I’ve just had my first and second serious tench fishing sessions of the year, the first didn’t really come off as well as I had hoped. I went to the deep gravel pit near the motorway that produced a huge tench last summer. I chose to fish a swim in the bay that usually produces a few medium sized tench and wanted to try out the new blood worm pellets I had bought at the go fishing show. I set up two 1 1/4lb tc. sportex rods one with an open ended maggot feeder and one with a semi fixed bolt rig and a 12mm. blood worm pellet. Using a marker/plumbing rod I searched for the end of a gravel bar off to my left and then used a spod to put a carpet of hemp and 3mm. blood worm pellets on it.
The maggot feeder rod was fished on the right hand end of the bar. The feeder was filled with hemp, small marine pellets and dead maggots. I never throw away maggots at the end of a session, they always go into a zip sealing plastic bag, often with a drop of flavour and into the freezer. Dead maggots don’t crawl away (a good title for a crime novel!) when they come out of the feeder. I also use them on the hook.
The bream were moving and giving line bites but the tench were not “having it at all”. One hittable bite resulted in a two pound eel. I think the water had not warmed enough, a thought shared by the bailiff when he came round. However time spent with a marker/plumbing rod is never wasted.
On Wednesday 4th May the Molesey Anglers Curry Club had decided to have an outing and after some discussion it was decided to try a new water, just south of Guildford, that no-one had fished before. This water is owned by Godalming Angling Society and is called Marsh Farm. Bob “the navigator” was doing the research and informed me that the lake was full of tench and crucian carp but had only been dug two years ago.
Normally the thought of a fishery as new as that would have resulted in the ficticious funeral of another close relative but I was still doing my penance for the “Itchen incident” so I decided to go along with the majority. The trouble with democracy is that it gives an equal vote to some one who is so foolish as to disagree with me.
I decided to do some research of my own and the advantage of being in the coaching business is that you make lots of contacts. As a result I went to a tackle shop called Apollo Angling near Addlestone in Surrey that is frequented by Godalming Angling Society members and the general opinion was that the water is understocked and unless you are on the fish it is easy to blank. It should be noted that this opinion was from match anglers used to overstocked commercial fisheries.
I thought the idea of blanking in front of the serried ranks of the Curry Club would undermine my credibility as a coach, so I did some more research and found a Society member who fished it regularly. He was a mine of information and drew me a map of which Captain Cook would have been proud showing four or five of the best swims. At seven fifteen in the morning I was waiting for the other club members outside of the Little Chef on the A3 with the map folded securely in my wallet.
We arrived at the fishery in a convoy and all took a walk round the three lakes of the complex together. I seperated myself from the group in a deliberately obvious way and took the map from my wallet. When I saw one of the group was looking in my direction I turned my back on the group, opened the map and held it close to my chest. As I studied it I looked guiltily over my shoulder and back to the map a couple of times, this did the trick and I was soon mobbed by inquisitive anglers. “What’s that you’ve got?” “Nothing” I said and quickly folded the map and clenched it tight in my fist. “Let’s have a look”, “It’s a map”, “Get it off him” came the cries.
I said ” It’s private, nothing to do with you, just a little inside information us coaches are privvy too”. As I had hoped this nearly caused the desired riot and I was threatened with a ducking unless I divulged my secret.
As I had originaly intended I was able to put everyone into a swim with a good chance of fish. The information was first rate and everyone caught fish mostly crucian carp which lived up to their reputation for being shy biters. The wind increased during the day and it became quiet cold which led to most of the lads leaving early.
Bob caught a six and a half pound tench and half a dozen crucians and was more than pleased with his day, as were the others.
I had ten or twelve crucian carp, a five and a half pound tench and this huge rudd that weighed two pounds four ounces. I think we all would have caught more crucians had it not been for the strong wind that made bite indication so difficult. For a first visit to a fishery I was very impressed and the landscaping which was paid for with lottery money is a credit to the club. A much more pleasant experience than I expected and the next time, if the wind allows I will try the long rod and pole float approach.
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