Few species are as synonymous with summer as the tench, so with glorious weather stretching across the U.K, I made my regular drive eastwards along the M4 to the gravel pits of Oxfordshire. Linear fisheries, one of the country’s most popular day ticket carp waters, holds a great head of tench and produces double figure specimens every spring, so seemed a great place to head for a couple of days sport, whilst putting together a feature for IYCF magazine.
With the world cup in full flow I hoped the lakes maybe somewhat quieter than usual, and this proved to be the case on my arrival. During a quick lap of St Johns I found several tench feeding just feet from the bank in a couple of feet of gin clear water, arriving at the favoured ‘Henman Hill’ swim I found a good friend of mine who was leaving the following day, so I set up next door and we had a pleasant social evening only interrupted by a screaming take on a black foam baited zig rig I had lobbed out to some showing fish in 6ft of weedy water, unfortunately the powerful carp weeded me up and the hook popped out.
Dropping into my desired swim the following morning, I found two clear spots amongst the heavy weed growth, so quickly set up a couple 2lb Precision rods with simple inline maggot feeder rigs combined with short braided hook lengths, size 12 S3 hooks, baited with 3 rubber casters. The first 24 hours proved very quiet with one solitary small tench falling to my normally reliable tactics. Talking a walk along the bank the following day I found another clear area just feet from the margins in a couple of feet of water, using my long landing net handle I gave the gravelly bottom a good stir, adding a little colour to the clear water before adding a few handfuls of casters, maggots, hemp and small pellets, with the rig dropped onto the new spot I walked the rod back to my swim, only for it to get dragged round as I set the bobbin! The change in positioning proved itself again and again over the next few hours with half a dozen quality tench, and a pair of rogue carp all joining in the action. Proving that in even in difficult conditions a subtle change can make a massive difference to your results.
A couple of days later saw the arrival of my mum and ten year old sister from their home in Ireland for a holiday. Anya, my sister was keen to join me for a few hours fishing so a local commercial seemed a good choice; She proved a natural and within an hour was loading her own method feeder, and selecting her own baits, landing fish after fish on her chosen pink rubber corn offering, including her first double, a gorgeous 13lb common, although it proved a little too big for her to hold alone for a photo.
The next couple of weeks will see me aiming to rectify previous failures in my search for a big bream.
Tight lines, Jules.
