Tricky Tench

Last year I was lucky enough to find a tarn in Cumbria that promises to become my tench paradise. I had a  visit on a day ticket basis and although not really successful- one hooked and lost fish followed by tentative bites that seemed impossible to hit- I found myself smitten with the water and the potential that it promised. Another angler visiting from North Wales was luckier (or more skillful) that day and managed five fish in the morning session. Two of these were over 6lbs and the other three around 4lbs. The biggest fish caught so far is a 10lb specimen and the consensus amongst anglers I've chatted with suggests that there may be fish as big as 15lb. However, as I have found out this lake does not give up it's fish easily.
Throughout the close season I meticulously planned a 24 hour plus visit to this lake with the hope of starting my season off with a possible personal best tench.

I arrived at around 7pm on the evening of June 18th. It had been a rare beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and no rain. The first sight of bubbles in the swim around 8.30pm had me on the edge of my seat. I had decided to float fish even though the lake is around 11 feet deep straight in front of you. I should probably have used a sliding float but as I was only fishing around a rod length out casting wasn't a problem. As you can see from the photograph the margins have an abundant growth of lillies so I used 6.6lb line on one of my trusty Mitchell 300As. To begin with I tried feeding a small amount of hemp and a few pieces of corn into the swim and fished a single grain on a size 14 hook. Bubbles continued to appear sporadically through the evening but aside from a couple of little touches that didn't really develop there was no sign of tench. I switched to double red maggot for a while and caught a couple of the lake's other inhabitants some splendidly striped perch. With darkness falling I switched to a leger outfit and set up my light and got myself organised for the night. A few minutes after my first cast the heavens opened and it poured with rain for an hour or more.By midnight I still hadn't had any sign of interest so I headed back to the car to get a few hours sleep.
It's not easy sleeping in the front passenger seat of a Ford Focus and after four hours of sliding around the seat and wedging my feet in strange places I gave up on sleep and went back down to the lake. I made some coffee and a bacon sandwich and by 4.30am I was fishing again. It had been a bit chilly in the night and I was certainly up before the tench as it was sometime before any bubbles began to surface in the swim. I persevered with sweetcorn, both natural and sometimes homemade red strawberry flavour but any signs of interest were few and far between.There were a couple of definite bites later in the morning but unlike the classic rising, dithering and finally sailing away type bites these were fast like a dace attacking a maggot and consequently almost impossible to hit. I tried all manner of baits from worm to prawn in an attempt to get a really positive bite but all to no avail. By lunchtime I was fishing for perch with maggots for a bit of light relief. I caught a few and have to say the perch in this lake give such a spirited fight that I almost forgot why I'd come here.
It's a wonderfully peaceful setting and the day drifted by in a very pleasant way. I watched a mother duck supervise her 10 little ducklings as they cruised around the lake time and time again, chirping and running across lily pads.. All it was really lacking was a tench.
 Around 7pm I finally saw one. It was a splendid fish of maybe four or five pounds and it swam slowly past me in the tiny shallow area in front of the platform I was fishing from.To tease me even more by 8pm my float was surrounded by bubbles and I was clutching the rod ready to strike at the slightest movement. Of course the bite never came and as 10pm approached I finally decided to head home.
Although it wasn't quite the trip I had planned throughout the close season I learnt a lot about the lake and it's inhabitants during the time I was there and it has left me eager for more. There is something fascinating and challenging about such a water and I'm sure that in the next couple of months I will finally get one of those tricky tench in the net.