20 tench in 12hours to 8lbs 4oz

So last week was a bit of a camping holiday on a South Cerney lake. My mate Graham had been there the previous 24hrs and all he had to show was a possible lost carp at 9.15pm.

So I arrived and fished close in a swim that would cover a large area with an upward slope of gravel just to the left of me. Well as I said it was a nice camping holiday with not a single bleep from the alarms. It was much the same news from around the lake. They have certainly not started to feed in earnest yet. I’m not too surprised as it’s not been very warm.

This week I was supposed to be guiding Jim tench fishing. I had guided Jim before on the Dorset Stour and he did rather well with a 12lb plus barbel.

So I need to make a decision on what venue to take him. I wasn’t sure about the South Cerney lake so decided to take him to the Carp Societies Horseshoe lake. His pb was a 6lbs 1oz tench and his brother held the family record of 6lbs 5oz I think.

I arrived on the Monday to try and understand where the tench were. Eventually after setting up camp 3 times  I was settled in the same swim where I had guided Tom and Paul a couple of weeks ago. The weather was different reasonably warm with a nice westerly blowing. So 1pm saw me cast out to the same area’s. There still some silk weed around however bait presentation was still OK.

I was still casting out every hour with a swim feeder and plastic maggots tipped with live ones.

Time passed by quickly as it normally does when you have a process to follow. Well by 7am the next morning nothing had come along. It doesn’t normally worry me as sometimes it takes a while for the swim to get going.

Jim joined me at 9am and soon after we were casting out having shown him the necessary system of marking the lines and clipping up. We followed the process hour in and out and apart from one take I had on casters the day went by without a bite. Dan came along to say hello and we chatted for a while. I showed Dan around the lake pointing out some of the better swims that produce tench. That’s laughable coming from someone blanking at the moment.

Now Jim kept saying that he understands about not always catching fish and that’s fishing etc. but I seldom fail. After a very enjoyable pie and chips supper we changed our rigs for carp fishing during the night. By 10pm we were cast out and ready for bed. I lay there wondering what the next day would bring. I was confident on rigs and bait, and so my thoughts turned to wondering whether the tench were in the swim. I thought about this for a while and made my mind up to be up at 4am and walk the lake looking for rolling tench.

Other than a couple of bleeps from a line bite or so nothing happened during the hours of darkness. 4am came it was only just getting light in the eastern skies. There was though a very large moon illuminating the lakes surface.

I was the only person up and around looking for fish. As I wandered around I saw two tench roll in one particular swim. I continued to watch and wait at other swims around the lake. Then at 5am a car turned up and the guy got out and started to take his gear to the swim I had seen the tench rolling. Gurrrrr!

As I wandered up passed him I asked if he was carp fishing he said yes and I explained I was tench fishing. He then said he had just seen two tench roll near the swim, gurrrrr!

So I wished him well (the best I could) and started the walk back to our current swim. Then after going about 50yds I remembered a swim close to the chap that might have the tench swimming through. So I went back and there it was empty and looking good. A quick chat again to him saying that me and Jim would move down and fish there.

Back in the original swim I grabbed the marker rod and headed back. A quick feel around found no appreciable weed and little silk weed and 3 ft deep. So I choose a couple of marks (trees) on the far bank and found two places at 34yds that offered opportunities to cast to.

So being a little pleased that another tench rolled close by I walked at a tidy pace back and woke Jim from his dreams. Morning Jim we are moving! Not the sort of thing you want to be woken up to, but we needed to. At 6.30am and after 30 mins of Jim waking my rods were cast out on one of the spots. I left Jim looking after them while I broke camp, that’s two bivvies and all the gear that goes with it. By 7.15am I had everything in the car packed away. The bivvies were soaking in dew and needed drying later in the day.

Getting back to Jim saw the sun rising straight in his face making it quite difficult to see the marker to aim at. It was going to be an almost cloudless sky and warm so I put up the smallest bivvi to offer some shade during the day.

Jim sorted his rods out from the previous nights carp rigs to the inline feeder with plastic and real maggots on the hook.

I fished the left part of the swim and Jim the right. It really looked to be good. The chap opposite us landed a couple of tench so at least they were moving around.

By 8.45am I had the camp set again. Time for porridge and coffee. On went the kettle and two pots of instant porridge were steaming away when Jims rod sprang into life with line peeling off the reel.

