From Triumph to Trouble: A Spring of Tench Frustration

The entire spring was a complete disaster from a tench fishing point of view, and it was my worst ever. From speaking to other anglers, I know I wasn't alone!

Having enjoyed what was probably my best ever tench fishing in the spring of 2024 – certainly in terms of the numbers and sizes of fish that I caught, relative to the type of waters I was fishing – I wasn't really expecting to repeat that, as a lot of luck had been involved, and with everything falling into place perfectly.

But with a nice warm start and some good weather throughout April, which actually saw me catching quite a few small tench up to around 7lb when I ventured out for a few carp sessions, things were looking good.

In fact, the weather was so warm that I started my tench fishing earlier than usual and ventured out for the Easter weekend, even though I thought it was probably still a bit early for the huge gravel pits that I concentrate on.

That session resulted in a blank, despite the water temperature actually being pretty good, but I wasn't too disheartened as the trip had been as much about seeing the lake again and getting an idea of the conditions, including how much weed growth there was – the answer turned out to be very little, certainly when it came to any Canadian pondweed starting to grow, and not a lot of fresh silkweed about either.

The past couple of springs I've been concentrating on two waters in particular, so it made sense that my next trip was to the other lake, and was also more of a recce than me actually expecting to catch anything so early in the spring and with the fish still very spread out before even thinking about spawning – the easiest way to locate them on many of these big gravel pits is to target the areas where they tend to group up before they spawn and can often by in numbers and also willing to feed.

So, my first two blank trips of the year were almost expected, but what I wasn't expecting was that despite putting in a lot of effort and quite a bit of time – including one session of ten days and nights which resulted in one bite from what felt like a decent tench, only for it to cut me off on a snag that I didn't even know was there, and which none of the other fish I'd caught from the same swim had ever gone round! – I would end up completely blanking for 26 days in total, right up until they spawned, which is when I end my tench fishing for the year.

By contrast, the previous spring I'd managed to land 57 tench in a similar number of nights, including eight doubles, from the same venues.

It wasn't just me either, as many of the other tench anglers whom I spoke to had also been struggling to catch, particularly those fishing larger, low-stock waters.

Looking back, I suspect the weather played a significant role, as we experienced a lot of easterly and northerly winds during May, as well as colder nights. However, it was a terrible spring in general for the species.

Even when I took a guy called Keith Harding out for a 24 hour session on an easier lake, which he'd paid for in the Angling Trust auction, all we managed to catch was one small tench and had another fall off at the net, plus a few roach up to a pound or so which took our bait.

When fishing is tough like this, it's crucial to have complete confidence in your tactics, provided you're aware that the problem lies with the fish not being on the feed, rather than your targeting method. For me, that involves fishing method style – I use an inline lead for this as it is what I've always done and what I have confidence in, but inline flatbed feeders like the Hybrid ones work as well.

My hook bait is always double rubber caster – of the 47 double-figure tench that I've caught, 44 of them have been on that bait – hair rigged on a size 12 hook, either a Guru MWGB, or the Super MWG which I've recently started playing around with as they seem to keep their point better and don't tarnish as quickly when fishing in mud or weed.

This is always fished on a braided hook link, and for the past couple of seasons I've been using the Korda Loop braid, which is perfect, and typically 6-7 inches long.

That may sound like a long hook link for Method fishing, but that is intentional. I fold it back inside the Method ball, with the hook bait and hook hanging out of the side – the drag that causes helps ensure that it lands on top of the ball. I believe that having slack in the hook link like that makes it very hard for tench to deal with when they suck in the bait, and I tend to get good hook holds.

If possible, I try to avoid fishing on clean gravel, as tench are more challenging to catch in those spots due to their feeding habits. I prefer to fish on top of some fresh silkweed or even blanket weed. Usually I'm fishing over caster and chopped worm, with a little bit of hemp – literally just enough for some smell and oil coming off of it, with the idea being that once it draws in the tench, they feed on the caster and chopped worm, rather than hemp which they can get preoccupied on if you put a lot out. I spread this along a line and then fish three rods on it fairly close together.

I also tend to cast far less frequently than many tench anglers, and often my rods are out for 24 hours at a time, unless I catch a fish or see a good reason to recast them sooner.

Although this year proved to be a bad one, I still have complete confidence in this. I will be using the same thing next year, as I know that if I can find the tench and get on feeding fish, then it works incredibly well and is a method that I've taken waters apart on before.