MARTIN BOWLER
Forget the single-minded pursuit of carp and go for an early-season favourite instead
Forget targeting carp and take a fresh approach to spring tench
RIGHT now our angling lives are on pause but there’s no reason why we should simply press the repeat button when we are eventually permitted to return to the banks.
Almost all of us have fish species still on our bucket list, so why not make that extra effort to get acquainted with them when the lockdown finally lifts?
Fishing doesn’t start and end with carp, although such is our fascination with them that they do encourage a single-minded
approach, particularly when the fish in question are huge.
I totally get that mindset, and of course I love my time pursuing mirrors and commons, but there’s far more to fishing than that.
My advice, then, is to widen your horizons and look at the aquatic world through a fresh set of eyes. And what could be more wondrous than the sight of a freshly-caught tench on a
summer’s morning?
I’ve never found tench to be the earliest of risers, and the dawn chorus will certainly be well underway before silt is shifted and strings of micro-bubbles rise to signal their awakening.
Look for a broad paintbrush tail slapping the surface, signalling the tench are on the feed. Lily leaves will shake just as your hands will as you anticipate a scene straight out of Mr Crabtree.
When you do make contact with a tench, its emerald flanks will transport you back to your childhood. I still remember my first tinca every bit as vividly as my first carp.
When the swingtip twitched and then pulled straight I was hooked for life. So cast your mind back to how you felt when you caught your first tench. Don’t you want to feel that thrill once again?
Catching tincas on the float is sublime, but I’m betting that leaving the bite alarms as well as the carp behind might be a little too much.
There’s nothing wrong with legering for tench, and you’ll be amazed how fierce a bite can be, convincing you that a big mirror is responsible for the bedlam. So let’s take a look at a trip I had last year to hopefully tempt you into trying something similar.
I arrived when the bankside vegetation was lush, luxuriant, and as green as the fish I hoped to catch.
I’d pushed my barrow around the pit the evening before, and after setting up camp I set about finding a clear area amid the prolific weedbeds.
I took my time because I knew my real window of opportunity would come the following morning. After leading around, the tap-tap that indicated a gravel bottom eventually came and out went a marker float to pin down the spot.
Next, out went 20 Spomb loads of feed, a mixture of maggots, chopped worm and hempseed. No different from a carp fishing trip so far, although my tackle was a little lighter.
A 2lb test curve rod and a reel loaded with 12lb line seemed sensible. With these I could reach the gravel bar and still enjoy the fight, knowing I was not over-gunned.
My first set-up was a Drennan bolt rig feeder, partially taped up to slow the escape of maggots, while a very short hooklength was baited with three artificial grubs. Big tench aren’t stupid, however, and over recent seasons I’d begun to wonder whether feeder tactics were losing their effectiveness – even, perhaps, spooking the fish?
So I put on my thinking cap and came up with a way to introduce the same amount of free feed in a stealthier manner.
A 2.5oz inline lead would supply the casting weight and give the required bolt effect. Into this I clipped a two-ring E-S-P Uni-Link swivel. To one eye of this was tied a short 15lb fluorocarbon hooklength, while the other carried a PVA mesh
“An alarm sounded and a reel spool fizzed”
bag of maggots.
With the hook nicked on to the other knot in the PVA I had a tangle-free rig to fish alongside the feeder so I could, hopefully, make a comparison as to how they performed.
For hookbait I would switch between maggots and a dendrobaena worm. It never ceases to amaze me how often a change of hookbait can mean a change in fortune!
With all my preparations made I cooked myself a curry and enjoyed the sights and sounds of twilight before getting my head down ready for an earlymorning start.
I awoke when the light was still only a faint orange smear on the eastern horizon. Time to call the tench to breakfast with a further 12 Spombs of maggots.
Out went my rigs over the baited spot. I would leave them in position for a maximum of 40 minutes if a bite wasn’t forthcoming, reeling in and replenishing them with fresh maggots in the feeder and the PVA bag respectively.
This wasn’t like carp fishing, sitting on my hands and being patient. As soon as I’d made my first cast I was already preparing for the second, making up more PVA bags.
Six o’clock came and went, but experience had taught me not to worry. It was 45 minutes later when an alarm sounded and a reel spool fizzed. I grabbed the rod but couldn’t get any line back – the fish was strong, and intent on finding sanctuary in the weed.
Even when I’d prised it from its hideaway the fight was a series of angry exchanges, typical of a big tench in prime condition.
I knew this fish, beautiful as it was, was only the prelude to many more. I had a shoal feeding in front of me, and before I could attach another PVA bag the feeder rod was away and another tinca was heading towards the net.
At moments like this I’m torn between taking time to admire the fish and getting my rods back into the water without delay in hope of more fish. Happily, this window of opportunity lasted until midday and I managed to do both.
On a summer’s day, hearing the alarm scream countless times, I couldn’t think of anything better. What’s more, I was the only angler on the pit.
The inline lead rig produced the same number of bites as the more conventional feeder, so I’d proved that it worked and I was sure it would come into its own one day.
The sun had soothed me, screaming alarms had set my pulses racing and the fish had fought all the way to the net, as I knew they would.
So why not add tench to your target list when you can go fishing again?
It doesn’t have to be that different from carp fishing, and who knows, you might actually find it more fun!