tench bubbles

[jonnychaos]

"Hmmm I love the site of Tench Bubbbles in the morning" Apocotench Now.

 

Walcot Lake on the BAA there used to be Tench Bubbles on the Tench Bubbles!

[Royboy]

I've read that Carp and Tench bubbles look different. Tench look like a long fizzy stream and are smaller whilst Carp are larger, more random and it a patch. Not to be confused with bubbles formed when plant material breaks down and pockets of methane form till they'll released by pressure of build up. Usually these are in one place - the point where the gas has found a way through.

 

Having seen all 3 kinds it certainly fits with my experience.

 

Not catching could down to the lottery of how much feed is in the swim compared to your bait.

I've found that often my bait is the last thing taken.

Also I've found when float fishing, changing the depth at which the bait is presented at can help.

Fishing for Carp I had the exact same problem and added a extra couple of inches so it was over depth and then I started catching.

I'm pretty sure the size of the bubbles depends on whether the tench is burping or farting. Larger bubbles indicate a belch whilst a steady stream denote long drawn out fart.

[Anderoo]

Ah, tench bubbles! He says, as the ground outside is covered in snow...

 

They can be simultaneously the most exciting and frustrating sight - you know that your swim is full of fizzing and feeding tench, but you just can't get a bite. And then it gets to lunchtime and it all stops

[Mat Hillman]

LOL Chasing those patches of bubbles around the swim can be one of the most frustrating things in angling! Lost count of the number of times I've made repeated casts chasing the bubbles only to get a bite once I've got bored with it and left the float in a spot the bubbles had stopped appearing in!

 

Mat

[BoldBear]

Quote from Royboy:

I'm pretty sure the size of the bubbles depends on whether the tench is burping or farting. Larger bubbles indicate a belch whilst a steady stream denote long drawn out fart.

I think you may have spent too much time meditating in the bath Roy

 

I have always thought that the bursts of small bubbles were caused by the air that is disturbed from the bottom going though the Tenchs gills. I love it when the tench are feeding and sending up these clouds of small bubbles which can show the direction that the tench is moving as it feeds, as you can intercept the feeding Tench and usually get a take from them if your using a bait (or end rig) that doesn't spook/alarm them; however they normally seem to turn and move in another direction when I try it.

 

The bursts of larger bubbles that gradually move in a line are usually other fish (Carp, Bream etc.) and if they are smaller bursts that don't move at all then it is more likely to be bottom Gas emerging from the mud/silt and is not usually an indication of fish.

Edited April 7, 2008 by BoldBear

[Vagabond]

Quote from Royboy:

I think you may have spent too much time meditating in the bath Roy

 

I have always thought that the bursts of small bubbles were caused by the air that is disturbed from the bottom going though the Tenchs gills.

 

Right - and I don't just think it, I have watched feeding tench doing just that in clear water (doesn't stay clear long once they get their heads down!) They also "bounce" on their heads as they do it - sucking in a mouthful of silt each time.

 

Most times the water is too deep/too murky so you can't see the head end, just a large black tail that appears and disappears vertically, with tiny bubbles coming up all the time. They are still feeding in the same way though.

 

There is a very easy way to tell if bubbles are caused by fish - If the bubbles have passed through the gill rakers, they will have acquired a tiny amount of fish slime. This will be enough to prevent them breaking as soon as they come to the surface. Tench bubbles persist for several minutes - so do those made by carp. Bream bubbles will persist for very much longer as bream slime is the slimiest slime there is - worse than eels. .

 

So if bubbles come up and they pop straightaway, they have not been made by fish.

 

The one exception in the huge patch of bubbles made by a big carp shoving its head deep in the silt for bloodworms, those bubbles WILL usually pop - but you will know it is a fish from other signs, like a huge muddy cloud in the water and a great eddying boil coming up.

