Tenching session.................................continued! As you may have seen in this weeks Angling Times, Andy Lewis & myself had a bit of a special day down the Linear Fishery complex nr Witney a couple of weeks back. Despite both blanking exactly a week earlier everything aligned and although it wasnt one of those mercurial hits that my tench hero Dai Gribble seems to enjoy it was pretty amazing. Sometimes things do conspire with you and my original plan to meet Andy on the Monday night was thwarted due to my chemotherapy the Thursday before playing me up. Normally Im back on track after a couple of days after the jollop but this session and the recent ones have been knocking me about quite a bit. It could be worse and for many in my situation it is so no complaints just a necessary inconvenience I suppose all things considered. Anyway Andy chose another gravel pit where there was a big haul of tench the week before, but as generally happens they had shut up shop. I followed a big hit last year and after four fruitless tench days I had to settle for pike & perch which in anyones angling book means theres nothing much else happening. So to plan B which was my plan A in reality, Andy pretty much knows which lake I prefer to fish on so we met up at the car park around 08.00 a.m. as expected it was quite busy. Conditions looked favourable and we opted to choose a double swim, this reduces ones chances of capitalising on a shoal of tench but its a great social aspect and as always wed got to put the world and its dad to rights over the next 36 hrs. The first day is always a settling in period, Andy opted for a heavy pre bait with the spom, whilst I went for a more softly softly approach although both of our terminal tackle was very similar. Reversed heli- rigs with chopped worms through a block end feeder were order of the day, I fished just short of 25 yards but Andy had to really work hard to find a clear spot as the previous session here proved tricky weed wise. His hard efforts paid off and he found a nice spot a little further out than my line which I just put bait through the feeder and spomd a few casters out on the left hand rod. As a banker/backstop and to ensure Andy didnt run away if they wanted a heavy bed of feed I thought Id found a clear spot at 40 yards which turned out to be weedier than hoped and fired 10 balls of ground bait out laced with casters and chopped worms with a few flaccid but not dead red maggots. I like the fact that hardly anyone uses a catapult to fire ground bait out on these lakes and as much a spom fan as I am when required, the different sounds that balls of ground bait make is another and unique dinner bell. For the next 12 hours nothing happened much for either of us, I had a few indications on my swing tips, missed a bite which may have been a fish trailing a rig. We kept active with the feeders (I tried to recast every twenty minutes or so for the first few hours) and Andy whacked out a few more spams of his favoured particles, so I topped up the left hand rod caster line, another just in case match angling move I guess. Andy drew first blood with a scraper double carp just as we decided it was lights out, after the week befores blank it mutually agreed to put plastic baits on and leave the rods out all night. Something I rarely do when I fish for tench as I like to try and get a good nights sleep and then be up and at the tench crack of dawn which was 4am ish. Luckily, aside from a few line beeps & squeaks on the receiver the night passed without any runs, not uncommon on this venue which is another reason why I usually wind the rods in at dark. First light, well what little there was even at 5pm, was strangled by a heavy mist which turned into something like the Steve King film The Fog. Spooky but in a cool way and meant that the forecast of bright blues skies wasnt going to figure until late into the morning, perfect for catching tincas and anything with fins. I lost a small mirror at the net both Andys earlier carp and both fish would have been great had they been tench or bream but one tends to get a little blasé as carp are so commonplace these days. To suggest they are a nuisance fish seems a little irreverent as I recall having my PB in the 70s as a stonking 8lb 10oz, but typically if you are fishing for one species another one pops along to confound you. Also carp this size tend to tear about and when other fish around are on the fickle side it doesnt help matters, plus they are capable of wiping out a gentle pre bait or even a big big if theres a herd of them. 06.00 a.m. and thoughts of water pigs was forgotten as my right hand rod swing tip arched upwards and the receiver set to vibration and nestling on the back of my cap started to rattle my teeth. I knew it was my first tench of the year early into the scrap, as it nodded its protestations at being hooked, a modest fish for the place but at 6lb plus it was a the start of one of the best gravel pit sessions Andy & myself have had together. By 14.00 hrs it was pretty much all over with half a dozen carp and over a dozen tench between us it was brilliant non stop action big gravel pit wise. Andy had a new PB male of 8lb 5oz and a lady one an ounce less, I managed my second biggest tench ever with a female of 9lb 9oz. Both Andy and I had landed tench at the same time, the 8lb 4oz female, his fish, for a variety of odd anomalies, best left to the camera lens, position of the fish and backdrop references seemed to dwarf mine. Typically though, being 2 dimensional, pics of fish never show the depth, and depth of field is deceptive at the best of times. Ill put it on a subsequent post for clarity and record. The brace shot featured here is yours truly with an 8lb tinca and Andy with a well spawned out mirror than went almost 23lb but was probably nearer 27lb some days earlier. To finish off a great morning something out of the ordinary happened, I was playing a carp on the right rod and just about land it when the left had rod fired off. The carp looking back at me from the bottom of the mesh was a big double that actually went 20lb level on the scales, however that was determined a little while after as once in the net I was already playing the other fish. Obviously a pretty decent carp or a world record angry tench that had me all over the place, having just battled for 10 minutes on the other fish I was a little weary, energy level wise Im pretty flat climbing set of stairs at the moment. It decided to weed me up to the right in Andys swim and I couldnt get a good angle on it to winch it out, Andy came to the rescue rolling up his combats and took charge of the rod and walked it around the bush separating our swims. Once I was in his swim I was handed the rod back and after another exciting few moments Andy netted the 27lb 6oz to join his sulking mate. Without my mates quick thinking and amphibious approach it would have been a real struggle, I certainly could have done that with, my feet neuropathy would have crippled me. Ive caught a few twenty pound carp over the last two decades but never two almost at the same time using the swing tip, I never fish light (10lb Tribal mono minimum) due to weed & rogue leviathans so theres always plenty of chance of getting a kipper out if one takes ones time. Two years ago I had three 30lb carp using heavy tench gear on the Linear complex, so every now and then its nice getting a few nuisance carp or two when targeting tench or bream. But then some of the carp lads have to put up with a double figure doctor fish or slab when targeting their beloved species so maybe we need to start thinking more about what we dont want to catch in the future and you never know our next PB might be something we really desire and secretly wanted to catch in the first place. Thanks to Roy, Chris and all the crew at Linear and special praise to my wingman Andy for helping me out and ensuring we ended up in the right spot at the right time. Ive always believed in fate, omens etc and this session confirmed what I already know: angling is sometimes bizzarely out of our hands in a good way. Good Luck & Great Angling! Jan Porter
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:23:47 +0000
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