I have spent the week watching the river rise and fall and rise again. Couple that with the torrential rain forecast for opening day of the season and I decided to give fishing a miss. Instead I headed for still water on second day and I am glad I did. The sun shone over Hardwick lake all day long as I resumed my mission for a double figure Tench. The recent cold water and coldish weather seems to have delayed the Tench from spawning this year and reports of big Tench are still coming through the grapevine.
My session started off slowly, a few liners, probably as the fish were grubbing through the Canadian pondweed and catching my line was all I had to show for the first couple of hours. At about 10am I had some proper bleeps on the alarm and I struck into what felt like a good fish but the plodding type fight made me think it wasn't a Tench. I landed a (nuisance?-not really) Carp weighing 11lb 14oz. Whenever the 'name anglers' do a feature in a magazine and they land a double it is always called a 'pretty fish'. Well I thought this one was a 'pretty fish' too.
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| 11lb 14oz |
A short while later I had another run and surprisingly landed another Carp, this time 16lb exactly.
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16lb 0oz
Another 'pretty' Mirror falls for the chopped worm feeder tactic. |
The complex was very quiet probably due to the weather but the few anglers I spoke to had been there since Friday and blanked! They should try worm. I use a slightly extended helicopter style rig with only chopped worm in the feeder, no spodding, no messing about and it works a treat.
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| 8lb mainline, 6lb hooklink, size 12 hook |
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| chopped and ready |
The next cast finally produced the target fish but it was a strange fight. On the bite the fish managed to bury it's head in the weed but I steadily managed to pull it free. I thought it was a Bream because there was little fight from it but it actually still had it's head covered in weed. It was all too easy until the weed fell off just before the net and then it went bananas. A great scrap in the clear water below my feet until I finally got the better of it.
It was a good fish and thoughts of finally catching a double crossed my mind but she fell short weighing in at 9lb 8oz. Still a nice fish though.
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| 9lb 8oz |
My second biggest Tench ever and my 14th 'nine'. I will get a double one of these days!
I added a small Bream to my total and that was the end of the action.
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| COME ON! COME ON! |
Nines eh? Sick of them, I am! It must be driving you mad Joe, I would be doubting there were any tens in there by now, just nines. Keith had a nine, you have 14 to your credit, time for change of lake perhaps, to one with tens in it!
ReplyDeleteI agree about the worm baits too. I've had so many carp on worm and prawn this year it's silly. In fact I've caught far more carp than any of the targeted fish. Have you ever had one of Hardwick's big roach on them, or even any of the smaller ones yet? I hear they run up to very nearly four pounds in there.
There must be a ten in there, others do claim to have had 'tens' but I have never seen them in person.
DeleteNo sign of any big Roach, I don't think they are still there, the amount of time I have spent there I would have fluked at least one! There are allegedly some hybrids too but no sign of those either.
A stonking tench Joe and those carp are pretty too, cracking session mate
ReplyDeleteCheers Rob
DeleteNice work Joe. I've learned a lot from your tactics on there!
ReplyDeleteThanks Keith, cannot wait to see the big Roach pics
DeleteBeautiful Tench Joe! Great fish. Just enjoy, the double figures will show up sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteKeep enjoying fishing. Love your stories!