Wales (not Whales) :)

A summer holiday to Mid-South Wales was a perfect opportunity to try a spot of fishing. I was expecting to do mostly fly fishing and had bought a new rod/reel/line from a recent trip 'up north' to Ted Carter's, incidentally where I had bought my first fishing rod many years ago. The chap there was extremely helpful and recommended a relatively inexpensive fly rod and tackle. The holiday house we had booked was on the river Towy (near Llandovery) and had fishing rights so it was a big draw and promised much fun at the bank. It was tricky finding local tackle shops, everything in Wales seemed to be 40mins away by car from where we were staying. I did find a couple of places that gave some helpful advice on flies to use although it was very inconsistent. They all seemed universal in the advice that I should try spinning on the Towy. So I tried several spoons and mepps Droppen 6g spinners but with no luck. I also tried trotting prawns down stream under a float along with a range of flies. The nearest I came to a bite on the Towy was when I ventured out after dark, headlamp strapped to my head and got a possible take on a double dropper fly tackle to a white feathery lure. It is hard to say if this was a take or not as the river bed was quite shallow and it was easy to snag. Still there was something spookily fun about fishing a river after dark, under cover of the stars and a full moon with the fly.

Having exhausted my range of options on the Towy, I tried a couple of other options. First I made two trips to Spring Water Lakes, which is a caravan park with fishing lakes between Pumsaint and Lampeter. This place was recommended to me by a couple of the tackle shops. The owners were very friendly and helpful in their suggestion of tactics and flies. I purchase a couple of sinking lures and a dry daddy long legs fly. I spent two enjoyable sessions there with a couple of follows from trout and one take from a small silver fish but sadly did not bank any fish. I got some great advice from the owner on fly casting and on his suggestion switched to using my heavier hardy dry fly line (no 6) on my new fly rod which helped my casting no end. The weight of the line was now pulling the line out on the forward cast. I'm surprised this was such hard work with the new kit I had bought as I expected this to have been matched quite carefully. My suspicion is my lack of practice at casting was more likely the culprit than poor kit!

Not disheartened by the lack of success, I was recommended to try the Usk reservoir by the owner of the holiday let. This was not cheap as the day ticket was £17 but this included an adult and child permit for up to 6 fish (should you catch them!). The reservoir allowed fly fishing, worm (under float) and spinning. I made two trips there and had considerable success on worm the first time. My catch reports are here:

Usk Reservoir, worm under bubble float for Trout

"Tuesday 27 August, 2013

Beat: Usk Reservoir (Booking Office), Fishing Type: Adult & Child 6 Fish Permit, No. Anglers: 1

Blustery to dead still, lots of fish porpoising/showing when still. Overcast to broken cloud - warm water temperature. Fished 11am - 3:30pm. Nothing on the fly rod but 5 Rainbow trout (1-2lbs in weight) on multiple garden worms (on a size 10 hook) 5 foot under orange bubble float, 12lbs main line to 30cm 4lbs hook link. Lots of additional bites and nibbles, fishing 5-10m out from bank. Returned 3 fish. Kids thoroughly enjoyed safe and easy fishing near fishing permit booth/car park end of reservoir.

"

A brace of 1.5-2lbs Rainbow Trout from the Usk Reservoir - taken on worm (not fly)

... and the second time when I blanked:

"Friday 30 August, 2013

Beat: Usk Reservoir (Booking Office), Fishing Type: Adult & Child 6 Fish Permit, No. Anglers: 1

Warm but very blustery and overcast with driving rain most of the time between 12.30pm - 4.15pm. A couple of bites on bubble float/worm near ticket booth but none caught. Too windy for fly casting. Nothing on spinner."

Overall, despite only catching on one day and failing to catch with the fly, it was an enjoyable holiday fishing adventure. I certainly improved my fly fishing technique. Sadly there is not a great deal of fly fishing in Cambridge but I shall certainly explore options. There are some crazy notions of catching carp on the fly!

