Tench Fishing the Midlands

Steve Holland goes tench fishing on a midlands venue and becomes enchanted with the magic of the place

This little beauty was caught on a club lake near Wolverhampton on an overnight sesh with my good fishing pal Martyn.

After managing to blag a guest ticket for the overnighter on a water I'd heard alot about and was intrigued to try, I met up with Mart early afternoon and followed him down to the venue. The first sighting blew me away! What an absolutely gorgeous place to be on. 20 acres of pure angling heaven and thats an understatement. Imagine, an old lake, very secluded, surrounded by an assortment of trees, masses of reed beds, wildlife in abundance. Delightful!

Anyway, after a 'guided tour' of the place and abit of fish spotting, we decided to settle in an easy swim, aka the carpark swim! With the rods setup first, the bivvies were next to be installed, where I embarassed myself by taking so long to put mine up in such a cramped area! This all done, it was time for a good chinwag and to soak up the atmosphere.

The left hand rod was a standard method feeder setup on a 2.75TC carp rod, the right hand rod was a 1.5 Barbel rod, setup with tench in mind. This consisted of 8lb mainline, 6lb hooklength, a 3/8oz Arlesley bomb and a size 16 hook, baited with 2 white maggots that had had the tutti frutti treatment.

Early evening saw the right hand rod twitch abit making the alarm do a staccato beep. Nothing came of this and it was put down to small roach nibbling the maggots.

As we chatted the night away, again the right hand rod bounced, the alarm rang and at last I was in! After a short but spirited fight, an estimated 3lb+ Tench(male) graced the folds of my net! The duck was broken and on my first session there too! I do love it when my first fish from a new venue is my favourite species, regardless of size.

With nothing else happening, a final rebait was in order before settling down for the night. This time, double corn was the bait for the right hand rod.

3.30am I was aroused from my slumber by the right hand rod going off again.

Unfortunately though, after feeling what was obviously a good fish on the end, the hooklink snapped as the fish surged of into the night! The next time I awoke was just after 8am when a roach of about 8oz snared itself! Alas that was all the action to be seen, but I was still happy with the previous nights tench, as I packed away late afternoon for the journey home.

Will I be back? Damn right I will, though not until next year when I will join properly. Those tench had better watch out!

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