How's it going

[The Flying Tench]

Thanks, Rich, will get some

 

John

Trying again with the image

[Steve Walker]

Joined a new club today. They've got a couple of gravel pits and a bit of the Bristol Avon. The bit of the Avon has produced big chub and barbel and big roach. One of the pits has inevitably been filled in with little carp, the other is more interesting. Carp, obviously, but also lots of tench (lake record a little over 10lb). Has produced some good crucians in the past (3-8) and rudd to 2-5. I had a short session on there this evening - peaceful, quite pretty, not many people fishing. You can drive all the way round it, too.

 

I fished two rods - heavy float tackle against the lily pads and a bolt rig with fake maggots on the other. I had two runs on the bolt rig, One was a pike bite-off, the other was a nice rudd of half a pound or so. On the float rod, I had more rudd and three or four perfect but tiny tench (smallest one pictured).

 

 

 

Apart from the bite-off there was a fair bit of suspected predator activity, so might be worth a bash with the spinning gear.

[Kappa]

Dear all,

 

Popped to the coast to try to increase the species hunt I'm enjoying over the last few weeks. A few weird and wonderful ones to add (a couple of species I didn't get a photo:

 

 

[Kappa]

oh and two more including my all time favourite:

 

 

On a related note I just can't believe the quality ogf some of these pictures considering they are quick self takes using my smart phone!

 

How technology advances!

 

Rich

[Steve Walker]

I had another couple of sessions on my new club water yesterday and after work today. Yesterday I fished the same swim I chose on Saturday. It's a shallow (4-5ft), weedy corner swim with a lovely big lily bed. I again fished one rod with bolt rigged fake maggots, this time with a method feeder and a second rod by the lilies with heavy float tackle. I had not a sniff on the bolt rig, but had lots of little rudd and some more dinky tench on the float rod.

 

Today I picked a very different swim in the opposite corner - 12 feet deep in the margin, overhung by bushes and trees. Much less weed here, just some blanketweed on the bottom. I started off with fake maggots and an in-line blockend feeder on the alarm, having first put some groundbait out using an oversized open end feeder about 30 yards out. I then put some chopped dendras and groundbait into the marginal swim and set up a slider with a dendra on the hook. I had an immediate succession of small perch and then a good one of a pound or so - really nice bristling humpy-backed fish. Then the rudd moved in, and I had them more or less every chuck on worm or maggot, followed by a solitary 4oz tench. The small perch came back on the feed, including one 2oz perch which suddenly turned into something heavy and ponderous, before turning abruptly back into a slightly mangled 2oz perch. Pike, by the slashes. I had seen quite a few patches of bubbles over the evening, some of which looked volcanic enough to suspect carp rather than tench, and the leger rod had produced sod all, so I swapped it over to a running rig with an open end feeder, stuck a lobworm on it and chucked it onto the edge of my margin swim. Just as I was thinking of packing up, off it went, resulting in a short but thick-set tench of 5lb9oz.

 

Observations;

 

The tench don't seem to be seriously getting their heads down, so they're not falling for the hair rigged particles gambit. Big baits maybe better.

 

The water is gin clear and very warm. The weedy shallows are full of tiny tench. The big tench seem to be in the deeper water and maybe feeding at night.

 

There are lots of predators. Definitely worth a bit of lure fishing soon, and maybe some deadbaiting in the winter.

[Steve Walker]

Rich, are those on soft plastics?

[Kappa]

Alas the wrasse and scorpion fish were not, was struggling to get through the pouting. But the rest were!

 

I had a nice bass which I didnt take a photo of and lost a really good fish which I suspect was a good bass.

 

Also had another species of blenny and pouting.

 

Rich

Edited July 20, 2015 by Kappa

[Kappa]

Im told by the locals the wrasse are near impossible to catch on soft plastics where I was I fishing.

[JV44]

Had a lot of goes with soft plastics in the 5 to 10 gram jig head sizes and had great fun even caught a Ruffe and although everything has been small really like drifting around on the yak casting to spots

Addictive it certainly is

[Dales]

Few pics from a recent Tench fishing of a bit of a gut bucket. It's never going to win a beauty contest but at 10 lb 7 oz it was a right old lump

 

I thought the head on shot might help show the girth of the fish but it did not really work.