He lifted into the fish and the rod took a positive bend with a good fighting tench on the other end. Jim slackened off his clutch and played the fish really well. The lake is crystal clear and it’s very exciting watching the tench fight in this. It clearly was a very nice tench and Jim soon played it to the net. When I lifted it out onto the unhooking mat it looked a 7 and possibly a 8lber.

Now it’s here where Jim learnt another trick of mine.  Unhook the tench and return it to the net to recover then re-clip and cast out again. You are increasing fishing time but also should there be a shoal of tench then you are ready for another.

So he followed this process and was fishing again while we weighed the fish and took some photo’s. The tench weighed 7lbs 14oz and a new pb for him.

Jim was very pleased to say the least. I was on cloud nine as the move proved a great one.

We had our porridge which was a luke warm but who cares.

Then 30 mins later Jims rod was away again this time with a male tench of 5lbs 2oz.

Then between 10am and noon Jim caught 5 more tench 6.1,5.14,5.12,5.0,6.6 so some great fishing for Jim.

Jake a chap I have guided before was fishing opposite and came over for a chat. He was carp fishing and had caught a beauty of 27lbs so was very happy.

We got Jake to help land one of the tench during this time.

I think he was quite pleased as the phone calls to his Dad and his brother kept them up to date with his day.

At about 12.30 I went off to get some sandwiches for us and when I had got back he had two fish on at the same time and both were in the landing net!

By 1.30pm Jim had caught 11 tench and he kindly allowed me to land a couple of fish as I don’t normally fish when guiding.

My first fish was a male of 5lbs 1oz.

We had caught nothing under 5lbs, however we reweighed the sling and found it to be 4oz out on the generous side. What had happened was that there had been a huge build up of slime in the mesh so the weight of the recent fish might have been in doubt. But never the less still very good sport. This has been a good learning part for me.

My turn next again turned out to be an impressive male again of 7lbs 1oz.

Miles came down to see us on hearing of the great sport we were having. He told me of Dave a Geordie who makes the long drive down each year to fish Horeshoe for a week. He thought he was struggling and had caught nothing. He had blanked for two years doing this. As we were only fishing until 9pm I asked Miles if it was possible to get Dave to come down to the swim and settle in when we left. He said fine, so Chris the bailiff went up and got him to start to pack ready for his 4^th move. Now this coincided with the same number of times I had moved.

At about 3pm one of Jims rod was away and he lifted into a good tench. This was some fight and at one stage he thought he had lost it as it powered it’s way back towards him. Soon though he had it in the landing net. It looked a belter.

Sure enough it was 8lbs 2oz

Jim then had another of 6lbs 6oz so life was very hectic. We had to laugh because I had lit the coleman cooker 3 times to make a cup of tea. Being interrupted each time by a tench being hooked.

Things did quieten down for a while as between 3pm and 7.30 only 3 tench were caught. However they were of good weights. 7lbs 4oz 6lbs 5oz and a 5lbs 4oz. Jim had planned to leave at 8pm as he had a long drive home. The result was 14 tench to him with 4 to me.

I think it’s about the best tench guiding session for tench I’ve had. A big thanks to Jim for the experience. So that’s two pb’s for Jim that we have shared, barbel and tench, I wonder what next?

Dave the Geordie was great company and saw us land a few of the tench as he was setting up camp.

There is still more to come though. As we waved Jim off on his journey, I started to pack away my bites and pieces quite exhausted from the days action.

Dave is a barbel man through and through and he uses this break to fill his time when not barbel fishing. I showed him the markers on the far bank and how to mark the line and clip up. He was soon up and fishing.

8.30pm saw him get a take and he lifted into a good tench. The rigs were similar to ours.

I helped him land a beautiful tench that looked a good size. He weighed it on his scales etc as mine had been packed away. 8lbs 4oz of a jolly green giant lay on the mat.

Dave was just a little pleased. Out came the camera and click a few photo’ were taken.

Then just as I was really leaving he had another of 6lbs 15oz.

I was really happy for Dave I was hoping that he would continue to catch these beautiful fish.

I phone Miles the next day on hearing that Dave was blanking from another angler I contacted.  At 2pm Miles had said Dave has caught 20 tench however none larger than the 8lbs 4oz. To say I was a pleased would not have captured my thoughts. I could have done a jig on the spot but being in a shopping centre would have probably got me arrested.

How can you leave a place like this when the tench are feeding?