Tench time again!

[john frum]

Next week a friend and I are fishing a lake that's a well-known Tench venue. If the rumour I hear's true it's the one at which Mr. Wilson failed to demonstrate how it's done.

 

Another mate and I fished it midsummer last year and had a brilliant day - about 20 fish between 4 and 8 pounds. We were on the water before dawn and caught up until about 11 or 12 am. They didn't seem fussy about baits, taking bread, corn (strawberry and regular - I notice that the fishing variety's a lot firmer) and maggot. Can't recall if I caught on worm or not - my mate's an aspiring saint who won't use anything that's ever been, or is currently, alive. We used a bit of mixed sweet groundbait and some loose feed, but not a lot. Both of us fished floats, me a waggler with a few inches of hooklength on or near the bottom and my mate the lift method. It was an extremely hot day and so we quit around midday and went for a meal and a rest, then came back late afternoon; same swim, same baits, same bubbles - and no Tench bites. Hmm. The water's got a bit of a reputation for unpredictability where the Tench are concerned - but that probably applies to most unb*ggered-about-with still waters.

 

Which prompts a digression.

 

I don't fish much during the close season at all, but I was becoming deranged so I had a couple of days recently on club lakes, which only confirmed my depressed feelings about angling in this little country of ours (make that "everybody's", snarl...) Both locations, each of which has three lakes, fished pretty miserably. Why is it that clubs now have to manage stillwaters so rigidly? Both venues, controlled by separate clubs, have identical policies: one "match" lake, with mixed content - minus predators; one Carp-only lake - naturally; and one exclusively Tench and Crucians. This is bizzarre and unnatural and only one step removed from fishing in an aquarium.

 

A couple of days ago I fished one of the Crucian/Tench lakes, a beautiful spot sheltered by a copse on two sides and echoing with constant birdsong. Idyllic. Dismal fishing though - unless you enjoy hookshy small Crucians and almost equally small Tench. The water's been stocked this way for at least 10 years btw. I was the only person on the lake - which suits me fine. The other two had about a dozen anglers between them (midweek), each occupying the patches of about 5 sq metres of bare earth where the grass never gets a chance to grow under anglers' feet. This I suppose is the tradeoff. The only way you can get the tranquillity and (relatively) unspoiled natural environment which I find indispensible for enjoyable angling is to fish somewhere where it's either cr@ppy sport, or inaccessible - like the bits of rivers a long way from the car parking. The Tench lake I'm about to fish again is one of the few places I know which hasn't gone this way. It's controlled by a syndicate (I had a chance to join this year but it's pretty expensive and for the number of times I might get a chance to fish it it's cheaper to get day tickets) and is, as far as I can tell, unchanged since I first fished it in 1963 or '64. The Tench are bigger now, and I've become an old f@rt, though!

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to fishing the syndicate lake again. I can't think of another anywhere within 30 miles of where I live (middle of Sussex coast) which is remotely comparable - they've all become either "managed" club waters or "commercials" which, personally, I loathe. The mania for bloated protein-fed Carp is incomprehensible to me.

 

Hmm, this post now doesn't resemble what I'd intended to write at all.

Edited June 14, 2007 by john frum

[Steve Walker]

You aren't the only one who feels like that about the management of fisheries, John.

[Anderoo]

This is a subject I daren't start commenting on again, it always ends up as a long rant. I'm with you 100%, and depending on how my day goes I may elaborate further later