Morning Tench Fishing (20.04.2015)

With the loss of that big one on Saturday still fresh in my mind I set off in search of Tench once again this morning. Conditions weren't as good as they were on Saturday, it got a lot colder last night and a band of low pressure was moving in fast, not ideal for tench fishing but I was still confident of a fish or two.

Arriving at the waters edge at 7am was magical, the mornings mist was just burning through, coots were cooting, mallards were mating and toads croaked as I got my gear set up. Springtime really has to be my favourite time of year!

A dozen or so grains of corn were scattered out in the swim along with some maggot freebies. I let things settle a bit before casting out, not wanting to spook any early feeding fish that was on the bait. After 5mins or so I casted out my maggot hook bait and almost straight away the tip whacked round and I was into a tench. A nice little plump male of about 1lb in weight. What a fight it gave for its size! The light tackle that I was using really was tested to its maximum and I really struggled to get it out of the swim quickly. This must have had an effect on the fish present in the swim as for next half an hour or so I couldn't buy a bite!

I kept half a dozen or so maggots going in to the swim every couple of minutes just to try and entice fish back into the area. Gradually things picked up and I started catching the odd fish again every 15mins or so to the point I think I had caught all the fish that was in the area.

By 10am the tench fishing was done, perch started to come on the bait thick and fast and with that it was time to go home and get a sleep before heading out to work tonight for my first day of the weeks night shifts ahead.

The joys...

Craig Renwick

Wychwood Agitator Jerk 6ft 80-140g Lure rod – Long Term Review



 

The Agitator range of rods from tackle giants Wychwood have been on the market for some time now and in that time they have become known for their durability and great value for money amongst many pike anglers.

I’ve been using the jerk bait rod in the range for about six years now and in that time it has landed me hundreds of pike and a few twenty’s to 23lb and believe me when I say that it has handled every one of them perfectly!

Fish are a joy to play on thanks to the rod being built on a 6ft one piece low diameter blank that has a very fast yet powerful action. It comes fitted with ‘braid friendly’ triple leg gun metal trim rings, a full super short cork handle, a comfy trigger grip screw locked reel seat and fancy laser engraved butt cap. A hook keeper ring is fitted just above the handle which is handy for clipping the lure onto when moving swims or for when storing the rod built up ready to go like I do!

I would describe the rod as the perfect all-round jerk bait rod that is ideally suited for throwing medium to largish lures, although saying that I regularly throw lures with it that are much heavier than the rods stated maximum casting weight and it has handled them really well. I currently use an Abu Garcia 5501 multiplier reel with it and feel that this suits the rod perfectly.

As with all the Agitator range each rod comes with Wychwoods unconditional lifetime guarantee policy so in the event that an accident should happen, you will have no problem in getting a replacement.

I must say that I prefer using this rod more than some of the other more expensive lure rods that I own.

I have already put three people on to this rod too and all of them have agreed with me that it really is a great rod for the money.

If you are on the look out for a lure rod and you think that this one fits your bill then I can’t recommend it highly enough!

               

They are, I think, priced very modestly at around £40 each and are available from a wide array of tackle shops.

 

Craig Renwick

Neville Fickling's Mammoth pike Update - My Contribution

What follows below is an extract from the second book I have appeared in, the short story of how I caught my P.B pike...

A Pikers Dawn

The day was Thursday the 10th December 2009. I arrived at the waters edge at first light and the mist was slowly rising off the flat calm sheet of water that was in front of me, the conditions looked fairy tale like and expectations of a fish were high.

Each one of my three rods were casted out into known features in the loch. My first, baited with a lovely fresh sardine was accurately placed thirty yards out, straight in front of me into a deep hole that was twelve foot deep and was surrounded by eight feet of water. The second, a popped up herring was cast to my left about twenty yards out from the bank, just shy of a weed bed in seven feet of water. My third and last rod was baited with an eel section and cast off to my right hand side onto a gradual drop off that went from four feet down into nine feet of water again about twenty yards from the bank.

The morning went by slowly just like the previous six had where I had not encountered even a stiff from a pike on any of my baits. At just minutes past 10am I was standing next to my closest rod, the one that was out in the twelve foot hole. I was admiring the morning sun as it was just starting to burn a hole through mist that was lit a lovely bright orange when thoughts were running riot through my mind, why are they not having it? Are the pike in the deeper water? Should I have pre baited an area? etc when suddenly my drop off slammed against the rear bank stick, I don’t know whether it was the adrenaline that was pumping or that I simply never heard the sounder box going but I grabbed the rod from off the bank sticks as quickly as I could, wound down and stuck. It was my first run in over thirty eight hours of fishing I wasn’t going to let the fish drop the bait before I had a chance to set the hooks!

What met my strike was a solid resistance. If you can imagine striking into a submerged tractor tyre you will have a pretty good idea of what I mean. My 3.25lb test rod was bent double just trying to lift this thing off bottom when suddenly without warning I get a vigorous side to side sweeping head shake which confirmed it was a fish, and a big fish at that. Now, I had previous caught more than a good handful of thirty pound plus pike before this but none of which previously had even come close to the power this fish had.

Eventually I started gaining line on here inch by inch as she just kept plugging bottom with solid thumps of her tail. I quickly grabbed the net that was down at my feet and placed it in the water as she edged ever so closer to me. Just as I done this I get my first look at her, she bobs up out on top of the water just 5 feet out from the bank with a head the size of a horse and a saddle to match. I seized my chance and got her over and into the net first time then onto the mat. She was very lightly hooked with just the bottom treble stuck in her scissors. This was quickly turned out and then I stood up and looked at her. I simply couldn’t believe what I had just caught! After a few quick photographs she was popped onto the scales which read out a mighty 37lb 12oz, I was simply in awe! She was then carefully slipped her back into the loch where within seconds she shot off into the depths. I stood back up, wiped my face and looked at the time…..10.15am, time to leave for work!

