15/06/2026 - Tomorrow is June 16th

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Tomorrow the long wait is over, for the start of a new season on June 16th, its now time choose a couple of swims where you hope to catch your tench. Try to find a swim close to lilies or reeds with five to ten feet of water where you have a soft bottom, as tench like to dig into the bottom in search of bloodworms, if you have some bushes over hanging the swim, all the better, especially if the weather is likely to be bright sunshine, as fish like to find shaded areas.

Once you have found a couple of likely looking swims then you need to give the area a good rake, if you don't have a rake then you can purchase two rake heads, then bind them back to back. By doing this what ever position the rake ends up in the swim, you will still be able to do a good job, during the raking you will no doubt find lots of decaying leaves, also some plant life.

Once you have given the swim a good raking, often within ten-fifteen-minutes, see pin head bubbles in your swim, as the tench will be moving into the raked area.

Ground Bait

My ground bait mix is often two or three stale loaves, that have been soaking over night, I then drain off all the water, before mashing up the bread, in the 1950-60's I would use a piece of 4x2 wood to batter the bread into a fine pulp, today I use a potato masher. I will then add either chopped worms, gentles, sweetcorn, hempseed or chopped mussels, often all those baits to keep the tench feeding in the area. If its possible, then I suggest you repeat the process over three or four evening or mornings. I don't feel you can put in too much ground bait.

Back in the 1950's 60's and 70's Fred J Taylor his brother Ken, along with their cousin Joe, would feed buckets of ground bait into their chosen swims, often over a period of a week or more. Their catches of tench, were often featured in the Angling Times. The forecast for June 16th is looking quite good. Its now time choose a couple of swims where you hope to catch your tench. Try to find a swim close to lilies or reeds with five to ten feet of water where you have a soft bottom, as tench like to dig into the bottom in search of bloodworms, if you have some bushes over hanging the swim, all the better, especially if the weather is likely to be bright sunshine, as fish like to find shaded areas.

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