 17.05.2012
More than any other period of the year, the late spring and early summer months are THE time to catch tench. Responding to the warming waters, tench become active and hungry in the lead-up to spawning, with the advantage that the female fish will be at their heaviest, pre-spawning weights.
There is no single best method for catching tench, as they will respond to a variety of angling tactics. The classic lift-float method has waned in popularity, but for close-in fishing in relatively shallow water, it is still a killer technique. A large shot, sufficient to sink the float, is fished within a few inches of the hook, with the float (typically, a length of peacock quill or a straight waggler attached via a bottom float rubber only) set over-depth and fished under tension. Bites are usually spectacular, the float rising out of the water and lying flat as the tench picks up the baited hook and lifts the shot. Bread flake, worms, maggots and sweetcorn are all favourite baits for lift-float fishing.
Another highly successful tactic is to bait lightly with (sinking) casters and to float-fish a caster bait tripping the bottom. When used in weed-free situations, this set up allows considerable finesse so that minute bites can be detected and struck.
The entire gamut of legering techniques work well for tench – block-end and open-end feeders, methods feeders, straight legering methods and adapted carp-fishing tactics. Where they have been used before, legered boilies can be the most productive method… with a few tweaks. Firstly, it is often important that the hook-bait boilie only just sinks – ‘coring’ the centre of the bait, and inserting and trimming a cock or foam stick is an easy way of achieving this. Check the bait in the margins to ensure that it just sinks before casting.
Moreover, tench are far less wary of strong flavours than carp, and it pays to either soak your baits in favourite glugs, dips or flavour mixes, or give them a quick dunk before casting. I prefer fruit flavours above others, usually mixing them in a small pot with a liquid sweetner or runny honey; others swear by fishy or dairy flavours.
The excellent Marukyu groundbait range provides ample scope to greatly enhance the effectiveness of any tenching method by attacting the fish in the swim. The addition of a few bait samples (be it hemp, sweetcorn, broken boilies or pellets) will help keep the fish there, ready to be caught.
On silty lakes, the early and late hours of the day are often best, although cloudy days can extend good sport throughout the day; on gravel pits, the most productive periods can be during the main, more civilised part of the day, rather than at dawn and dusk. |
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9/4/2012
It is a fact the majority of coarse fishermen are fair-weather anglers who dust off their tackle at this time of year and mothball it again in the autumn. Before the warmth returns, now is the ideal time to refurbish the essentials.
For me, that means three key tackle items… bait, hooks and line. As long as you’re fishing in the right place at the right time, the essential features of your tackle are that your rod and reel are capable of casting your bait, the fish wants to eat it, and the hook and line do not break. These are the ‘must haves’, and much of the huge paraphernalia we all haul onto the bank is really there simply to make the art of catching fish easier or more comfortable.
If your line experienced any sort of use last season, best to replace it – the time to discover that it has weakened it not when it’s attached to the fish of a lifetime! If it’s relatively new, try casting a small weight as far as you can and reel it back in while gentle running the line through your fingertips. You may be amazed at just how many kinks, burrs and scuffs there are. If the line is undamaged, repeat the cast and retrieve exercise, this time running the line through a damp pad to put it in tip-top condition.
To help prevent future damage, check your rod ring linings carefully for nicks or cracks, and replace any that are damaged. I also clean them with pipe cleaners dipped in white spirit to rid them of grit and grime.
Old hooks need not be discarded, but time inspecting them with a small magnifying lens will help you identify – and reject – any hooks with bent points, incomplete eyes or other imperfections that could let you down at a crucial moment.
Stocking up with good bait is also sensible so that you can go fishing at the drop of a hat when conditions are right. A small, second-hand freezer is ideal for storing perishable bait if you have space; shelf-life baits, groundbait, seeds, nuts and the like are best held in one or more metal dustbins, each fitted with a metal lid. From bitter experience, this is the only foolproof method I have found to prevent rodents from spoiling or destroying your bait. |
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7/3/2012
Nature is on the move right now. The daffodils are above thawed-out ground and – miraculously - are beginning to flower; raucous rooks have already carried out late winter repairs to their nests and are occupying them; and many water bodies are or will shortly be populated by the annual influx of huge numbers of amphibian immigrants.
Times are a-changing beneath the water surface, too. Fish which spent months of torpidity in the icy waters are ‘on the prod’, invigorated by the warming temperatures that causes their body processes to speed up and hunger pangs to develop. For some fish – perch, pike and dace, for example - the rigours of spawning are just weeks away, whereas carp and tench will have plenty of time to pile on weight before their time for reproduction comes around.
