How did you get on?

[mikench]

I had to go so set out early promising to be back by 2.00pm at the latest. It promised to be very hot but my chosen venue and intended peg would be in shade from 10.am.

It wàs hot but the breeze made it pleasant. A mate set up in a peg 2 pegs down with a feeder and didn't get a single bite. I started and finished on the float but couldn't get a bite on anything but maggots. I used an 11' pellet waggler rod aiming for surface carp on the far side but they were not interested. I couldn't be bothered setting up the Acolyte so just put on a size 18 hook to 2lb hooklength and caught regularly but nothing big.


I had half a dozen of these plus a few roach and all this size. A couple of perch made up around 15 fish.

 

[The Runner]

Finally allowed back out up here so gave it a go yesterday. Didn't fancy a mile or two pathless yomp in the heat to any of my favourite pollack marks so, low tide in the evening and decided would try the tidal island ("Black Rock") just out of the town, small tide would give me a three hour session before had to beat a retreat. Good for mackerel on light gear later in the year but had only ever bait fished it in winter so didn't really know what to expect. Dug some lug in the morning, lazed about most of the day and walked out there about 6. And fished it until 9, alternating between about 80 yards and closer in just past the kelp, without a bite. Still a lovely evening when had to get off the island so walked another 200 yards along to a spot with shallower water that's generally good for at least a dab or two (and helpfully the fence put in to close the path after a recent landslide is 20 yards further on) Same result, called it a day when the wind dropped and the midges woke up at about 10.45- could really have done with being able to stop for a pint in the Merchant on the way back but....
Still, there's worse places to spend an evening watching a motionless rod top.

 

[mikench]

Don’t know what to say about the death of your friend John save that life isn’t fair and we have far too many evil people. It beggars belief and is a timely reminder to be careful.

How was the rod?

 

[nottskev]

I've been fishing a lovely place the last few times out, but the pickings are slim and bites can be few, and I needed a change. So I got up early and drove out to a gravel pit that holds a few small tench, amongst other things. I was there at opening time - 7am - as I heard it has been a bit busy since we started up again, but I needn't have worried as I had the place to myself til I left. I wanted to fish the most comfortable pegs on the flat bank. I stood with the 7am brisk easterly in my face for a few minutes, weighing it up, and then drove around to a sheltered, sun-trap corner peg. It's a bit of a slide and slither to get down, but comfy enough with your box in the shallow water.



I like to fish rod and pin on here, but this peg is under two trees that nearly meet over your head, and I didn't want to spend all morning carefully dodging branches, or failing to, so I set up the pole with a .75g float in the 8' of water 7m out. I'm not the only person who randomly mixes metric and imperial.
With the usual two swims, one left, one right, I potted some maggots in one and some micros in the other. After a bit it was clear the fish preferred micros/6mm expanders, as you caught much more quickly than on maggot.

The first dozen fish were all small perch. But then the small tench moved in with a vengeance





It's lovely fishing. The little tench put a bend in your rod and stretch your elastic, and I'm happy to fish for them unselectively. If the odd bigger one turns up, fine. I've caught them to 4lb; others have had fish to 6lb. I lost count after 40, and probably finished with more than 60. There was no way I could get a keepnet up the steep bank for a pic, so I pulled it into the edge and this pic got a fair proportion of them in




I didn't think I'd get to catch these spring tench this year, with all the uncertainty about when we'd be able to fish, so it was good to put a bit of normality back into my fishing.

 

[103841]

The place to yourself with a lot of tench.........heaven Kev!

 

[bracket]

Last week I had two short sessions on a club water that is stocked with pure strain crucians and tench. On the first visit I had stopped after 80 fish, mainly tench to 2lb. Second visit I had 53 fish, this time mostly small crucians. No photos, unfortunately, as my phone has died. I had a go at Chesil Beach last Friday arriving in the car park at 0700 am, to find there were already 42 vehicles parked up. On the beach, there must have been over a 100 people, mainly families with kids, at 7 in the morning, unbelievable. I had a nice three hours practicing casting lures, both metal and plastic, in the forlorn hope of actually catching a fish. Not to be. This morning I went back again to the club water, this time with a camera, and fished a different lake. I managed nine tench and one crucian. The two pictures below are the first and last fish of a 3 hour stint. Incidentally Mark Wintle has put a fine short video of this venue on YouTube. Pete.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Last week I had two short sessions on a club water that is stocked with pure strain crucians and tench. On the first visit I had stopped after 80 fish, mainly tench to 2lb. Second visit I had 53 fish, this time mostly small crucians. No photos, unfortunately, as my phone has died. I had a go at Chesil Beach last Friday arriving in the car park at 0700 am, to find there were already 42 vehicles parked up. On the beach, there must have been over a 100 people, mainly families with kids, at 7 in the morning, unbelievable. I had a nice three hours practicing casting lures, both metal and plastic, in the forlorn hope of actually catching a fish. Not to be. This morning I went back again to the club water, this time with a camera, and fished a different lake. I managed nine tench and one crucian. The two pictures below are the first and last fish of a 3 hour stint. Incidentally Mark Wintle has put a fine short video of this venue on YouTube. Pete.