Revenge of the gardener or how slugs catch carp

After a few trips to Bordeaux pit catching small silver fish and perch, I thought I'd target some of the carp with a few free lined slugs from the garden. There is nothing more satisfying than getting one back at the resident slug population in the garden than offering them to the fish. Now, I had used slugs as bait before many years ago, mainly targeting river chub but never to any success. The approach this time was to offer a 'free lined' slug on a size 12 barbless hook, straight through to 8lbs mono. In this case, I clipped a "pond chucker" self cocking float on as a bit indicator. After a couple of hours with no luck, the slug just sinking after hitting the water down to the 2 foot depth I had set below the float, I got a sudden splash/commotion as the slug hit the water. I was confused as to what had happened but decided to strike as I had seen carp swimming around. The line tightened and a big fish was on, taking off for the opposite side of the small pit. I was pretty certain this was a carp and I adjusted the clutch to allow some line to play off which was a good move as when I wound in, the fish took off for the marginal weeds, pulling line from the reel. Applying plenty of side strain, I was able to get the fish out of the weeds and up to the surface where we could see that it was a carp. It took a couple of gulps of air and seemed to be slightly shocked and not diving back down so we took the opportunity to get the net quickly under it. It was a small net, just big enough for this fish and deftly landed by my 5 year old helper :). The result a pristine 8lbs 10oz common.

8lbs 10oz Common Carp taken on free lined slug

We were in shock at catching this fish, my new personal best and a stonker of a carp. We pretty much packed up the gear after that, got a passer by to take a photo and slipped the fish back in carefully. Almost a year later, we were back at the same venue trying the same tactics and had an almost identical take/fight with another nice common. It looked bigger than the first but was in fact only 7lbs 5oz. This time around, the take was easier to analyse. The slug had landed half a foot away from a fish which had turned and sucked up the bait then shot off across the pit when it felt the hook. It pretty much hooked itself on the bolt. A slightly larger landing net this time made my 6 year old helper's life easier :).

7lbs 5oz Common Carp also taken on garden slug

I now understand why people get so hooked on carp fishing. Explosive takes and hard fights. I could get used to this :).

Unexpectedly Breaming

So a quick update, I managed to target the same venue/location as last time out. Same tackle, lift rig float fishing. With the SSG+AA just 2 inches from the size 12 hook holding the two maggot above red corn cocktail. I was also using the red corn juice as an attractant again. Conditions, slightly warmer, perhaps 10 Celcius but partially overcast and no significant tow. Time around 8:50 again.

This time, I kept getting slight dibs down on the float with knocks making it move side to side. Then a bite would ensure which would have the float move under at medium pace and very smoothly. Not very Tench like I thought and sure enough it was not. I was hooked into something heavy but strangely it was not fighting very hard. I managed to get it to the surface and wow, the largest lump of a Bream I have ever had on. It rolled and went for the center of the pit but on the straight through reel line to hook tackle, I had the confidence to adjust up the clutch and give some side strain to try and bring the fish back. Sure enough, it turned and I managed to reel it to the surface. A couple of gulps of air and the fish seemed to be docile and I managed to pull it gently over the net. It was when I lifted the net out of the water that I realised how heavy this fish was. I've had plenty of skimmer bream before but nothing this big with that lovely green-brown colour of a big bream. I unhooked the fish on my unhooking mat, still on top of the wet net and had a chance for a breather before photos and weighing. I could hardly believe my eyes when the scales tipped 7.25 lbs - a new personal best!

7.25lbs Bream

I had met another angler, Ollie, who was carping and decided to ask him to take a picture of me holding the fish. One for the scapbook definitely. After this bream, I had a number of other bites, including a similar large one that headed into the middle of the lake but the hook pulled on me. I kept missing quite a few bites when I struck, not quite sure why. I was running out of time so did not get a chance to experiment with rig but I did try a couple of different bate combos, including treble maggot and treble core neither of which got me as many bites as the double maggot/single red core combo. I think I was stunned by the bream I landed and was not being very methodical with trying different tactics.

