Gravel Pit Tench

After a series of trials fishing for tench [here] on my previous blog, the time had come to put my rigs into practice for a really big tench. A Cotswold gravel pit had been chosen with 2 nights available to bag a nice tench. 

The first task upon arrival was a bit of feature finding. The use of a Deeper sonar supported me in finding the change in depths quickly and I was able to pinpoint some areas with less weed growth to fish on. This resulted in two rods at 11 wraps and one much shorter on a higher plateau to my left. Besides tench, the pit also contained carp and these were regularly giving their presence away by leaping from the water. The left rod was set up with a solid bag, baited with a bright pink pop up on a multi-rig. I've never seriously fished for carp at any stage in my life, but it seemed a good idea given the activity and the likelihood that bites would be hard to come by. I absolutely did not want to blank on this trip. The other two rods were set up with standard heli-rigs and a maggot approach although I had worms as an alternative. At this stage, I did not introduce any bait via spodding. I wanted to catch tench and I feared that putting bait on those spots would only attract carp. It was also particularly windy so I didn't want to risk spreading bait about. Instead, regular casting began to build up an area of maggots that would hopefully catch the eye of any patrolling tench. 

7lb 12oz and a great start

It was no surprise that my companion for the trip, Coops, hooked and landed a carp from the next swim. There certainly seemed to be a lot of carp in that area. However, it was myself that drew first blood on the tench front and guess what? It came on the solid bag rig. Typical. A nice tench that went 7lb 12oz was banked and I was up and running after just a few hours of the trip. A carp followed to maggot not long after that went around 16lb. 

By late afternoon and into the evening, I had baited one of the tench rods with the worm kebab. It was this rod that was next to fool a tench with a really positive bite. A spirited battle saw another female tench on the bank. Although it looked larger, this one went 7lb 7oz. A lost carp to a hook pull was the only other action that evening, but I went to bed feeling really happy with the first day's results. 

A 7lb 7oz tench 

It was 3.43am when I awoke. It was still dark so I decided I should wait a little longer before recasting the rods. The heavens then opened and I was forced to listen to torrential rain for about half an hour before I could venture outside. The crayfish had stripped the baits meaning a rethink would be required for the following night. There was no dawn tench even though it looked perfect. A sunny day developed with another lost carp and a lost tench souring things slightly although Coops bagged his first tench of the trip with a 5lb male fish. I did spod a bit of bait on this day, with hemp and 2mm pellets placed in small quantity over the rods. It was later in the day when my popped up maggot bait was taken and a tench was on. All was going to plan as it approached the marginal shelf when it all went solid, and I mean solid. I was convinced the fish was still on but it wasn't moving. A spell with the bail open failed to change the situation and no matter which angle I applied pressure, nothing happened to fill me with confidence. In fact, I'd practically given up hope when my final throw of the dice was to pull directly with the rod pointing at the snag. A perilously dangerous manoeuvre that I was convinced would result in a snapped line. Miraculously, the feeder and fish were dislodged and I was back in business with the tench soon landed. It was a good one as well. The net revealed a plump looking tench that was clearly bigger than the ones landed on the previous day. The scales settled on 8lb 12oz and provided me with a new tench PB. I was delighted. 

My tench PB at 8lb 12oz

The night came and went with no action even though I changed to hook baits that survived the crayfish. That last morning turned out to be a little frustrating. Lots of tench were topping but despite what looked like perfect conditions, neither myself nor Coops were troubled by them. I lost a really nice carp that I had successfully battled to keep out of the nearside tree line only for the hooklink to snap when it felt like the hard work had been done. I didn't get the best of views but Coops, who was waiting with the net, suggested it would have been good enough to beat my carp PB. Nothing else materialised and the 48 hours came to a conclusion. Although  I failed to catch a fish on that last morning, the session as a whole had been a huge success. Three tench including a PB was a really satisfying result and had me making plans for another gravel pit adventure soon. Of course, the opening of the river season will provide further distractions but I'll do my best to fit it all in. 

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