Clearwater tench

[Steve Walker]

Cheers Andrew, good ideas. The float rig you describe is pretty much what I ended up with. Not as much fun as seeing a big lift though!

[Anderoo]

The reason I suggested the lift method was - as well as being about as traditional as you can get! - if using a hair rig it would keep the hook on the deck and prevent foul hooking. You're right though, I've also fished for tench in waters where you need to use a waggler with the weight well up the line.

 

Good luck, let us know how you do

[ColinW]

I'll quite happily fish "small" hooks on six pound line if they are thick enough wire. I often go down to size 14 Drennan Super Specialist on six pound and haven't managed to straighten one yet! That's small enough to fish two maggots if you thread one up the shank a bit to hide the hook and nick the other on as usual.

[Steve Walker]

I'll quite happily fish "small" hooks on six pound line if they are thick enough wire. I often go down to size 14 Drennan Super Specialist on six pound and haven't managed to straighten one yet!

 

It's not the straightening of the hook that bothers me, it's the strength of hookhold. It's weedy, there are overhanging trees in the margins and while most of the tench run 5-6lb there are fish into double figures. I just don't have the same confidence bullying a fish away from snags with a smaller hook.

[Andrew Boyd]

Strange but true, want to hide a larger hook, try with draping a little silk weed or a small pinch of local natural clay, if you live in a chalky area like me. . hard luck.

 

Whatever, good luck

[Kappa]

My advice if it is possible to i.e weed permitting, free line a large lob worm (or use as fre shot as possible to make the cast) and watch the line where it enters the water.

 

Treat the swim as if you were floater fishing for carp and don't be tempted to cast until you are certain they are feeding well. A lob worm will often pick out preoccupied fish as Peter Stone would have told you. You could also inject on end with air to entice the fish more

 

You could always try feeding with similar but much larger baits. For example you might try just feeding with fairly large pellets and then using either a hooker pellet or pellet paste on the hook.

 

However if the lob worm doesn't work i'll be pretty surprised.

 

There are other methods i could suggest but they aren't really my or (it sounds like) your cup of tea.

 

Rich

[Carl Douglas]

I've had a similar problem on a local pit. I found that hooksize was the problem, not the line it was tied to. I ended up using 18's to 6lb line (Drennen Specialist) to get bites on maggot. I found that I suffered fewer hook pulls than with larger hooks, even when bullying fish through weed and rushes. Suggest you try small hooks or counter-balancing the weight if a larger one. An Enterprise grub threaded on and glues to the hook eye/spade works well.

[john frum]

This is a very interesting thread as I've booked a punt on a noted Tench lake in Sussex for a day next week with an old mate of mine who lives in central London and doesn't get a lot of opportunities to fish. I last fished it in the mid-sixties, so no clear memories except that we didn't catch anything too big. I have been reading through this to see what the current opinions on Tench are, and of course I'm in an even bigger quandry now...

 

I was wondering about raking (from a boat). Does the swim need time to recover before fishing it? Is the intention to partially clear a section of the bottom or exclusively to stir things up a bit?

Also, given that we'll be taking along maggots, Dendrobaena and Redworms (assuming I can get both on the day before), bread, cheese, luncheon meat etc, in fact all the usual suspects, is there much danger of overfeeding in the process of trying to find out what's working on the day - I assume there is as I've made similar mistakes at this time of year quite often on other waters. What's the consensus on the likely best groundbait type given that it's unknown to us how the water fishes?

 

We're planning to start fishing as near first light as possible and to leave the lake during the day, returning for the last four hours of daylight: is there much likelihood of any action in the daytime given the sort of weather we've had recently? There are quite a few Carp in there, so I thought I'd fish a feeder/ledger rod at the same time as float gear in order to hedge my bets. The lake looks about 60% covered in lilies so I imagine that the bottom is pretty tangled even in the clear sections... so I guess the comments here about strong gear are relevant. I was planning to use 6lb mono mainline. I've never used hook-length braid as it's banned on the clubs' waters that I fish, but thin & flexible sounds sensible to me.

 

OK, dammit, it's Burton Mill Pond! Anyone got any specific suggestions?

Edited July 22, 2006 by john frum

[gozzer]

I have found that Tench, when preoccupied with particles will sometimes take a bait fished off bottom. I think this is because when they move around the swim they stir up the bottom, lifting the particles. This might not happen with the bigger baits you are using. I would try fishing a bait 2-6ins off the bottom to see if this is the case with the fish in your swim.

[Dick Dastardly]

Ive never had a problem with small hooks pulling out of tench.Ive taken several fish over 8lb on a waggler rod 4lb mainline and hi tec low diameter 3lb hook length and size 16 hook.This was on a very clear gravel pit with lots of weed.

 

Maggot and caster can certainly achieve a level of preocupation.