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