First Tench trip in almost 2 years for me yesterday, with a 12 hour session on a local day ticket water that I’ve managed a few from in previous sessions.
It’s a book online affair and I booked on early last week - the BBC weather forecast looked pretty much spot on. That all changed as the week progressed to the 40mph + Westerlies and heavy showers that materialised!
I’d already got maggots and a tub of lobs on the Saturday and bag was sorted and rods were made up the evening before. So I was going regardless of the weather.
“When the wind is in the West…” and all that, but I should add. in my experience, this lake (and others that I’ve targeted Tench on the same complex) can be a bit moody when there’s a chop on the water. Combine that with a feeling of being a bit ‘rusty’ and I wasn’t hugely optimistic.
The peg I booked was actually relatively sheltered from the wind and I managed to get the storm poles into the gravelly soil after a few attempts. Good thing too, as I hadn’t been long set up and cast out when the first showers of the day started.
I decided to fish both rods on the same spot, a cleaner area 50ish yards out. There’s usually a small set of pads 10 yards or so beyond it, marking the start of a shallower plateau, but they’re yet to hit the surface.
Both rods were on helicopter rigs, one with a maggot feeder & red maggot hook bait the other with a cage feeder and a lob ‘kebab’.
The plan was to fish both rods relatively tightly placed, with holes enlarged on the maggot feeder and regular casting with both rods to get a compact bed of bait down. However the line clip fell off in my hands on the Ss2600 on the maggot rod (only third outing, so not pleased!). So my plan for a tighter baited area turned into something more like half a tennis court, maybe a bit smaller… Probably zoned the bait a bit as the day progressed. First overhead casts in since 2022, remember!
Had my first fish an hour or so in. A stocky male probably just under 4lbs. Then another slightly bigger not long after. I would’ve been quite happy with that brace. But the maggot kept screaming off… Changed the hooklink on the lob rod to match the other rod once another couple had been landed.
There were a few ‘quieter’ spells, but I think the longest I went without a take was just over an hour. Any inactivity was usually followed two or three takes in quick succession.
Finished the day on 15 Tincas. No monsters, which was a good thing, as I’d left the scales in the river bag!
Ended up losing six too! One managed to kite towards me at a hell of a pace and snagged me in a small bay to my right. One fell off at the net. Interestingly though, the other 4 were all after really heavy drop backs, again with the fish kiting towards me, but lost the hook hold moments after getting back in contact. Possible mechanics of short heli rigs and heavier feeders, was my thinking…
Finally, that was the first session with my custom C2s, put together specifically with Tenching in mind. So they definitely got a good Christening!
Can’t wait to get out and have another go, although I’m not expecting that every time!
Pics of some of the better/prettier ones…
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Never too old to learn