View attachment 9182View attachment 9183

Going back this evening just to get close up shots of the float. May stick a camera underwater to see what happens! Presume the single crucian was from the bottom pond?

 

[bracket]

Going back this evening just to get close up shots of the float. May stick a camera underwater to see what happens! Presume the single crucian was from the bottom pond?

Yes Mark that's right. I fished on of the deeper pegs, 36 on Millers. Its about 7ft deep and I have always found it good for tench, but a tad slow today. Nice fish when they came though. Pete

 

[chevin4]

Blankety Blank but great to back fishing. Conditions challenging high pressure lack of wind tench not playing ball as expected. Just 3 of us fishing a 40acre gravel pit bliss. Lack of decent bait another issue but now the tackle shops are open I cant use that as an excuse if I blank this week.?

 

[Philip]

I have not been able to get out much of late but had been baiting a swim on the river so when the chance arose I shot down there for an evening session. It was one of those trips when everything seems to be going wrong - tangles, mishaps and so on. By the 4th retackle it was late, I was tired & I decided to pack up, I even wound the line back onto the reel. However for some reason I had a strong feeling to retackle again which turned out to be a good decision. 6 Roach, a Chub and a Mid double Carp that gave me a real run around on the Roach tackle came to the net. Interestingly & unusually the Roach were strongly on the feed well after dark. It was a very clear night coupled with clear water & a bright moon, I wonder if that played a part and light levels kept them feeding.

Here are the best two Roach at 1.13 & 1.7 the bigger one felt recently spawned out but you can’t complain...

 

[sam vimes]

A slight change in the wind direction coupled with a drop in the air pressure seems to have got them going again. Not the biggest individual fish, or the most, but given the average size of the four fish I had this evening, it's probably as fine a tench session as I've ever had. If, more than a year or two back, anyone had suggested that I'd have a local venue throwing up 5lb+ tench on a regular basis, I'd have probably laughed.

5lb 13oz

6lb 2oz

5lb 13oz

5lb 2oz

 

[Mark Wintle]

Yes Mark that's right. I fished on of the deeper pegs, 36 on Millers. Its about 7ft deep and I have always found it good for tench, but a tad slow today. Nice fish when they came though. Pete

I fished the top pond again but a different swim for a change. It was a foot shallower than the previous one and the crucians were queing up to bite; I ended up with 80 fish in just over 2 hours, mainly crucians.

I learnt a lot about filming underwater as I got to test my rig out. In all fairness the water is far too murky but in 15 minutes of footage there are occasional glimses of small tench. The amount of light was OK but the water truly needs to be gin-clear.

 

[108831]

Chris,that top tench was truly a beautiful fish,absolutely perfect and a sandy looking colour.

 

[no-one in particular]

Chris,that top tench was truly a beautiful fish,absolutely perfect and a sandy looking colour.

I wonder what that middle one is suffering from. a healed pike attack perhaps. Lovely looking tench all the same. I have not caught one for a long time.

 

[108831]

Tench get pigmentation issues,plus at this time of the year spawning soon damages their slime,as does our catching them at times,our warm temperatures give boom times to parasites too,maybe that fish had been lying up and suffered a nasty infestation.

 

[sam vimes]

I wonder what that middle one is suffering from. a healed pike attack perhaps. Lovely looking tench all the same. I have not caught one for a long time.

It was almost definitely pike damage. Its other flank was in a worse state. The smaller tench appear to have gone missing and a few too many of the bigger (3.5lb+) fish have horseshoes across their backs.

 

[markcw]

I have not been able to get out much of late but had been baiting a swim on the river so when the chance arose I shot down there for an evening session. It was one of those trips when everything seems to be going wrong - tangles, mishaps and so on. By the 4th retackle it was late, I was tired & I decided to pack up, I even wound the line back onto the reel. However for some reason I had a strong feeling to retackle again which turned out to be a good decision. 6 Roach, a Chub and a Mid double Carp that gave me a real run around on the Roach tackle came to the net. Interestingly & unusually the Roach were strongly on the feed well after dark. It was a very clear night coupled with clear water & a bright moon, I wonder if that played a part and light levels kept them feeding.

Here are the best two Roach at 1.13 & 1.7 the bigger one felt recently spawned out but you can’t complain...

View attachment 9194

RIVER......??
the river season does not start until the 16th June.
I would stick with stillwarers until then so you are not breaking any laws
EDIT......apologies Philip, just been informed there is no close season where you are from.

 

[sam vimes]

RIVER......??
the river season does not start until the 16th June.
I would stick with stillwarers until then so you are not breaking any laws

I think Philip knows the score. Where he is fishing there is no closed season.

 

[markcw]

I didnt know where he is from Chris, that's why I posted that, I will edit the post ?

I think Philip knows the score. Where he is fishing there is no closed season.

 

[steve2]

It was almost definitely pike damage. Its other flank was in a worse state. The smaller tench appear to have gone missing and a few too many of the bigger (3.5lb+) fish have horseshoes across their backs.

A couple of years ago I had a 4lb plus taken by a pike on the way in. It wouldn't let go so I ended up netting the both. The pike was over 20lbs the tench swam off as of nothing had happened. This is the same water where I had a 8lb pike taken on the way in I never saw the size of that pike.