Searching the mighty tench.

The tench is an freshwater fish, widely regarded as one of the most pleasant species to catch in the United Kingdom. With the largest fish weighing in at over 15lbs landed by angler Darren Ward, these fish have varying shades of green and brown, and occasionally, a bright orange hue. I was fortunate enough to catch a young orange tench, and was amazed by its beauty.  

Recently, I became a member of the Leamington Spa Angling Association, which has several very well-maintained lakes. One particular lake has been known to contain specimen tench, and I had been eager to try my luck with these fish for some time and despite the cold water, I could not wait any longer and decided to venture out.

I arrived at the reservoir  around 9:00 PM armed with everything I had available that I considered to be good for catching trench. Since I was unfamiliar with the reservoir, I sought advice from a fellow angler who was fishing nearby, and he kindly suggested some areas where I might get afew bites. Knowing that  will not be a day with to many bites  I opted not to use the feeder rods, as it requires constant attention. On the other hand, using a carp rod would be too heavy for catching tench. I remembered I had two old 11ft pellet waggler rods, one rated at 20g and the other at 30g. These rods have a smooth through-action and are relatively soft, yet capable of handling decently sized fish. I equipped both rods with size 4000 reels and 8lb line. One of the rods was fitted with a method feeder and a size 12 hook, while the other had a running rig for use with a cage feeder or small bomb, with a 30cm hooklength tied to a size 14 hook.

As for bait, I was unsure of what would be most effective. Therefore, I prepared two different swims since I would be fishing with two rods. For the method feeder, I mixed micro pellets with liver liquid, which has an horrendous  smell, but I had heard that tench are attracted to stinky baits. For the second line, I prepared a mix of corn, 4mm halibut pellets, a handful of micro pellets, maggots, and krill-flavoured luncheon meat. I added a bit of fishmeal ground bait to create a proper stinky bait bomb, and of course, a dash of liver liquid. For hookbaits, I used yellow wafters for the method feeder and maggots and worms for the second line.

both Lines were fished at 30 meters. The method feeder line was placed closer to the reeds on the left-hand side with no additional bait, except for what was on the method. The second line was placed further to the right, and I added three medium spombs  of the mix created  previously on top and started with two worms on the hook. During the first half of the day, there was no sign of any fish. Although the weather was sunny, the reservoir had no cover, and the cold breeze was quite strong. After several hours of no indications whatsoever, an angler fishing next to us showed us a huge pike sitting just under the tip of his rods, probably waiting for him to pull a roach so she could steal it. This broke the monotony for a few minutes.  

It was mid day and still no sign of any fish except for the cheeky pike. I even climbed a tree in hopes of seeing some indication of fish around the lake, but still nothing. My fishing buddy, Big Dave, who was targeting carp, tried whip fishing with maggots close in, and after a few minutes, he caught a crayfish. Although it was not the intended catch, it was still better than nothing. After a few more minutes, he caught a perch, and both of us were relieved as a blank was avoided. As I released the perch, a couple of small beeps from my alarms caught my attention. At the time, my fishing partner and I thought it might have been the goose swimming by and touching the line. I did not pay much attention to it aas I was watching Big Dave, who was whip fishing. Just a few seconds later, one of my alarms started screaming and would not stop. I quickly grabbed the rod and tightened the drag, but it kept pulling line. It felt like I had hit the jackpot, and after a few minutes, I finally netted a pristine tench weighing around 5lb. I was so excited that I forgot to put it on the scales, but I did take a few pictures before releasing the fish back into the water.

After catching the target species, I cast my rod back with happiness and continued to watch Big Dave fish. His whip was rigged quite simple, with a pole float on some 0.15, 5lb line, a bulk of shots just over the hook length, and a size 18 hook tied with 2.6lb line, which was perfect for catching smaller fish like roach and small perch. He was feeding loose maggots and an used orange maggot on the size 18 F1 maggot hook. We both saw the float moving sideways slowly, and he set the hook. At first it felt like the hook was snagged on the bottom, but it then started moving sideways, and he had no way of pulling it out. We both thought it was either a big bream or a tench, but after a legendary fight, he managed to get the fish to the surface where I was standing ready with the landing net. To our surprise, it was a colossal perch weighing in at 2lb 6oz, the biggest perch we had ever seen. It was caught on a size 18 fine hook with less than 3lb line, which was quite an accomplishment. Even though we had come for the tench and carp, that fish was undoubtedly the highlight of the day.

Towards the end of the day, we caught another tench, which was a bit smaller than the previous one, weighing just over 4 pounds, but just as beautiful. The day ended great with a perch of a lifetime and some lovely tench. When the temperature rises, I plan on returning to this awesome reservoir in the hopes of catching some specimen tench and, who knows, what other great fish might take the bait.