Choosing where to fish is important – an hour in the right spot fishing at the best depth will produce far more fish that a day fishing any-old-how in a no-hoper peg. After a few warm days, the surface layers will become warmed and fish will respond accordingly, moving into the upper layers. Couple that with a prevailing, usually warm south-westerly wind and it’s a fair bet that fish will congregate along the windward shore where a wedge of warm water will have developed. (Try tilting a container of oil and vinegar to one side to see the effect). The wind and wave action will dislodge and expose natural food.
As long as they are growing in a reasonable depth, the edges of reed beds are also sure-fire fish-holding areas, and fish moving between the stems will often give away their location as the reed stems shake and twitch.
If we experience a sudden warm spell, the hunger of fish will overtake the speed at which their natural food can develop, and in these conditions bumper catches are on the cards. Fish the obvious features but try different areas until you establish just how fish are responding. Don’t ignore the marginal shoals of tadpoles – fish love ‘em and will be nearby!
Now is not the time to apply the heavy baiting techniques that can prove so effective in late spring and early summer. An initial baiting plan, with small top-up introductions, is a better tactic. The intention should be to draw fish into your swim so that they encounter the cherry on the cake… your bait! |
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6/2/2012
The use of high-quality groundbaits to attract fish into your swim and stimulate their feeding urges is a successful tactic on many, well-stocked stillwaters. With plenty of competition for food, fish will investigate anything that suggests a square meal might be in the offing.
On many non-commercial venues, however, where natural food items may be quite abundant, it is often necessary to introduce some actual food as well to keep fish in the area. Most anglers merely use free samples of the hookbait, a perfectly logical choice, although there are some well-known, classic combinations of baits – mixed coloured maggots or hemp and sweetcorn, for example.
Most coarse fish have catholic diets and will, naturally, eat a wide range of food items. There is huge scope to exploit this, and the mixed buffet approach offers several advantages. Baits in a variety of colour ensures that some will be immediately noticeable whereas fish will have to work harder to pick out others; baits with a range of flavours and tastes will provide fish with more choices; an array of bait shapes will reduce the chances that the free offerings will all sink into weed or silt; and the different weights of the foods in the buffet will mean that fish will have to vary their rate of suction when picking them up. The additional weight of the hook and the resistance caused by the hook length will therefore be less noticeable than would be the case if the freebies and hookbait were the same.
There is huge scope for experimentation here, the only limits being your imagination and your confidence to try something novel. Simple starter options include: pellets of mixed sizes and types; home-made or proprietary particle mixes, such as pigeon conditioning food (‘Partiblend’) or similar; and a mixture of different sized, coloured and flavoured boilies. Don’t forget, too, that there is no reason why you shouldn’t include a mix of textures – hard, soft, rubbery and crunchy.
Most of these mixed buffet free baits can be enhanced with natural food additives. A splash of any of the Marukyu Special Formula Additives (SFAs) and/or a dusting with krill or Sanagi powder will increase their potency and pulling power. |
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9.1.2012
The next month or so usually coincides with the coldest period of the year, and fishing can be more a test of endurance than skill. But unless you’re fishing in matches or have just one, pre-determined day at your disposal each week, watching the weather can bring big dividends.
Periods of low pressure in winter tend to be associated with warmer air temperatures. It may be windy or wet (or both), but the temperature rises can trigger torpid fish to at least snack for a while. They may not move far from the places where they feel comfortable, and on stillwaters deeper areas, banks that face the wind, inflows and areas of cover are all likely holding areas.
It pays to move - several times perhaps - if bites are not forthcoming. You are aiming to drop onto fish because they are unlikely to be swimming far in search of food. The usual advice is valid – keep baits small and visible, with a minimum of loose feed. Winter groundbaits that attract but don’t feed fish are a great help.
Any visual indication of fish present should noted. Roach, for example, will sometimes ‘head-and-shoulder’ gently at the surface, and feeding pike will often produce swirls. You should make a point of presenting a bait when and where such tell-tale signs occur.
In high pressure conditions – typified by sunny days and cold (or freezing) after-dark temperatures - the warmth of the sun may also stimulate fish to rise in the water. Look for areas that are open to the sun, not those shrouded in shadow. The water in many stillwaters will be very clear in winter now that any suspended algae has died, and finer lines, smaller hooks and more subtle rigs are the order of the day.
It follows that suspended or popped-up baits stand a good chance of being taken if they are directly in front of fish. Aside from pop-up boilies, most baits can be made to rise in the water by adding bits of cork or foam. The amount to use should be determined by testing the baited rig in the lake margins (or in a bucket of water). Brightly-coloured and flavoured baits also stand out and help fish home in on your hookbait.
Fishing partially iced-over lakes can be particularly slow and non-productive… with one notable exception – pike. The day a lake begins to ice over and, especially, the day a prolonged period of ice melts can provide incredible pike fishing … as long as you’re in the right spot! |
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