27/08/2025 - A New Season with Tench

4lb 9 ounce tench June 16th 2025

This year June 16th 2025 is my 85th year of taking part in this great pastime, sport, or is it a hobby? this is my report on my start of the new season after the beautiful summer fish that is the tench. The following is an account of my start to that new season…

I arrived at Crabtree Pool around 1600 hrs on Sunday June 15th. It was a beautiful day, wall-to-wall blue sky, a light breeze ruffled the water surface and I had the pool to myself, apart from moorhens, coots and a heron. The pool is surrounded by various deciduous trees of oak, willow, ash, horse chestnut, hawthorn bushes in profusion and some silver birch, making the water quite secluded. The only noise to disturb the day was the cooing of wood pigeons; I find the low-pitched cooing of these birds very soothing.

I could hear the occasional blackbird calling, in the rushes were two families of reed warblers and, within fifteen minutes of arriving, I was joined by a friendly robin. Though I couldn’t see it, I also heard a green woodpecker, no doubt searching for ants, beetles or moths when it gets the chance. There were a few common blue damsel flies too, which often settle on my float. Fifteen minutes later I spotted ared-eyed damsel fly and there were numerous Pond skaters. Around the margin of the pool there were clumps of Norfolk reed, reed mace and the occasional small group of bulrushes(not to be mistaken for reed mace as they are a different species of plant).Several patches of yellow and white-water lilies also made this pool attractive.

The pool looked as I’d imagined it through the long close season. The surface of the pool was dimpled by small fish, only disturbed by a perch diving into this food source, scattering them in all directions, some even ending up on the lily leaves in their attempt for freedom. An occasional tench rolled on the surface, now and again there was a disturbance in the lily roots caused by fishing moving around and the most exciting thing was spotting several patches of pin-head bubbles caused by feeding tench.

I’d arrived early, so that during the evening I could enjoy the environment. My first job was to make up a bowl of ground bait, using a mix of brown and white breadcrumb, with hemp, sweetcorn, chopped lobworms and brandlings. I would keep adding a bit of feed during the night, in the areas where I had seen patches of bubbles, hoping this would encourage the tench to stay around. I wanted to be ready for dawn, which would be sometime around 0400 hrs on Mondaythe16th.Having chosen my area to fish, I raked a swim on the edge of some yellow lilies. I was also hoping I might encourage the crucian carp(which are few in number here)to visit my second swim, located in front of a clump of bull-rushes, where I found the depth was around four feet. Here, I sprinkled sweetcorn.

By careful plumbing around, I found a drop-off some twenty feet out from the bank, where the depth changed from four to six feet. I baited this swim with mixture of breadcrumb, to which I added a mixture of chopped worms and sweet corn.

An hour or so later I started putting together my tackle: I used my Andrew Davies eleven-foot, much improved, Kennet Perfection, using Ted Oliver’s tapers, built into a much better rod with a stiffer action. This was matched with a 4 ½” X 1” centre-pin reel(known as the Atom, a strange name for a centre-pin reel)holding some 50 yards of six-pound breaking strain line. After putting on a float stop, I threaded the line through a Micky Erends sliding quill float, designed to take five BB shot and made my first cast as the light improved enough for me to see my float. I would have my own dawn chorus, created by the bird song as light appears in the east, allowing me to see my orange, red-tipped float, crafted by Micky Erends from a bird’s feather collected from Romney Marsh.

I have a selection of these excellent slider floats, my reason for using them being that ‘Crabtree’ is quite deep in some places and the slider makes fishing a lot easier. I then tied on a size eight barbless hook and a small plummet was used to check the depth of water. By using a small plummet, not my usual heavy one, it wouldn’t sink into the soft silt built up over many years. I then added a few inches of line between hook and float as I wanted some line on the bottom, then lightly pinched onfourBB shot four feet up the line from the hook, with a BB about four inches from the hook.

My second outfit was an eleven-foot Sealey Rover rod, matched with a Richard Carter centre-pin holding four-pound b.s. line. Again, I added a float knot before threading the line through one of Micky Erends’ sliding, porcupine quill floats taking two BB shot, with a size twelve barbless hook. Once again, I used a small plummet to I check the depth in the second swim. This second rod would only be used if there was a chance of a crucian carp.

Having made up my two outfits and sorting out my swim, I then enjoyed an early supper of bacon and eggs, with a slice of fresh, crusty, buttered bread. During the evening and through the night, on every hour or so, I lightly topped up my tench swim. I also made several slow walks around the pool. As dusk settled over the water, I sat back in my chair, dozing off and on, with an occasional mug of tea. Now I waited for dawn to appear in the east and around midnight I put on an extra coat as the temperature dropped.

