TOP TIPS FOR WEEDY TENCH FISHING

GEAR UP YOUR TACKLE

1 Whenever fishing in weed you must give priority to the fish’s welfare. I generally use 10lb mainline for most of my tench fishing, but in weedy swims I’ll increase this to 12lb.

I’ll also only use two rods, as this means I’m in more control and able to strike bites more quickly. This is important to stop tench burying in the weed as they bolt from the baited area.

It also makes playing fish easier, as there is less chance of a hooked fish tangling with another line.

This is never good, but catching another line in weedy conditions is a guaranteed recipe for lost fish.

FISH CLOSER IN

2 A lot of my early-season tench fishing is done at long ranges such as 50 or 60 yards-plus on big stillwaters, but when I’m faced with a lot of weed in front of my I much prefer to fish closer in.

By fishing closer in I find it easier to land tench simply because there is less weed to negotiate when you’ve hooked a fish, and it has the added benefit of being easier to cast accurately into small holes in the weed at shorter ranges.

USE A MIX OF PELLETS

3 If there’s only a small amount of filamentous weed on the bottom I’ll feed my normal mix of 2mm micro pellets, hemp, maggots and casters. I like to use an equal amount of each of these.

I use a mix of Sonubaits pellets including Krill, S Pellet, F1 and Bloodworm. I prefer the different flavours and colours and think the variety of colours and flavours triggers the tench to feed.

It is impossible to know whether using a mix of micro pellets makes a difference, but I have found over many years that it works, and I see no reason to change a winning formula.

FEED LIVE MAGGOTS

4 Dead maggots work but on a long session can be hard to keep and I only use them as a way of using up maggots left over from a previous session.

Live maggots that have crawled into the weed will keep the tench grubbing around in my swim and while they are there there’s every chance they will take my popped up hook bait. I generally use red maggots but in the past have done just as well using whites.

LEARN TO SPOMB

5 Accuracy when baiting in weedy swims is essential, as you don’t want your bait falling into thick weed where much of it will not reach the lakebed. A little practice casting a Spomb can make a huge difference to accuracy, and is time well spent.

USE HEAVY INDICATORS

6 I use heavy bite indicators for all of my tench fishing as I think this helps increase the bolt effect leading to really good bites. In weedy swims heavy bobbins help ensure you are in direct contact with the feeder as they help pull the line through any weed between the rod and the baited area. I set the bobbin to hang just below the bite alarm which helps show up drop-back bites, and I set the Baitrunner fairly tight as this helps ensure good hook holds.

The Baitrunner is there to stop your rods being pulled into the water not to make it easy for tench to run off, which is particularly important in weedy swims. The last thing you want is a tench embedded in thick weed before you have even picked the rod up.

FISH WITH ACCURACY

7 A marker knot tied to your mainline will ensure you are casting the same distance each time.

Rather than clipping up, I listen for the marker knot going out of the rings and stop the line accordingly.

If you use a reasonably thick marker elastic it makes it easy to hear it going through the rings. It also moves less on a busy session.

LAND EVERY FISH

8 If everything goes to plan you will hook a tench. Then it’s a case of getting it out, and there are a few golden rules. To begin with, make sure you’ve set the freespool on your reel tight so the fish can’t quickly bolt into the weed after it has picked up your hookbait.

It’s also important to apply pressure as soon as you strike and keep your rod high, as this helps the line pass through weed.

Once you’ve got the fish moving, make sure you keep it going. If it gets stuck, try and get it moving again by increasing the pressure and changing the direction of pull. Failure to do so will probably mean it will bury itself further into weed. Good luck!