I had heard the pit had a good head of largish bream but never seen one so this was a real bonus and eye-opener. Before I left, I put in the remaining red corn and maggots in and around the marginal weeds. Hopefully this will keep the fish interested in these baits for a future trip. If I had been thinking about it, I might have put some of my pellets in as that is a bait that I want to try at this pit. I hear that the carp and bream are partial to pellets.

Still, as I packed up, I felt a bit of a quandry, I've pulled out a few nice Tench and the bream from this venue/swim. It feels like I need to try something/somewhere different for a while. I guess it is easy to keep targeting the same 'favourite' spot but this will not up my game. I think a trip to Bordeaux pit to try some pole fishing on the small pond or back to proper feeder fishing on the ledger would be a good riposte.

One issue I had with the rig/tackle whilst using the lift method was the float slipping up or down the line. With the float 'locked' with a single float rubber, this was highly likely on a long cast or fast retrieval. One idea I had was to use a ledger stop above the float to 'set' the depth. This would probably still support lift bit indications and drop indications. Also, I consulted my John Wilson, Carp and Tench fishing book to refresh my memory on the nuances of the lift method. One thing that it made me think was, I could have scaled down the float so that I could have used less weight for the indicator shot - say even just a single AA. This might have given me more fine bite indication - worth a try in the future.

'New' Season Tenching

A 'New' Seasons?
So a 'new' season and finally some more angling action. I say 'new' as it is very odd for me to be fishing at this time of year. When I was a kid, this would have been the closed season and there would be no fishing permitted. It seems the rules have changed for still waters with closed season now being entirely up to the water owners. This sort of makes sense from a scientific point of view as fish spawn at different times of year. Hence a fixed 3 month closed season is a bit ineffective. Still, I get the impression that most clubs with still waters basically have no closed season which IMHO is probably a bad idea. I think perhaps a month with no fishing might allow the fish to get a breather and might also be good for fishing when the baits the fish are used to are reintroduced after an absence. He, ho, well back to actual discussion of fishing action!

Cracking Ledgering
So I had a chance to go a couple of times in May to the local pit. This season I was determined to crack ledger so I tried my favorite spot with a simple running 1oz lead through to a bead/swivel and then hooklink. Hook size varied from 16 down to 12 - mainly pre-tied Kamasan spade ends with 12inch leader. I used my carbon quivertip 11' rod (using lightest 'white' tip) and swung the lead in close to the bull rushes where my favorite prey, the Tench tends to hide.

Fun with the boys
Previously I had gone with the boys for a bit of lighthearted shallow (3-4ft), double maggot, waggler fishing for silvers. Preston innovations 4BB bodied waggler, secured with float rubber and 2 AAs about 12inch from the hook. We managed to catch a few small silvers and perch to 2-3 oz - which was great fun. The boys' casting was dramatically improved and we had very few tangles.

2-3oz Perch

2oz Rudd

Getting more serious and weedy travails
Serious fishing though was relegated to early mornings, 8:45am being a prize time. These outings, I went with the running ledger tackle mentioned above. First time out, I was travelling light, no rod rests, just using the landing net and reeds to act as a rest. Fishing with line parallel to reed bed, perhaps just 2 meters out where the reed line ended. Bait was treble red maggot and there were a few knocks. The hooklink was perhaps only 12inch to the swivel and the running lead hit the bead just above the swivel on the main line. Line was tight through to the quivertip. Generally bites were very finickety, with quick 'knock-knock' or wobble of the tip. There was perhaps 3-4 meters of line between the tip and the lead so I was perhaps expecting a bit more positive bites. None the less, I picked up a couple of silvers (rudd) and a small 4oz perch on this setup. I would chuck in a dozen maggots every few minutes to keep the fish interested. The real problem here though was the weed, there was lots of silk weed and Canadian pond weed around the reeds. And when I was not dragging in loads of weed, the hook was snagging on the reeds.

