My love affair with tench probably began nearly forty years ago when I witnessed the capture of a four-pounder from Arksey Railway Pond. I’d never actually seen one in the flesh, nor had I ever been close to a fish of such immense proportions. It was huge!
Looking back, that one fish planted a seed in me that still flourishes today. It inspired me above all else to stop just reading the writings of Walker, Stone and Taylor and to actually do something with the knowledge they’d given me. I began to specialise and I had a goal. I too wanted to catch a four-pound tench.
That wasn’t as easy as you might think, living in South Yorkshire. Tench themselves weren’t exactly thick on the ground and the waters I could reach by bike or public transport were unusual in that they contained mostly tiny tincas. Walker wrote that to catch a tench under two pounds was quite rare and he would regale us with tales of his punting adventures at Wooton and Woodstock and the huge bags of four-pounders they took, yet he never did managed to catch a single six-pound tench in his entire life. By contrast the two best tench waters available to me contained shoals of fish in the two to twelve ounce bracket but a two-pounder was deemed a cracker.
That all changed when a club bailiff we kids knew only as ‘Sliding Fred’ set about thinning the dense lily beds in an almost un-fishable pond near Toll Bar. Fred’s endeavours revealed tench of a size we could only previously dream. The four-pound goal was soon reached and the five-pound barrier beckoned. Other club members dismissed my size eight hooks, five-pound line and split cane Avon rod as crude and unsporting. The difference was I landed the fish I hooked, they didn’t, and a lesson was learned that stands me in good stead today. You must always use tackle to match the circumstances.
Bags of three and 4 fish before breakfast became my norm. Occasionally I would land six and on one momentous occasion I took a thirteen yet I couldn’t beat the five-pound barrier, 4lb 14oz being my biggest and what’s more, I’m embarrassed to admit that a five-pounder would elude me for several decades.
How different it is today. Providing I’m prepared to travel I can more or less catch a ’seven’ to order. It’s down to habitat, you see. The clay ponds and estate lakes of my youth seldom produce fish much over five pounds whereas fish of this size are
Horseshoe remains one of my favourite tench waters, mainly because the regulars do everything they can to avoid them, consequently the fish don’t get too pressured and the only bait they are really shy of is boilies. I’ve had sessions where the only way to get a rest was to stop using corn, worms or maggots and put a boilie on the hook.
Early season tench patrol along the margins and can sometimes be found just a few feet out. One of my favourite ways to catch them is to spread a light path of bait diagonally down the margin slope just off to one side of my swim. It’s a bit too close for conventional legering in my book and float fishing invites line bites. Instead I sit right back with the rod tips barely protruding over the margin and freeline, To ensure I reduce line bites but still register takes I do away with a leger weight and incorporate a few inches of Kryston’s Score Gold leadcore between my main line and hook link instead. This nails everything down and you simply watch the line below the rod tip for bites. Of course you can only do this in calm conditions but we are fishing in the best time of year weather-wise.
It’s pretty exciting stuff and sometimes you will actually see a tench take your bait. That surely has to be the most exciting kind of tench fishing on the planet.
1. Feed a mixture of trout pellets, corn, casters, dead maggots and hemp but do not overfeed
2. Ring the changes with hook baits. Combination baits like a grain of corn and to red maggots work really well
3. Sit well back, stay off the skyline and make as little noise as possible
4. Set the rods on sensitive bite alarms just in case your attention wanders
5. Check your clutch is set. A big fish hooked on a short line is a recipe for disaster
Six Big Tench Venues To Try
1. Dorchester Lagoon
2. Johnsons Pit
3. Wraysbury
4. Horseshoe Lake
5. Linear Fisheries
6. Sywell Reservoir
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does anyone know of any tench waters in the north yorkshire area where you are likely to catch tench to over 4lb,my biggest tench was 4lb.8 and would love to catch one bigger but dont know any waters where theres a good chance of catching one. cheers
if u want tench then u need to go to middleton park pond in leeds, its full of tench ranging from 4lb to 10lb no 1s much about this pond but beleive me, ive fished this pond for many years n had no trouble of catching big tench. bread, meat, corn and maggots work well here. its free all u need is ur lisence
hi charley, do u no of any other decent fisheries in leeds , im from bramley and travel on the old push iron so sumwere local with plenty of fish would be a godsend
I fancy a weeks fishing from 23rd March was thinking about whiteacres does anyone know how it’s fishing at the minute??!!
Its the Baittech Festival that week- See you down there!
hi tmc. there is a water called red house lagoon that is part of york amalgamation. its big lagoon that supplies drinking water for west yorkshire. its in moor monkton neer poppleton. i havent personally fished it for tench but it ive heard its quite good. there have been tench caught up to 7 1/2 pound and as far as i know there is quite a good head of fish in there.
if youknow the pond at stillingfleet on the naburn road its great at the moment . you can average tench from 5lb to 9lb most people go for the carp but i prefer the tench pound for pound i find tench fight harder.good luck if you go there.
hi barney ive just recently moved to upper wortley and on the look out for local haunts myself ive heard leeds/liverpool canal at Armley holds some decent tench to 6lb+ another stillwater abit futher afield is dickies pond/spring end farm on geldard rd opposite the jewish cemetary tench to 7lb + hope this helps
no i dont but i know i pond in penrith cumbria where u r likely to catch a big tench my rod got pulled in my a 6 pound tench and there are big carp in there to
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