Tough Times

Hello again, I hope you are all doing well and have been lucky enough to have some fish on the bank. I’ve managed a few, but haven’t been out much lately due to work and the savage weather. When I have made it out, the fishing has been hard, causing me to have a few blanks. My last few sessions on the river before closed season started saw me land a few decent fish, especially considering the harsh conditions were not in my favour.

15lb 15oz

8lb 1oz

Since the river has been closed I haven’t been fishing much at all; I have had a few trips to a small commercial lake in search of a big Perch, but to no avail. The only fish that I had managed to land were not much over the 1lb mark, but I did enjoy a bit of sport, catching silvers and small Carp on maggots and worms.

As it’s spring and the weather is kind of getting warmer, my attention has moved on to targeting Tench on my local canal, which I really enjoy at this time of year. The baits I generally use are red maggots, hemp or particles, ground bait and a liquid attractant, with three or four maggots on a size 16 hook.

Normally I would use a cage feeder, but recently I’ve been adding fast break down bloodworm pellets to the hemp and maggots. I then use PVA mesh to ensure the hook bait is fished tight to the free offerings. When I attach the PVA stick, I put a squirt of liquid attractant on the hook bait, to ensure that it is taken first, or soon after. As the bait sits on the bottom, the attractant leaks up through the water layers, hopefully attracting any fish in the area to it.

On my last outing to the canal it was a cold day with a strong north easterly wind, which typically isn’t good for a bite. Nonetheless, I was going to give it a good go. You can never tell if the fish are going to feed, so I didn’t let the poor conditions get me down.

After the struggle of setting up in the 15mph winds, it was a slow day, as you would expect. There was no indication of any fish throughout most of the day, but I was out and I knew a bite could come at any time. Then would you have guessed it, my quiver tip sprung to life. A couple of sharp knocks, and I had a fish on! As I played the fish, it became clear that it was a Tench, due to the way it was fighting. When it came close enough to see, I was relieved that it was indeed, a Tench.

After taking some pictures the Tench was safely returned to fight another day. The fish wasn’t weighed, but I would give it about 2 ½ lbs. I was really happy to have landed anything in the poor conditions, so this Tench was very welcomed, and made my day!

Until next time.