A weird day

[Alan Stubbs]

I fished our local park lake early yesterday evening for a few hours looking for 'silvers.

 

I chose to fish away from the known haunts - purely because the shade was better!

 

A few balls of a mixture of breadcrumb, boiled hemp and sweetcorn groundbait were thrown out and left whilst I set up.

 

Using a 13' up match rod and 4lb line straight through to a size 10 barbless hook with a 2AA crystal insert waggler, in 3 hours I had 28 tench. None large - from around 6ozs up to pushing 3 lbs max, all using sweetcorn as hookbait - my alternative bait was to be breadflake - but I never got around to using it. This water is known for tench taking breadflake as their bait of preference, as well.

 

The only species I caught was tench in a lake known to have a good head of roach, rudd and carp.

 

This isn't in itself that incredible. But there were 6 other people fishing the lake who'd been there all day with not so much as a sniff of a bite. One guy fishing a known tench patrol route came over to have a look - he was fishing the same basic tactics as me but lighter, and he'd lost a small skimmer which shed his size 18 barbless. that's all he had to show for 8 hours studious fishing.

 

Apart from hoping that this isn't a complete year's worth of good fortune in one hit, I can't work out why the tench would have shoaled up in a none-to-promising part of the lake - (in the busy times it's right on the pedestrian route and very noisy), it was also not offering much cover to the fish - I was casting into a part of the lake which the sun will always catch if it's out.

 

it was a really satisfying session - but nonetheless embarrassing to be the only person catching.

[Puzzled]

I wouldn't mind being embarrassed like that Alan!

[Steve Burke]

Alan, it's difficult to comment without seeing the water, but was your swim near where the tench spawn? Was it where the surface was rippled or near weedbeds? Was the depth different?

 

Alternatively, it could just be that the usual swims had been hammered. What's the betting that this one will get some attention now!

 

Anyway, congratulations on a great catch!

[DavyR]

Nice one, Alan! That's the magic of fishing - there ain't no rhyme nor reason sometimes!

[Alan Stubbs]

Alan, it's difficult to comment without seeing the water, but was your swim near where the tench spawn? Was it where the surface was rippled or near weedbeds? Was the depth different?

 

Alternatively, it could just be that the usual swims had been hammered. What's the betting that this one will get some attention now!

 

Anyway, congratulations on a great catch!

 

 

The lake is a man-made lake stream-fed and with some run-off. In total it's around 3 acres. I was almost as far from vegetation as it was possible to be. The spawning area was over 50 yards away. The water doesn't vary greatly in depth - between 3 and 5' - this is a municipal park lake after all. There was a slight breeze running yesterday at right angles to where I was fishing.

 

I suspect that the reason for the success is that the lake has been very pressured recently, and people knowing where the tench patrol have duly driven them to another part of the lake.

 

Ironically, this is the first time for months I've fished it - and I'm not sure the regulars would welcome me back too soon!

[medwaygreen]

Great result Alan the locals properly think you are a professional now.

 

[Guest Jan of the 2 Ghillies]

Has happened to me on more than one occasion, Alan. Crickets are a bait not used at our local pond. I always come out looking real good when using them for bait. And, out on the lake we fish the most, sometimes I catch blue gills until my arms hurt. It's the right place at the right time with the right bait and sometimes it's dumb luck. But fun, ain't it??

[3DoorsDown]

I had a similiar experience a couple of weekends ago. Arrived at the club lake early to go after some Tench only to find that there was a match starting later, so had to fish the small pond for the first time.

 

Picked a swim based on where the resident male swan wasn't going to get too uptight about me being close to the nest, plumbed the depth and started to fish a waggler at the bottom of the second shelf. I started catching small 2/3lb mirrors on a single peice of sweetcorn on a size 10 over a bed of vitalin and smartbait marine salmon excite ground bait, and the sport continued all morning, at some points a fish a cast.

 

I thought this must be the norm for the water, however, various other regulars arrived around me and started dipping their poles. No one else could buy a bite all morning ! I can only put it down to the distance I was fishing, just beyond a bank of Canadian Pond weed, an extra rod length than the poles could reach.

 

Nic

[A Worm OOE]

My guess is that there was a pre-spawning party. I used to fish a lake where the Tench were of a good sise but in the run up to spawning each year any catch of Tench allways included a lot of small Tench which were never usually caught. At this time the fish became very localised. The water was clear and when observing the larger tench spawning in the weeds the small ones were allways milling around as if practicing for future years.

Edited June 12, 2006 by A Worm OOE

[PhilZenith]

sounds like an amazing days fishing that.

 

Im off to my local fishery on sunday and hope to get the same kind of action with silvers, but what i really want is to land my very first tench.

 

 

Is it better to go for natural sweetcorn or a sweeter variety in this hot weather?