Her Frame Was Enormous!

Gadda Baits Review

A 25lber took on a Gadda Bluey

 

Gadda Baits are a fairly new online bait supplier set up by predator anglers Garry Lewis. His aim is to provide not only value for money but also great customer care and most importantly extremely fresh bait!

 

He currently stocks a wide array of both sea and fresh water baits with other top baits being added reguarly.

So far the baits that are available are Lamprey, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout,Tiger Trout, Golden Trout, Herring, Mackerel, Smelt, Roach, Perch, Blueys, Sprats and Bream with most of them being available in various sizes. They all come individually spaced in top quality vacuum packed packets to preserve their freshness. Pre bait mainly consisting of mackerel heads is also available in roughly 1.5kg vacuum packed bags.

 

He really does pride himself on the freshness of his baits. He's a very keen sucessful pike angler himself and for that reason he will only send out baits that he himself would use, a great thing to know as we all know how important the freshness and quality of our bait can be when trying to land that big one. Any bait that doesn’t fit his very high criteria is kindly added into customer’s orders as freebies!

 

All orders over £100 include free next day delivery.

 

I received a few sample packs of each of their baits a few months back and while making my way through them I managed three different wild water 20lb+ pike to 25lb 4oz on them! All the baits that I received were in perfect condition and were still frozen solid, I must say that the Lamprey and Trout are without doubt the best that I have ever used and I simply can’t stop catching on the mini Blueys right now.

 

Visit www.gaddabaits.com to view their online selection and to place an order or alternatively you can call Garry direct on 07850046469.

 

Their slogan ‘A Pikers Bait’ means exactly that, they know what you want and how you want it, you can order with peace in mind that it will be the best bait you have ever bought!!

 

Craig Renwick 

Early Season Tench (18.04.2015)

Well here we go my first entry into the blog.

March and April usually sees me having my annual break from the fishing, I tend to hit it pretty hard during the winter months chasing big pike and last winter was no exception so this break of late has allowed me to get other things done that have took a back seat during the last few months. Recently I've managed to get a few things done about the house, started working on restoring my friends 14ft Mayland boat and even started a new relationship in my life with a cracking woman...all things that take up plenty of your time! I've always fancied setting up a blog to record my catches but never really found the time to get round to starting it, it's here now though so hopefully I can keep on top of it regularly!

Anyway back to fishing matters...

During the last few weeks it has felt more like the middle of summer than the start of spring what with the unseasonal high temperatures we've been experiencing lately. It was only a few weeks ago I was packing the pike gear away at the end of February and now air temps are already hitting 18degrees! If there's one species of fish that goes hand in hand with warmer weather fishing it really has to be the Tench. I don't usually start my Tench fishing until about the middle of May but decided to give it a go today with the hope of maybe snagging one or two in the warm spring sunshine!

Armed with my trusty 8ft quiver tip rod, a 4000rb hyper loop reel loaded with 6lb braided mainline I headed off out with my daughter to a local pond.

Tactics for the day were simple...bait up a few different swims and see what happens. The rig and bait we were using was simplistically in itself too, a simple running maggot feeder rig with 4lb fluorocarbon hook link tied onto a size 10 Kamazan hook with a tub of maggots and bag of sweet corn for bait, it really doesn't get any simpler.

Into the first baited swim of the day...The feeder had just hit the bottom under some over hanging trees I had baited previously, half a turn of the reel handle got the rod tip set to detect a bite and straight away I had and interest in my corn and maggot cocktail! Short fast taps told me what the culprit was and as I thought this resulted in a small perch. On most of the waters I fish perch are usually always the first fish to react to a bit of bait going in the swim and it seemed this one was playing to the rule book perfectly.

Ten minutes and a dozen or so perch later it became apparent to me that the Tench had moved in. Fizzing started everywhere, the perch bites dried up and instead I started to get a few slow pulls round on the rod tip, this was from the Tench brushing the line with there fins. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before one would slip up and take a bait with the hook attached. Sure enough just as the thought entered my mind the tip wrenched round and I was into the first Tench of the day, a spirited fish of around 1lb in weight, not the size I was after but it was a start none the less.

As always....what I do once that first fish comes out is I leave the swim for a few minutes and add in a bit more bait to get them competing a bit again and less spooky. That first few minutes after the first fish is hooked can often make or break the session. The secret to keep catching Tench all day long ive found is to keep the fish feeding in your area, baiting little and often is the key! If you do this then the chances of catching pretty much every fish in the swim are pretty good. I've found Tench to be notorious for moving into a swim eating a bit then moving on elsewhere, especially the bigger fish. So if you turn up to a water chuck a load of bait in and cast your rod(s) out in amongst it you really aren't doing yourself much favours, its much better to build up the fishes confidence get them competing amongst themselves then they are pretty much suicidial when it comes to taking a bait.

Anyway after that first Tench a dozen or so grains of corn were added into the swim and it soon became apparent that the resident perch had been bullied out of the swim because as soon as I casted out again straight away I was into another Tench, this action carried on for most of the day catching 21 Tench in total between 12oz and 5lb 2oz. I some how managed to pull the hook out of the best fish of the day that looked every bit of 7lb+ at the side of the net.

...never mind im back at them again on Monday

Craig Renwick