4oz Perch

Still, I was getting some bites despite the lead and probably the bait (treble/quad maggots) burrowing into the weed. I got one nice fish on, probably a large tench or carp that gave quite a fine bite indication followed by ploughing into the marginal reeds. I could not side strain it out of there and eventually had to slack line it for a moment to allow it to swim out, which luckily it did. I managed to pull back into the fish but it took a beeline straight for the middle of the pit and in ratcheting up the clutch, I snapped the leader. This presumably happened at the mainline swivel knot as I lost the lead (which would have safely fallen off the line to the bottom and not dragged behind the fish). Actually, thinking about it, this time I was not using a swivel but a Korum quick change bead. I'm always a bit suspect of the plastic to mainline knot on these compared to a decent swivel - but need more tests to verify this.

Not put off, I tried another day, same tactics although this time, I used an inline korda 35g lead and a slightly heavier hook link, a 5lbs size 12 pre-tied Kamasan B510 through to the swivel. I chucked a few tiger soft hook pellets (chocolate flavour IIRC) in as free feed. I got the sense that the inline lead was a bit better at not getting loads of weeds caught up but I was still being plagued by this. This time, I hooked into something on treble red maggots. It kept its head down and went straight for the weeds. Did not feel extremely big but it was well into the marginal reeds. With the slightly heavier tackle, I thought I'd try and pull up, i.e. trying to pull the fish to the surface where I could try and guide it around the reeds. As I pulled, I could see the fish coming up from under loads of weeds which it eventually pulled through (luckily) and then shot off into open water. Once it was there I could tell it was a little tench and it wanted to fight hard, swinging right across to the lily pads. A bit more side strain and I had it rolling on the surface and finally into the landing net. Phew - an awesome 1.25lbs tench, first of the 'new' seasons.

First Tench of 'new' season 1.25lbs

The old techniques are the best
The weather these couple of days had been very varied, the day with the kids had been a nice sunny, low wind day, with temperatures pushing 18 Celsius. The day I caught the tench was over cast and more like 8 Celsius with a bit of wind/surface tow. The weather took a turn for the worse and although temperatures were probably about 10 Celcius, it was slightly more windy and overcast with spots of rain. Still this got me out for another bash around 8:45 again. This time after reading some interesting posts at: http://fishingfortench.co.uk/ about float fishing for tench in the margins. I thought, against my better judgement, to try float fishing. Clearly this was not in line with my philosophy of 'cracking ledgering' but it did appeal to me as a potential way to get the bait above the weeds. Also, I am a sucker for the lift method - which was how I first caught tench as a kid. So I set up with a crystal loaded 4BB waggler secured with a float rubber straight through to main line down to the hook (no hook link). A SSG and a single AA 2 inches from a size 12 eyed hook was the terminal tackle. The main line was 6-8lbs mono so normally my gut would say you need a lighter hooklink just to avoid the line looking like rope to the fish. Clearly modern mono is much more thin than mono of old and it did not look very thick but none the less I was a bit sceptical this set up would work. Still, I attempted this set up to work around two issues I'd had before: firstly the issue with the hook link snapping around the swivel and secondly the fact that if a fish went into the reeds, I would have to bull wrestle it out and for this I did not want a weak hook link. For bait, I tried two red maggots above a red (strawberry) corn kernel. I also chucked in a small handful of red corn as free feed and squirted a mix of water and the juice from the corn tin in as attractant. I was fishing in the same place up against the reeds at a depth of 4 feet. The float was showing about 1.5 inch above the water without tightening up the line and I just held the rod in my hands. I got a few knocks and didn't get anything on the strike but not all bad news as there was hardly any weed on the hook/leads. Cast out again and this time, I got a small dib down then up, then again. I decided to strike in and had a fish which took straight for the reeds. With just 2-3 meters of line to the float, I side strained the fish out of the reeds relatively easily and tried to get it to the surface. When it was up it rolled and I could see a small tench, about 1lbs. It did not put up much of a fight once it was on the surface and I managed to get it in the net fairly easily.