[lutra]

Right - and I don't just think it, I have watched feeding tench doing just that in clear water (doesn't stay clear long once they get their heads down!) They also "bounce" on their heads as they do it - sucking in a mouthful of silt each time.

 

Most times the water is too deep/too murky so you can't see the head end, just a large black tail that appears and disappears vertically, with tiny bubbles coming up all the time. They are still feeding in the same way though.

 

There is a very easy way to tell if bubbles are caused by fish - If the bubbles have passed through the gill rakers, they will have acquired a tiny amount of fish slime. This will be enough to prevent them breaking as soon as they come to the surface. Tench bubbles persist for several minutes - so do those made by carp. Bream bubbles will persist for very much longer as bream slime is the slimiest slime there is - worse than eels. .

 

So if bubbles come up and they pop straightaway, they have not been made by fish.

 

The one exception in the huge patch of bubbles made by a big carp shoving its head deep in the silt for bloodworms, those bubbles WILL usually pop - but you will know it is a fish from other signs, like a huge muddy cloud in the water and a great eddying boil coming up.

 

I have to say I'm not yet 100% convinced the bubbles only originate from the gas that has been taken in by the fish as it feeds on the bottom. There is a couple of things that don't seem to quite fit just right.

1. I seem to get bubbles from bottom feeding fish in just about every peg or water that i catch them on and the amount of bubbles has always seemed to be in line with number of fish that i think are in the peg. Surely the amount of bubbles should vary more from peg to peg and water to water and with different bottom conditions holding different amounts of gas.

2. Surely in the case of Tench were the bubbles are small i would see more big bubbles from gas that got disturbed but didn't get taken in by the Tench as it was feeding, but more often than not i just see clouds of lots of little bubbles.

I'm not saying your not right Dave, its just i get the impression there is a little more to it, just how I'm not sure. I even spent 5 minutes with a sieve wafting it around in my garden water butt earlier to see if it was possible to make bubbles. Sadly the only 100% conclusions i came to were I'm even dafter than i look and the water was very cold.

[Vagabond]

2. Surely in the case of Tench were the bubbles are small i would see more big bubbles from gas that got disturbed but didn't get taken in by the Tench as it was feeding, but more often than not i just see clouds of lots of little bubbles.

 

I see where you are coming from - if there were no tench in the swim, and you stuck a hedge pole into the bottom, yes you would get large bubbles.

 

...but tench are quite gentle in the way they upend and just dip their heads in the silt and suck. That way all the gas passes through the gill rakers.

 

In fact now I think about it, the reason why tench adopt a vertical feeding posture may be because that way they ONLY disturb the bottom just under their mouth - if they ploughed along the bottom in a near-horizontal position, then they would disturb the bottom far more, and yes you would expect them to dislodge other bubbles.

 

I have caught many tench on the lift method, but not until I was able to watch tench feeding did I understand exactly why it is so successful. It also explains why a line bite so often develops into a lift bite. The tench that is vertically finning parallel to your line (and moving it) then picks up the bait.

[Vagabond]

1. I seem to get bubbles from bottom feeding fish in just about every peg or water that i catch them on and the amount of bubbles has always seemed to be in line with number of fish that i think are in the peg. Surely the amount of bubbles should vary more from peg to peg and water to water and with different bottom conditions holding different amounts of gas.

Don't see what you are driving at here - I have caught plenty of tench from swims that were showing no bubbles at all. Whether you get bubbles or not must surely depend on how the tench are feeding, the nature of the bottom, and how much gas is trapped in the sediment.

 

 

I even spent 5 minutes with a sieve wafting it around in my garden water butt ....but the only 100% conclusions i came to were I'm even dafter than i look and the water was very cold.

Well even I have never tried to empty my water butt with a sieve

[lutra]

Don't see what you are driving at here - I have caught plenty of tench from swims that were showing no bubbles at all. Whether you get bubbles or not must surely depend on how the tench are feeding, the nature of the bottom, and how much gas is trapped in the sediment.

 

Yes maybe your right.