tench bubbles

[lutra]

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

 

Sod it, Ill tape the top on and check out its anti-tank potential instead.

[Steve Walker]

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.

 

There also seem to be waters where tench never bubble. I'd never seen it until I moved down south. The tench run bigger down here, but I'm not convinced that's the cause. There was a club water I used to fish in Greater Manchester, no more than 4' deep with a muddy bottom which held a huge head of small tench to about 3lb. Never saw them bubble. There was another water not far from there, a reservoir, deep, clear, hard bottom, lots of good tench, bream and carp. I used to fish little cubes of luncheon meat in the margins, caught plenty of tench, never any bubbling. Down here, I fish several mature gravel pits for tench, and they all bubble.

[Anderoo]

The tench at Frensham never bubbled, because the bottom is sand. However, they rolled like mad, more than anywhere else I've fished. It's a shallow lake and as it's so big the wind really piles across it - it's such an exciting sight to see tench after tench (big ones too) roll like seals in the waves right over your bait.

 

Like Steve says, tench do seem to bubble lots in mature gravel pits, but to be honest if they're bubbling I usually find it very hard to catch them, even if they're bubbling right over my bait. I usually catch a lot more if they're not bubbling at all and there's no clue they're even in the swim.

 

Maybe when they're bubbling they're digging into the bottom and are preoccupied on tiny naturals like bloodworm, and ignoring anything sitting on (rather than in) the bottom? And when you catch them and they're not bubbling, it's because they're picking the baits off the surface and not disturbing the bottom?

 

Rolling tench are another thing altogether - that nearly always means, sit by your rods!

 

I don't have any photos of bubbling tench, but the one below if of bubbling carp (fairly big patches of biggish bubbles). Unlike with tench, I find that a bubbling carp is a pretty easy carp to catch. You can just about see the float next to the biggest patch, but it didn't stay there for long!

 

 

Edited April 8, 2008 by Anderoo

[jonnychaos]

I envy you guys who can find the beloved Tinca Tinca as all the lakes I have fished in the past 2 years seem brimming with nothing but carp and the odd roach. Anyone got any ideas of good Tench/Bream waters around Shropshire?

[Guest tigger]

The bubbles are from the substrate when fish disturb the bottom. Some ponds/waters seem to have much more gas than others. Tench don't actually produce bubbles themselves.

Edited April 8, 2008 by tigger

[gozzer]

As plenty have said, I too think that it depends on the nature of the bottom, and what they are feeding on. I have also noticed that the depth and temperature of the water has an effect on how the bubbles appear.

As water warms up, the gas pockets expand and any disturbance will cause it to be released.

If it's coming from deeper water then they appear bigger and cover a greater area on the surface.

There's one swim I know that is over 12ft deep under the rod tip. Sometimes it looks like there are dozens of tench bubbling, but if you look very closely, you can see that it's nearer a half dozen. It's just that the bubbles are spread over a wider area.

 

One thing I do when tench are feeding like this, is to try my bait a few inches off the bottom. Those wide fins cause enough disturbance to lift particles up in the water. I'm sure that some of these are taken while they are suspended in the water, or falling. A bait 4 or 5 ins off the bottom often gets noticed, where one on the swim bed gets covered.

 

John.

 

PS. I have also noticed that a large shoal of feeding gudgeon can send up a mass of 'pin' bubbles, in certain swims.

Edited April 8, 2008 by gozzer

[Vagabond]

The tench at Frensham never bubbled, because the bottom is sand. However, they rolled like mad, more than anywhere else I've fished.

That's interesting - have never fished Frensham - perhaps I should.

 

So what do you think those rolling tench were feeding on (apart from your bait )?

 

When carp roll, it is often the prelude to a crash dive into the bottom to search for bloodworm . Sometimes they even leap right out and then turn the leap into a dive and bomb straight down into the silt. (I've watched this happen from treetops when I was more energetic and agile than I am now).

 

The tench might roll for different reasons to carp, but do you think your Frensham tench were diving into the bottom after rolling?

[Anderoo]

That's interesting - have never fished Frensham - perhaps I should.

 

So what do you think those rolling tench were feeding on (apart from your bait )?

 

When carp roll, it is often the prelude to a crash dive into the bottom to search for bloodworm . Sometimes they even leap right out and then turn the leap into a dive and bomb straight down into the silt. (I've watched this happen from treetops when I was more energetic and agile than I am now).

 

The tench might roll for different reasons to carp, but do you think your Frensham tench were diving into the bottom after rolling?

 

You should, it's a fantastic place!

 

It must have been my bait, I'd always see them after baiting up (virtually never before, and never in numbers). I don't know what they did following the roll, but I assume they went straight to the bottom (the water's pretty shallow - about 4ft at about 30-40 yards), and probably fed. It was certainly all related to feeding. I doubt they bombed into the bottom like the carp you describe, because it was sandy and therefore hard, and probably devoid of natural food. In fact, I often wondered what they did eat!

 

I did wonder if it was a kind of advertising, telling the others to get over there and join in the feast, but that's just speculation. What I can be sure of is that if you had tench rolling over your bait, you'd better get ready! I once went with what I thought was enough bait and groundbait for 24hrs, and by early afternoon they'd scoffed the lot and buggered off elsewhere

[dant]

That last question is an interesting one Vagabond. I've also seen the Carp dive bombing on quite a few occasions but have never seen Tench doing the same.

 

Once from a paticualrly perlious pre-season perch up a willow tree over a gin clear and quite shallow corner of an estate lake I watched a shoal of half a dozen or so Tench feed in a very excited manner on a small bed of hemp I'd put down. They were all kicking there tails around and out, so there bodys were temporarily in an s-shape which then swirled them kind of anti clockwise, almost upside down some of them and back onto their noses with a big puff of silt to feed.

 

Would the Carp dive bomb from the surface down in deep water as I've only really seen it in shallower water?

 

Do Tench roll more in deeper water?

 

 

Anderoo you're a brave man getting the camera out in a situation like that!!

[Guest tigger]

One thing I do when tench are feeding like this, is to try my bait a few inches off the bottom. Those wide fins cause enough disturbance to lift particles up in the water. I'm sure that some of these are taken while they are suspended in the water, or falling. A bait 4 or 5 ins off the bottom often gets noticed, where one on the swim bed gets covered.

 

John.

 

 

I think your right and I suspend my bait a few inches abouve the bottom on many occasions with good results.