At around 0300 hours I made a bacon sandwich, together with another mug of tea then sat back contented that I’d done everything possible to enjoy my first day with a tench or two. As the light increased, the dawn chorus started and the sound was amazing. Soon it was light enough to see bubbles appearing on the surface of my swim where tench were, no doubt, rooting around in the bottom for an early breakfast.

It was a perfect ‘Tench-fisher’s dawn’ and as the light increased I could now see my float. Saying to myself, ‘It’s time I tried to catch some tench’,I didn’t hesitate and baited up with a half a lobworm, to which I added a grain of sweetcorn. With a simple underhand flick, the orange-tipped, sliding float settled in among a patch of pin-head bubbles. A pair of moorhens was quietly going about their business, with four youngsters in tow that resembled balls of black fluff, while wood pigeons were cooing in a large oak tree.

As the sun was slowly rising in the east over a big beech tree, the clouds slowly disappeared. I could feel the warmth; my ideal tench-fisher’s dawn arrived with alight mist drifting over the pool’s surface. As the sun rose higher, the temperature increased and the darters and hawkers started to appear, no doubt hunting for food. These insects differ in their hunting technique. All dragonflies are predators and their prey are other insects. The dragonfly is a most beautiful insect, one which causes me great delight to see, especially when the sunlight catches the dragonfly’s delicate, graceful wings and colourful body. The damselflies are very delicate, often settling on one’s float. Within half an hour the damselflies were all around me, some mated together.

Within thirty, forty minutes of casting out, the float rose up out of the water, then settled down, a minute later it was at about forty degrees slowly submerging, as it moved across the water, as the tip disappeared and I set the hook into my first fish of the session. Immediately I am forced to give some line but thankfully the fish moves towards the centre of the pool, not to the reeds or lilies. As with all tench, this one gave a good display in its bid for freedom but the combination of my balanced tackle and many years of experience was winning this fight, providing I didn’t make a mistake.

A few minutes later I had my first, lovely looking tench coming towards the submerged net, then it was mine, a fish estimated around four pounds. It was neatly hooked in the top lip, so it was easy to slip the hook out without touching the fish. I then lowered the net onto my mat where I shot a quick picture. My scales had already been zeroed then, using the wet net, I was able to slip the tench into a carry bag, dropping the net on the ground. I hooked the weigh-bag on to the scales, getting a very satisfying weight of 4lb 9oz.Quickly,the fish was put back in the net and lowered into the water, allowing the fish to swim free.

Rebaiting again with half a lobworm with a grain of corn, I made another cast towards the lilies. If I should hook a fish I would have to immediately draw the fish away, out into the open water. In the next forty or so minutes, I had three excellent bites where the float disappeared, but all of these I missed. Each time I missed a bite, I made a small adjustment to the tackle but it was the same result, a missed bite. Suddenly, there was what can only be described as a foaming mass of bubbles, a bit like a jacuzzi, and I gently dropped the baited hook in the centre of this foaming mass and soon the float was gone. On striking, I set the hook into a powerful fish which surged straight through some lilies and there was nothing I could do except pull as much as possible. It made no difference, this fish was boss and eventually broke the line, another good reason for using barbless hook as the fish will soon get rid of it.

The bubbles were slowly spreading further out into the pool and I put in more corn and hemp with a dozen or more chopped lobworms. Ten minutes later I had another hook up and a few minutes later another tench was in the net at an estimated three pounds, quickly followed by three more fish of similar size and all females. I find they don’t fight like the males, which go berserk and fight every inch of the way. Over the next three or so hours I kept the feed going in and the fish responded. I had several more fish and also missed several bites which I still cannot understand; each time the float was going away quite quickly but the bait was usually gone. All too soon, the fish stopped feeding but I had a total of ten tench averaging an estimated weight of three pounds plus. Over the next hours I struggled to get bites…

Eventually, towards the end of my session I caught six small tench averaging no more than a pound, but these will be fish for the future. Back home and after a shower, I sat down at the dinner table, feeling contented, as I enjoyed a steak pie with vegetables and a thick gravy.

Postscript: during eighteen fishing sessions on various waters, after the first day session and finding the worms were lifeless, I switched to using mussels and prawns. So good were the mussels, I ordered another two kilos. My best brace of tench were both 5lb 2oz.During my stay in Sussex I had a total of 114 tench and I was more than happy. I was hoping to attend the Pitmere event, but I was advised I shouldn’t travel far and so stayed close to home.

My best tench to date this season

My best tench of the session

Baits

Back to the News List