27/07/2026 - A Tench Fishing Session

A good tench

At the start of the new season I chose to fish for tench, The weather was quite kind during the morning session, being quite cool and overcast, then around lunchtime, the cloud quickly scattered, followed by a blue sky with very warm sunshine. I was lucky to have a cooling breeze, also a lot of shelter from the sun by many trees and bushes.

The first swim I chose was close to an area of lily pads with around ten feet of water, having raked the swim I discovered there were masses of decaying leaves, weed and soft mud on the bottom, Also an abundance of blood worms.

My baits were sweetcorn, bread, worms and mussels, have raked the swim, I baited the area with small mussels as I was going to use a Green lipped mussel as the hook bait, it was a bait I used in the 1980's which proved very good. Within fifteen minutes the swim was a mass of pin head bubbles.

I made up two outfits both were cane rods with centre pin reels holding 8lb breaking strain line, I then added a sliding float stop before adding one of my Micky Errends sliding quill floats, both with crimson red tips, I then tied on a size 4 barbless on both outfits. I then used a very light plummet, then having got the average depth, I added an extra two feet of line, so the bait was on the bottom in any area I cast too.

My next job was to make up a bowl of fairly soft ground bait with lots of chopped mussels. Having put in three cricket size balls of ground bait, I decided it was time for a brew.

I was lucky to have the pool to myself, with just two pairs of moorhens, both having four chicks each, looking like balls of fluff. In the reeds and bushes there was a lovely sound of birds calling and chattering, occasionally I heard the cooing of a wood pigeon

Tea break over I baited my left hand rod with a mussel, then cast out the float tackle, so it was about fifteen feet from the water lily pads where a lot of fizzing was taken place. The reason for casting some distance from the lily pads was, when the tench picks up the bait. It will immediately goes for shelter iin the pads.

By having this distance I can often turn the fish away from the danger zone, though there are times when a fish does get well into the pads, sometimes I can bully the fish out, other times it was a pull for a break, but often or not, I got back all my tackle again, one of the benefits of using a barbless hook.

Fifteen minutes or so after casting out the float dropped flat on the surface, a quick strike set the hook into my first fish of the session. It was several minutes of the fish taking line, then I got some back, eventually it started to tire, I was then able to take in line until the fish swirled on the surface.

Sinking the net in the water I was able to draw my first fish over the waiting net. Lifting the net up from the water, I laid it on my soft sponge mat. A fish I estimated around 4lb, hooked in the scissors of its mouth, all I had to do was slide the hook out, I then walked to the next swim about fifteen yards away, then released the fish.

During the day I had eleven good tench averaging around 3lbs plus, all in good condition, mussels were the top bait, I had two tench on worm and one on bread flake. I was more than happy with my catch.

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