Big backed Tench at 1lbs (est)

Bull Wrestling (or rather Tench Wrestling)!
A good start, and not too much disturbing the swim while fighting the fish. After I had returned it to the neighboring swim, I went in again, this time double yellow maggot above red corn. About five minutes later,  another bite, this time very positive, the float just buried under the water. I struck straight in and could feel the strain of a much heavier fish. Surprisingly, it did not go straight for the marginal weed, it shot off away from me along the bank, parallel to the reeds. A fair amount of side strain and I turned it but this time it went for the center of pit. I crouched down and applied strain up and to the right hand side and managed to tweak up the clutch getting the fish to turn back towards me and the bank. Winding in, I got it to the surface and I could see this was a nice tench. It rolled once on the surface and shot down towards the lily pads to the left. This time, more side strain and I got it back to the surface. I got the impression that when it got to the surface and took a gulp of air, it lost its fight a little (possibly something to remember for the future). Now I tried to keep its head up and rolled it back along the surface towards the net which I managed to scoop it up with . Wow, a big early season tench. Getting it to the unhooking mat, it looked massive with an ominous red eye. The barbless size 12 slipped out without any effort (showing how important it is to keep lines tight when fighting fish on barbless hooks). I could tell it was a male fish by looking at the protuberances on the belly flank. Very similar fish to the one I caught of a similar size last season. On the scales, the fish came in at 4.5lbs. A few photos and I slipped it back in to the next door swim. Awesome!

4.5lbs male Tench, caught on red corn/maggot combo

After clearing all the tench slime from the bottom 2 feet of my rig, I fished on for about 20 minutes with no bites. I suspect that the fight scared off a lot of fish. Before I left, I threw in 2 handfuls of red corn, with some in the marginal reeds. Hopefully this will get them interested next time I try.

So what lessons learned?

1. Persistence and experimenting with different approaches is hugely important. If I had stuck with the same approach, I might have been lost in the weeds and not hooked into anything.
2. When you have to wrestle with big fish in weedy/snagging conditions, you need to up-rate the tackle e.g. skip the swivel/separate hook link. This may put some fish off but when you get a big one, you have a better chance of landing it.
3. Different baits are worth trying, along with cocktails. E.g. multi-maggot/maggot-red corn mix.
4. Pick the right method to present the bait correctly. While I really want to crack ledgering, it was probably not the best technique for this weedy marginal swim.
5. Holding the rod at all times is tiring but you are immediately in touch with the fish if you get a bite, not having to hover over the ledger rod. Still this is probably a general issue with ledgering?
6. Getting the fish up to the surface to get it to gulp air helps calm it down. Clearly this needs to be tempered with not trying to man-handle a fish too forcibly - this might result in a snapped line or pulled hook.
7. Getting out to the bank for a spot of fishing first thing really wakes you up for the day and puts you in a great mood!

Winter Fishing in Granchester

After months of being too busy to get out fishing, I recently spent an hour (of an afternoon) at Granchester mill pool. On arriving, I found another angler, deadbait fishing for pike and ledgering worms for perch. He pulled a couple of small perch out while I was there but otherwise had limited luck. It was very cold, probably about 1-2 Celcius and there was only an hour to go before sunset so not much time to fish.

I targeted the roach and dace with bread flake on a size 20 hook under a self cocking float. I varied the depth between 1-4 feet. No nibbles on the bread so I switched to some soft hooker pellets. Slightly more luck here with something definitely nibbling the pellets but no bites.

Unfortunately after an hour I had to pack up as it was getting cold and too dark to see the float. Despite not catching anything, it was nice to get down to the water again after so long. Next time, I think some worms and ledger would be worth trying. I suspect the fish were down on the bottom given the nibbles came when I increase the depth of the bait. It would be good to do a little more research on winter baits. From past memory I recall that scaling down tackle and bait helped e.g. pinkies rather than maggots and smaller hooks. Hopefully I'll get anther try soon.

South Creake Fishery, Near Fakenham, Norfolk

This is a somewhat belated write up of a short trip to South Creake Fishery during my summer holiday in Norfolk during July 2011.

I was recommended to try the fishery at South Creake by Rob Parnell at Dave’s Tackle in Fakenham near where we were staying. I visited the site the evening before to scout out and chat with some of the fishermen there. They were mostly Carp fishing with a mix of method feeding and feeder. The baits used were mainly sweetcorn and cubed luncheon meat. The fishery itself was quite small, really an S shaped lake formed with protruding islands. The depth of water was around 5 foot on average with quite clear margins and flat banks. It was quite exposed to the elements and just behind the fishing lake was the commercial fish nursery where they raised coarse fish for stocking of lakes.

