Targeting Tricky Tench In Natural Waters

Geplaatst Wit Vis Tactiek at Apr 30, 2011

This time of year, Mick Brown very much enjoys the odd session in pursuit of the tench that inhabit his local, more natural venues.

These fish can be extremely hard to outwit, here Mick gives a few pointers on how to target such venues.

“Each tench water is different, ranging from the small to the massive, the shallow to the deep and very importantly, those that are used to seeing anglers baits and those that are not. Clearly, every venue needs tackling in a different way. The ones that see very little bait going in, I find the most challenging, but also the most rewarding as the fish have probably not been caught before. Early season fish in some lakes can often be very obliging as soon as the water warms up, and they seem to look forward to anglers piling in the bait and turn on very quickly. If the amount of natural food outweighs the amount of anglers bait being thrown in however, then things can be very different. In time, with enough baiting, you can get tench to co-operate but in some waters, it can be hard going initially.

Where this is the case, I like to prebait for as long as I can before starting my campaign. If the tench are not used to bait, then Dynamite's Frenzied Hempseed and XL Sweetcorn seems to be quickly accepted. I’ll also add a sprinkling of boilies to prime them for later, prefering Dynamite's The Source Range, but some tench take time to accept them when natural food is abundant unless a lot of bait is thrown in. You must choose an area where they want to be though. There’s no point, for example, baiting a very deep swim for early tench as they will be looking for, and enjoy being in, shallow water which warms up first. Don’t let them deceive you when rolling over very deep water as they are probably just cruising in the warm upper layer.

I like to wait until the water temperature is in the high teens before starting and plan a couple of short test sessions before going all out for them. It would be nice to have a few days to sit it out and see what happens but that all depends upon how much time you have on your hands. Unfortunately, I don’t have this luxury so plan a few short sessions to start with.

I’ve found it best not to overdo the baiting on the fishing day for a while to see how the tench are responding to the bait. Bubbling in the area always fills me with confidence and I then feed in response to what I see happening in the swim and the bites and line bites I get. This article is not about rigs but, needless to say that, whether float fishing, feeder fishing, bolt rigging or simple link legering, they have to be right and details can be found in other articles from our consultants.

Tench often seem to be very easy to catch when you fish prolific waters but there are some waters which challenge all you think you know about them. It’s very easy to give up on these places, but when you see a bronze backed beauty roll in the early morning light, that should be enough incentive to inspire a real angler into persevering. Success from these waters is often measured in handfuls of tench rather than keepnets full, but what’s the point without the challenge? 

Good tenching!”