Thursday 5 May 2011

An Olive Beauty

Since my early success at Findern my tench fishing exploits have distinctly faltered. So what better venue to kick off again that one of the club pools with a reputation for being hard. During one of my dog walks earlier in the week I had spotted a swim I had not noticed before and quite liked the look of it. So after work yesterday I packed the tackle into the car and headed off up to Shardlow. For bait I had casters and hemp plus some sweetcorn. There were a lot of cars about when I arrived but they were all fishing the pool on the other side of the road on which the carp appear to be feeding well at the moment.
I tackled up a waggler on my 14' float rod, the intention was to fish virtually under my rod tip beyond the fringe of weeds, the extra length I reasoned would help me keep the fish away from snags. Double caster first when on the size 14 barbless and I was soon getting knocks on the float and some bites which I just could not hit. Nevertheless activity on the float makes the time fly and it was soon 8pm. I had noticed that periodically the swim was fizzing so I hoped that some tincas were moving in. After catching a perchlet on casters I decided to go for double corn in the hope this would attract a tench. As the light was going the float slipped away and a good fish was on. I could not get it's head up and was certain this was a carp as it was so powerful. Fortunately it chose to run out into the pool and I prayed that there were no hidden snags. Playing it carefully there was no way I could see this as a tinca but on 4lb hooklength did not want to try bullying it up for gander. There was some excitement when the fish finally went for the weeds and I held grimly on but then it surfaced. A tench. With it's head finally up I soon got it in the net. It was in pristimne condition and weighed in at 5lb 3oz. This was a fish I was really pleased with having winkled it out from a difficult water. Lets hope for a few more over the coming weeks.

3 comments:

  1. Knowing the water in question Dave thats a very worthy capture, well done!

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  2. Thanks Leo, just need a few more to come along.
    Cheers, Dave.

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  3. Yes well done Dave - I've tried for them but so far the landing net has remained dry....
    Cheers, Rob Goodwin

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