I had a limited amount of time to fish the following day but I turned up not long after sun rise. I was at the bank for 05:30. I set up on the middle prominence and cast out 7 meters to a shallow bank which I had plumed the depth to be about 4-5 feet. I set up a lift float rig with a single SSG and the float a light waggler attached bottom end with a float rubber. The hook link was 3-4lbs mono with a size 16 barbless hook and the main line 6-7lbs mono. I was using the short 2.4m spinning rod. For hook bait I had normal sweetcorn which I tossed in as ground bait and put a single piece or double piece of corn on the hook, trying to hide the hook as much as possible, leaving only the point visible.

Weather conditions were overcast with mild drizzle and a light wind. I started getting bites around 06:30 but was struggling to hook into the fish. I suspect that I was not being able to pick up the line very well with the short rod. In hindsight, I was probably not sinking the line very well and the surface tow was creating a slight bow which was not helping with keeping tightly in touch with the terminal tackle. I got some nice lift bites but was also getting takes with the float just zipping under the water. I started landing a few small Rudd and Roach mostly in the 0.25lb and up bracket.

Selection of small Common Carp, Road and Rudd, possibly hybrid in the 0.25-0.5lbs bracket

They fought well for small fish. I also hooked into a small 0.25lbs common carp which may have been one of the recently stocked fish. I did then hook into something that was a bit bigger, the lift bite and the way the fish was keeping its head down and heading sideways for the margins made me think this was very Tench-like. Sure enough, it was a Tench, about 2.5 lbs. My favourite target species so I was very happy with this catch.

2.5lbs Tench

But I was even more impressed shortly afterwards when I got a more ferocious take with the float lifting and moving off sideways. When I struck into this, initially it felt like another Tench but it was really trying to power off. I had to loosen the clutch to let some line out. When I finally got the fish to the surface, I was surprise to see that it was a Carp. I had a sudden worry that this fish was too big for my small pan landing net but after a couple of minutes of fighting it to tire it out, I finally, just, managed to slip it into the small net. My first Mirror Carp of over a pound. It was a Line Mirror Carp according to one of my angling colleagues, I initially thought it might be a leather but it had a few scales near the dorsal fin. In the net the fish weighed 3.5lbs.

3.5lbs Line Mirror Carp

After this fish, I had a couple more small Rudd but had to pack up at 8am to be back to help with the kids. This must have been one of my best short fishing trips. Great fish and on corn with no fancy rigs to boot. Still of concern after this trip was the number of fish I missed which I attempted to attribute to short rod/line pick-up during the strike, barbless hooks etc. Also, I think I was rusty at the time on how to strike into a lift rig bite. I was probably waiting for the float to come up and go down again, which when I read about it later was not the right thing to do, classically, you strike as the float rises. I wonder what else I might have caught if I had been more proficient!

Tench fishing at Whittlesford Pit

So I finally got to fish the Whittlesford Pit or Longmoor Pit to give it its proper name. This water is managed by the Saffron Walden Angling Club and known for decent carp (20lbs+), Tench (8lbs+) and bream (5lbs+). It is fairly shallow in terms of depth, the deepest runs are no more than 7ft I am told and at the margins, the water is very clear and perhaps 2-3ft deep with very weedy bottom.

