11/07/2025 - Night Fishing Session For Tench

Quill float among the bubbles

It was around 1700 hrs when I arrived at a small intimate pool, I’d come to fish a night session. Having walked around the water, I chose a swim on the east bank, to my right there was a big area of lily pads, with some amazing yellow flowers, some three feet further out in the water from the lilies I could see three patches of pin head bubbles. On my left there was some Norfolk reeds, lesser reed mace, plus a mixture of other rushes, an ideal habitat for warblers, at the base of these rushes, I could see a moorhens nest with five eggs. As I quietly went about my business, the moorhen returned to cover the eggs. I was lucky with the swim I’d chosen, there was a gap of about ten feet or so where I could fish, in between the reeds and lilies.

Tackle Choice

With the chance of hooking a big tench, I chose a powerful rod, it was one of two cane Spey casting rods, 13ft and 14ft foot models made by Sharps in the late 1950’s. A few years ago I had both models made for chub, barbel, tench and carp, by scrapping the butt joint, just keeping the cork handle of both rods. I chose to use John Roberts black plastic winch fittings. Both rods were then fitted with new guides, over the past few years they have seen plenty of action. I use the cut down 13 foot model for chub and tench, the other rod is more suitable for barbel, carp and pike. Today I matched the first mentioned rod with a large size centre pin reel, holding 60 yards of 10lb bs line.

To make casting easy I chose a sliding quill float, made by Micky Erends of Sussex, designed to take two SSG and 2 AAA shot. I chose to spread the bulk of the shot, between three and four feet from the hook with a single BB shot about six inches from the hook.

Tying on a plummet I cast around, the depth was about four feet around the bankside where it extended out some six feet, then it dropped off; I then found an average depth of ten feet, in front of the lilies to my right, it was about six feet, then a couple of feet further out, it dropped off to average ten feet

I chose to fish the deeper where most of the fizzing was taking place ten to fifteen feet out from the lilies. I thought this would be an ideal area to encourage the fish to stay around by feeding a mixture of chopped mussels and prawns. At the same time any fish I hooked, I would have a good chance of keeping the fish away from the lilies.

I made up a ground bait mix of brown and white crumb, it was loaded with bits of mussel and prawns, to keep the ducks away, I used a bait dropper, to get the ground bait down in the swim. I suppose it was fifteen to twenty minutes later when I felt the dinner table was laid. It just needed the fish to oblige. I then rested the swim, for half an hour to, give the fish a chance of sampling the free offerings and get som confidence in feeding. It was time for a fresh brew.

An hour later the swim was fizzing, there was an area about four feet square of bubbles and foam, Baiting with a mussel, I made my first cast, there was just a gentle ripple as the bait and float landed gently in the fizzing area,

For ten minutes all was quiet, suddenly the float lifted out of the water, dropped flat then moved across the surface. The fish was hooked, then quickly got off, the evening session up until dark for me was nothing, but a disaster. Lots of fish hooked, but they all got off in the bankside reeds or lilies. My friend Paul three pegs away caught four good tench all over 3lbs. With darkness the swim went quiet, all the fizzing stopped, I fished on until 0200 hrs then snoozed in my chair, with quite a few brews to see me through the rest of the night. At one time a fox stood looking at me from around ten feet, as if thinking “Thats too big to eat” then walked away. Finally around 0415 hours, the light was getting better, in fact enough to see my float, mist drifted across the water, also there were odd small patches of bubbles so time for another brew, with bacon sandwich. Then it was back to fishing.

Sitting back enjoying my break, I gave it fifteen minutes before baiting with a mussel, dropping it close to a patch of bubbles. In the next four hours I was able to catch quite a few tench, including four over 4lbs Though I did reckon I’d got a 5lb plus fish, but the scales didn’t lie, the best weighed in at 4 lb 12 ounces. At 0900 hrs all the patches of bubbles had disappeared there was no sign of any fish movements, they had switched off. It was time to go home.

A ground bait mix

My best tench of the session

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