Dr Paul Garner

Our expert reveals how you can pick the right tench baits

O BE in with a chance of catching big tench you have to be fishing the right venues – but bait choice can make a big difference to your results too.

TEARLY-SEASON BAITS

Tench are active from the third week in February, but I normally wait until late April before fishing for them in earnest. Once the hawthorns are full of blossom it’s the time to start.

The water is still quite cool, but the tench are already highly mobile, and stand-out baits tend to produce the goods. Yellow is definitely the colour right now, whether in the form of sweetcorn or a bright pop-up.

Normally, the first reports I hear of big tench being caught are from carp angling friends who pick up some immense fish on chod rigs.

Although accidental, such captures occur too often to be just coincidence, so I have scaled down some chod rigs and now enjoy some great sport on highattract baits. In my experience this tactic will tempt tench from just about any venue.

A bright colour is more important than the flavour of the baits, but you won’t go far wrong using classic pineapple. I add a few drops of NashBait’s ‘Old School’ to the pot and repeat this every few days so the baits are super-sweet.

A few crumbled boilies in a PVA stick is the only other bait I use, providing a patch of bait that will stop passing tench in their tracks.

WARMING WATERS

Tench naturally feed on a wide range of small invertebrates commonly found in and among weedbeds. Their silky-smooth skin assists their movement through dense foliage.

The closest baits we have to this natural diet are maggots, worms and casters, and these rule once the water has warmed up and the tench are feeding in earnest.

Which bait you choose depends on the number of silver fish present. Maggots are my first choice where small fish are not a problem. Worms useful when I might want to hedge my bets, and casters are ideal when I need to avoid the tiddlers. None of these are selective for big tench, but they have produced the bulk of my bigger fish down the years.

MAGGOT FEEDERS

Maggots have long been the mainstay of my tench campaigns as they are more convenient and easier to store than casters. A couple of pints is ample for a day’s fishing, bulked out with a similar amount of hemp. The small seeds attract tench and keep them browsing, but tend not to fill them up. My opening gambit is normally four red maggots on a size 12 forged hook, along with a sliver of rig foam. Tench are strong so it pays not to fish too light for them, especially if it is weedy.

Maggots have the added advantage of spreading out a little bit on the bottom. I load a large oval feeder with grubs, and tests have shown that these will cover roughly the area of a large dinner plate on the deck. Regular recasting is essential. Re-bait every 20 minutes to ensure there is a constant supply of maggots.

METHOD FEEDERS

You can use a cage feeder loaded with a mixture of groundbait and casters, but often a more effective tactic is to use the same baits