Its a Start

Sorry for the delay!

Oh how this time of year for me couldn’t of come around quick enough. No form of angling for me beats Spring Tenching. It’s a very pro active form of angling, with all the finding the spots, baiting up, feeder fishing, watching the lake come alive at dawn… I love it.

My campaign is now underway, and whilst it still is relatively early, it pays to put in the groundwork for when the action really does start to get underway in May. The weed is only just sprouting at best, so the hours spent with the Marker rod and notepad will be worth its weight in gold, because when the weed does take hold you’ll find it very difficult to find the clearer spots to fish into.

I have had a few tench now in a couple sessions, nothing big, yet, but what I have been learning along the way is priceless. When the sun is at its highest the gravel bars will be glowing like beacons, pop the Poloroids on and make a note of all the gravely areas and if possible plumb about to find the depths on the back of them, where the food will collect.

Sufix now do the top selling Matrix Pro braid in a coloured metered version. I’m in the process of spooling up my baby big pits with them, to eliminate any guess work with the yardage of spots when feature finding. And if you pop in on your spod rod too, you can accurately clip up to the hotspots without even having to use the marker on shorter sessions. Many advantages to list but just imagine arriving late on evening into dark, and knowing that you ideally want to be fishing at the bar at 65 yards for the morning spell. Easy enough to walk out the spod on the bank, to the designated distance using the different coloured sections off the reel. The rig can be matched to the exact distance too, so they are both spot on. A few spods delivered out in the dark to the marker on the far bank before bed, and then again at first light, your away and fishing and with hardly any disturbance too. Its little tricks and edges like these can make a difference to your catch rates.

If your new to tenching, and would like to have a dabble whilst its closed season on the rivers, have a look at a series of tactics and techniques I have put together for Carp and Coarse Angling Magazine. Part II is in the shops at the moment, with Part III being printed up at the moment, you’ll hopefully be able to pick up a few pointers to get your started.