I was so pleased with my first day’s tench fishing this spring that I was desperate to get back onto the water, without the gale force winds, so that I could use one of my centrepins to catch these hard fighting fish. I called the manager, only to be told that the owner’s family would be using it on the Saturday. He called me back a few minutes later to say that if I didn’t mind doing a bit of coaching I could join them for the day. No problem, I love sharing our sport with others.
I arrived at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and had three hours fishing before the family arrived. The first fish I hooked was a beautiful common carp weighing nearly thirteen pounds. I was so glad I was using a centrepin as this fish knew where all the snags were and tried for each one in turn. I wish I could have captured the sunlight highlighting the burnished gold of the scales of this very attractive fish.
This was followed by eight or nine tench and a smaller common carp. All the fish took bloodworm paste fished under a float over a bed of bloodworm and trout pellets. These fish were kept for a very short time in a large “carp friendly” keep net to show the owner and my two students, his brother and brother-in-law. When they arrived I suggested to Steve and Jeremy that they use my tackle as it is easier for me to coach when the students are using gear I know is suitable for the job in hand.
Just before Christmas I had bought four new Shimano Nexave 2500 FA reels from Bob and Brian at BB Angling, they have a stall at Kempton Park market on a Thursday and I have known them for years (they both featured in the “Itchen Incident”).
I chose these reels especially for coaching as they have an excellent front drag which is very sensitive and can be finely tuned to suit the less experienced angler. I have only just loaded these reels with line due to the wrist problems I have had over the winter and I was amazed by the perfect line lay I achieved with such low priced reels. Another triumph for the Shimano stable.
Steve and Jeremy were the first to use these reels, loaded with six pound Diawa Sensor line (also from BB Angling) and carp waggler rods. I expected that this would be a good test for the drags (or slipping clutches) on these reels, as hard fighting fish and inexperienced anglers are hard task masters for any reel.
They caught ten tench between them and most of them were males so they fought really hard - a good test for the new reels which they passed with flying colours.
A strong east wind picked up shortly after they arrived and the tench stopped feeding so enthusiastically but various changes of bait maintained the bite rate. Fish were caught on bread flake and worms, it was nice to see that good old fashioned baits still work. Steve caught a nice linear mirror carp on bread flake that really tested the slipping clutch on the new reels, particularly as he would be the first to admit that he has little experience at playing big fish. it weighed 7lb 11ozs.
I can hardly wait to introduce some of my other students to this great fishery.
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