Bradley’s lake Tench fishers fish in! July 6-8th

I had almost given up on the tench fishing for the year. Everything seemed to be conspiring against me in catching some good fish.

Dave Rogerson our Regional Organiser had booked the north shore on Bradley’s for us Tench Fishers. Last year we arrived to find the tench spawning and not at all interested in feeding. It was blistering hot and with little shelter from the sun it was not the best of fish-ins. Although the social side of the fishing was good fun. I remember a certain John catching crayfish after crayfish on the float as we ate cheese and red wine well into the early hours.

This year it was very different. Arriving at 6am on the Friday I could see the tench at it spawning again….oh dear I thought. However it had been warm the previous day and this must have encouraged them. The forecast was for a storm of rain to head up the eastern side of the UK so I though things would be OK for us.

Goes to show how wrong things can be!

The rain started at noon and steadily got worst. This though didn’t stop the tench from feeding. My rig was the normal one of fake red maggots on a hair and one fixed on the hook as an inliner.

6lbs 3oz

So no blanking from me. Steve who was fishing next to me came around to see what was going on. I kept the fish in the net as I recast. Now Steve has fishing the lake on the fishin’s and has blanked each time. Soon I was asking him to come and photo the fish for me. And just as he arrived I had another take and a 6lb 11oz tench came along to join the other in the net. A very nice brace.

Then at 3pm I had another big tench of 7lbs 3oz.

7lbs 3oz

So a very good start for me and it looked like the feed of dead maggots, hemp and sweetcorn put out as ground bait was working.

Steve soon unfortunately lost a tench but in no time at all “broke his duck” with a beautiful 6lb tench.

4.30pm I had another of 5lbs 10oz. And at 4.40 I missed a really good take!

By now it was really raining hard and had been all through the afternoon. I could see plenty of other Tench Fishers catching so it was going to be a good result.

Then at 5.45pm Dave and Steve either side of me hooked up. While I was doing the honours landing the fish, my rod roared off and I caught the smallest of the session, 5lbs 2oz.

Dave’s Fish was 6lbs 13oz and Steve’s was 6lbs 6oz. So all 3 of us being battered by the rain we retired to our shelters.

This must be one of the most unsociable social events that I’ve known. It was just impossible to leave the bivvies for a chat.

Then at 6.30pm  I had another of 6lbs 12oz followed by another at 7.30pm of 6lbs 7oz.

This was nut’s compared to last year.

The final fish for me was caught at 8pm and was 7lbs 2oz.

7lbs 2oz

 That was very much it for the night. The Cray fish can be a real pain at night so I reeled in. Steve fair-ed better and caught a 16lb carp at about 2am in the morning on plastic maggots.

The next day dawned and I was casting out at 4.45am hoping for a repeat performance…….nothing, not a bleep for the entire day and night.

We had a great afternoon BBQ and a few beers and all retired back to continue fishing. I could see plenty of anglers landing tench but on our bank all was quite. Soon though both Dave and Steve had a fish each. Steve’s was 5lbs 10oz and Dave had a lovely tench of 7lbs 13oz.

Dave and his 7lbs 13oz tench a

Congratulations all round on these fish.

The rain was pouring.

I left the rods out during the night thinking that I might just fool a carp into taking the plastic pop up corn. The result Blank!

The next morning didn’t fair any better nobody was catching anything before noon and then they came on the feed again but once more not on our bank.

The session was great the biggest fish being 9lbs 4oz and caught by Colin Mcmahon and a pb as well.

Colins tench 9lbs 4oz

I’ll let you know how many tench were caught.

Mine were, 6lbs 3oz, 6lbs 11oz, 7lbs 3oz, 5lbs 10oz, 5lbs 2oz, 6lbs 12oz, 6lbs 7oz and  7lbs 2oz.