harder to tempt with anglers usual offerings.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[john frum]

The bubbles were appearing long before I put any groundbait in and in places where I hadn't as well. Whether they were from Tench, I can't be sure but I had some sizeable Bream a few days ago - further downstream - and no bubbles, just nice easy bites.

 

I walked upstream to the limit of the club water (this is the stretch known as The Lock )& the whole the river was alive with huge numbers of small Roach, Bream and Perch. I spent an enjoyable hour or so watching them with binoculars. There were also a couple of sizeable Chub lurking about at the upstream lock (out of bounds). The relationship between the predators and the small stuff is really interesting; they continually intermingle but it's quite clear that they all know what the agenda is!

 

Anyway it beats the **** out of DIY...

[Bonzo]

I have found that to put feed in when the water is fizzing brings no bites from Tench.when arriving at swim and find the fish already with there heads down i do not put any feed in at all,if no bites are forthcoming i then introduce feed, but only small amounts (walnut size).

[john frum]

Thanks for the comments. As Bonzo suggests, I have come to the conclusion that feeding them when they're already feeding wasn't the best way to start.