After Speaking with Dan about his impressive catch of perch and tench last week we decided to meet and have a bash on Thursday afternoon. Whilst it was my aim to catch some tench, Dan was going for his perch point for his challenge.
On arrival there were a few anglers on the causeway that had not really caught any fish to speak of, apart from on lad who had bagged up on the tench on the peg before the bridge at about 10 metres on the pole with a banded 6mm Hali pellet. To assist this he was feed a kinder pot of pellet laced ground bait after every fish. He said he had about 100lb of fish.
I set up on a peg that had just been vacated by another angler, who was moaning about not catching anything!, next to the reed bed after the bridge.
I set up two pole rigs, one at 10 metres with a Garbalino Dc13 0.8 float with an olivette to sink my bait quickly, the other as a margin rig again with the same float pattern but this time at a weight of 0.4 with styl leads spaced in a shirt button style.
The other two set ups were a method feeder rod and a power waggler set at about 10 ft of if the pole struggled.
I started by cupping in 5 orange balls of laced ground bait with various tench goodies at 10 metres and 3 at about 4 meters just in front of the reed bed.
The first hour started very slowly with only a couple of missed bites registered on the long pole swim. Due to this I changes over to the method to see if the fish were feeding at a distance. The next hour saw me land 7 tench on this swim, all of which were of a good stamp.
By this time Dan and also Keith J had arrived and joined me on the causeway sargeant fishing with garden snakes and red Margret's!
As time went by I had noticed more fish topping on the pole line so decided to come in with triple red Margret set about 1" over depth. the results came immediately with the float dipping slowly then the elastic flying out, the tench had moved in onto my bait at last.
Though I did continue to take to odd fish with my secret sausage rig......which if I told you what it was I would have to hunt your pets down!, but my pole continued to catch at regular intervals.
With the odd perch mixed in I fished until my float was no longer visible.....
Hauling the net I was very pleased to count out 29 nice tench and also 3lb 5oz of perch, Dan was very pleased with this as he caught 30 last week!!!!
All in all a very enjoyable night in which I am sure a ton of tincas were netted.
Sorry no photos as the light was dropping and I did not want to stress the fish. Dan and Keith did take a couple which they might send me to include or perhaps include in their blogs.
Keith I owe you a beer and a pound for your largest perch capture.......I do not count the one that got away!
Tight Lines
Andy