First Tench Of The Spring

[dezza68]

Thats a clonker, used to love catching them, bit of float fished corn beside the lilly pads. Never even thought of trying for them here. I haven't fished freshwater much as dont want to have to kill the carp. Especially when I think how much time and money I spent chasing them in the uk.

[Whiskers]

that's a great tench, one of the bigger ones i've seen reported. are they similar to carp in their feeding habit or do you target them differently?

Hi Basti, Unlike carp tench feed differently. Although they are a bottom feeder, rather than grub about deep in the mud like carp, tench like to blow into the fine silt layer to dislodge small benthic creaturesinto the water. This behaviour is what creates the concentrated areas of fine surface bubbles that you often see when tench are feeding. The result is what is commonly called fizzing. It describes it very well.

Tench predominately feed on small food items. Their mouths are much smaller than those of a carp, so therefore smaller baits are the go and also smaller hooks than you would use for carp. A size 12 is the largest I would use, more often than not, a size 14 or 16 will be fine.

There are a wide choice of baits. Worms, maggots, meal worms, corn, bread flake or cheese paste all work well.

As with anything there are any number of methods to catch them. Google tench fishing methods for an overview. My personal favourite method is to fish a waggler float,shotted up to use the lift method. There's nothing more exciting than to see your float rising up out of the water before sliding away into the depths.

Unless you're fishing very snaggy water you don't need any more than 6lb line.

Berley is effective providing you don't use too much of it. I like to use it just to introduce some loose feed into the swim. I like to use fine seed propagating mix as my basis for the berley. Just add a small amount of hook baits to the mix and a bit of bran. This will form an attractive cloud, introduce bait particles to where you want them and not overfeed the fish, which is what will happen if you use a bread based berley.

The venue where this fish was caught is a small surburban pond, close enough to houses to nip over the footpath and grab a snag off someones bbq.
:water:

[Basti]

Thanks for that detailed response. Much appreciated

[Tinca]

Hi Whiskers,
I have read your posts with great interest which has prompted me to sign up to the forum. The tench caught in your pic is in beautiful condition . I'm also a keen tench angler and I do most of my fishing in South West Victoria. I have yet to get out fishing this spring but hope to get a chance to get amongst some tench soon. In recent years i have been trying to catch a big one but have been unable to get past the 6lb mark.
If you dont mind me asking, have you ever come across any really big tench in Australia?

[Tinca]

PS, here's a pic of one of the better ones that I've caught.

[deathray]

Nice one mate!
Interestingly there was an ill fated TV show featuring an animated host named David Tench in 2006.

[meppstas]

That certainly is one big fat Momma of a fish... :fish22: well done.. :thumbsup:

cheers
Adrian

[Whiskers]

G'Day Tinca, Good to see I'm not the only tench nut!

That's a cracker of a fish you have. Tench over 6lbs are very uncommon and few and far between. I find that most tench in my area are in the 2 to 3lb range with an occasional bigger one here and there.

The best I've managed in Oz was just over 8lb, caught many years ago in the Wimmera River, just near Jeparit.

Best of luck with your tenching.
:water:

[Lightningx]

PS, here's a pic of one of the better ones that I've caught.

That's a beauty. Nice fish :thumbsup:

[DMAN AUS]

Paid an visit to one of my favourite tench spots this morning.

As always, tench fishing over winter shuts down but now, with a bit of warmer weather, today seemed like a good day to see if any tench were out and about.

It was a slow start but eventually a few feeding bubbles showed next to the weed beds.

Not long afterwards the first tench of the season was in the net.

She was a big fat mamma, just a bit shy of 50cm and almost as round. Getting on to almost 5lbs.
:water:

Great post, great fish.. I haven't caught tench for 20 years , since some ponds back in the UK..
Cheers