View of the pit

I went on two occasions, first time; I was there at 5:30am and fished through until 11am. I was working a swim between some lily pads and near some bull-rushes, not fishing very far out, margin fishing really. The tackle was 11ft feeder rod, 8lbs main line with 5lbs hook link (size 12 Kasman barbless hooks with hook link) connected with a swivel. There was a 3BB waggler connected via a float rubber with a couple of large SSG 2 inches from the hook to fish on the lift for Tench. Hook bait was maggots or sweet corn (mix of strawberry and normal). I got a couple of lift bites mainly on the double/treble maggot. The swim was full of small Rudd and these were hitting the bait on the drop. They were less interested in the corn and I hardly got anything on the corn except a couple of quarter pound Rudd. I was really after Tench so was very disappointed to only get Rudd. Actually I got one small quarter pound Perch but that was the only exception. I switched to a standard on the drop rig, a couple of inches over depth (under a loaded waggler – “puddle chucker”) and just got stuck into the Rudd. I must have had about 30+ fish by the end of the day, ranging from 1oz to a max of 6oz. I got chatting to a young chap who was method fishing for carp. He arrived just after me and managed to bag a 16lbs mirror. He said that I should ledger in close to the reeds for Tench. Not being much of a ledger fishing expert, I decided not to try this at 10am given the limited remaining fishing for the day. While I was fishing this area, I did notice a number of carp nosing in about the reeds but none were interested in my float bait.

Not to be beaten, I resolved to focus on ledgering if this was the way to catch fish at this venue. So, I came one more time but only had an hour to fish, starting fishing about 8:30am. I put the most sensitive white tip quiver on the feeder rod with the same reel. I kept the rig very simple, basically the same as for float above but with a 1oz bomb with a rubber bead stop below it. I fished standard double sweet corn with the corn hiding as much of the shank of the size 12 hook as possible. Again, I fished the margins but this time concentrated on the reeds, with perhaps only 4-5 meters of line between the tip and the bomb. I hand fed initially a small handful of corn then kept dropping in 4-5 kernels every 5-10mins. As I was getting my rod settled on the rests for the first time, there was a violent take which I struck into. Whatever it was (and I suspect it was a reasonable carp) took off immediately for the middle of the lake. I was playing with the clutch but just as it shot off, my line snagged another fishing line about 5 meters out. As I was trying to untangle from this, my hook link snapped. My bomb and lots of trailing weed was snagged around the other line which I pulled in. This was a serious carp hair rig with the boillie and 2-3oz lead still attached. I pulled in the entire rig and put in on the bank to wrap up and throw away. A nearby angler (Jake) saw my fight and had come across to see what had happened. He mentioned that he had fished the swim the day before and he had lost his rig so he was pleased that I had pulled it out! He started chatting with me about the water and carp and ledger tactics. He mentioned that it was worth leaving the line slack on the bottom and not tightening up the quiver to avoid spooking the carp. While we were chatting, I put the rig out again (although I stuck with convention and tightened up the quiver to give a slight bend – I suspect a back ledger would help keep the line down so may be worth trying in future). Shortly after, I got a drop back bite and struck into a fish. This was very different to the carp as it went straight for the weeds, it felt more Tench-like. I had to fiddle with the drag to allow the fish to pull off some line and then tightened up and applied side strain to get it away from the reeds. After a minute or so of fighting, I got it to the surface, definitely a Tench and a nice chunky one at that. I was conscious of not shaking the barbless hook so I was keeping constant pressure on. There was some weed around the rig but eventually, probably after another minute of fighting, I got the fish to the surface and Jake helped me get it in my net (which frankly was too small for a fish of this size but was just adequate – memo to self, buy a bigger one!). As Jake went to get his weighing sling, I unhooked the fish, a beautiful chunky olive green male Tench. It was hooked in the corner of the lips and the barbless hook slipped out very easily in my fingers. Weighing the fish, it came to 4-4.5lbs according to Jake, my best ever Tench and actually thinking about it, my heaviest fish to date! After posing for a couple of pictures, I slipped the weighing sling into the water and allowed the fish to recover before releasing it – after about 30 seconds, it righted itself and slipped away into the depths with one swish of its heavy tail. Wow, what a fish, the Tench I had been seeking and one of my first fish on ledger to boot.

4.5lbs Tench (male)

Removing the thick slime on the leader, I fished on for about 20 minutes with no more bites before packing up. This was amazing action for an hour of fishing and good omens for the future of Tench fishing at one of my most proximal waters. Still I am slightly concerned that my rig may attract larger carp and I would need to load up the duty to be able to manage these. Of course this is a ‘good’ problem to have but none-the-less, I need to cogitate on tackle upgrade.

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