Tench Campaign Part 1

 

 For many years I have dabbled in the sport of tench fishing but never with any conviction and certainly never with a view to catching double figure specimens, you can only catch what's in front of you and only now that is a possibility. 

 Just before I go any further on the tench fishing I will also add that recently Dynamite Baits had got in contact with and offered me a proposition I could not refuse and now am sponsored by Dynamite Baits going forward as a result of the parent company being Rapala VMC I also have access to Okuma and Rapala tackle too, it just gets better. As a kid I'd grown up using Drennan tackle for most of my fishing and on the bait front have used their hemp, robin red pellets, source boilies and paste etc for many years, now I can keep some extra very much needed pennies in my pocket!

 Anyway, now you are up to date with that I will get back to the fishing and the lakes I have chosen is a mature Kent gravel pit with some very nice fish present, double figure Tench are a real possibility, this is one specimen fish that has been missing from my list, 8lb 3oz is certainly a modest fish but one I have thought about beating for some time, now I have this ticket I will do my best to make that happen.

 Only 35mins drive from my house it's perfect for even just short trips after work when I get the chance I will be heading over. A couple weeks back I had my first trip there and was just using it to get an idea what I was facing and just putting the tactics that I know to the test and hoped that something would happen and after a couple of hours I had my first run which was in the shape of a lovely 7lb 1oz male tench. 

Possibly my best male Tench.

 From that point on I had fizzing tench and rolling fish over me for hours, later on in the afternoon the left hand in open water went again and a nice 6lb+ Tench was nestled in the net, this was going well I thought! 

Number 2 in the net, 6lb+ female.

Into the night I fished with total focus but the bobbins remained steady. I had to get some sleep and set my alarm for 3am so I could get up and refresh the rods and get more feed out there and hope for a mad rush of fish, the sunrise was majestic and a prime example of what fishing can reveal, I wouldn't be up at that time for anything else. 

💙

 Around an hour after sunrise my open water rod went again and once again a nice tench around the 6lb mark was landed, I am told the fish average 6-7lbs so it looked like I was amongst some good fish but not monsters. The day seemed to fly by and Tench showed everywhere around me but my rods were lifeless apart from the odd liner. Before I knew it my time was up. 

Loving the new rods, bloody ace!!!

I'll be going 3 rods from tonight!

Fake caster on the method.

Heli rig fished with snail.

Factor 15, yea man

Angling selection, black :) 

 My second trip there was just for the day and slipped into the peg I had had success in previously but unfortunately the Tench weren't as active and for me whilst the rods were silent I topped my already tanned body.

 Back out this evening, fingers crossed for more action!!

Mmmmmm Tuna.

 

 Not every day you go away on a family holiday 3500 miles away, seemingly going with no intention to fish only to be contacted by friends saying someone has seen you at the airport at Gatwick and he's on my flight....couple of days later a chap called Adam Bass contacted me to see if it was me for sure, of course, it was! Adam and I have trodden the same paths over the years but had never met nor spoke via social media platforms beforehand.

 This world is a strange place and noticeably how small it is...he was staying in Makadi, just a few miles from where my family and I were holidaying, soaking up the delights of the Egyptian climate. The conversation we had was great and a really nice chap, then proceeded to ask me if I fancied joining him on his charter out of Makadi Marina, after a very short waffle with the mrs the deal was done, I was going on a boat in the Red Sea for game fish, LAVERLY!

 A few days passed until the morning arrived that I was due to go and by 6am we were nearly ready to rock and we were afloat and gone by 7am. A number of fish were possible but I was just happy to get out on a boat, my sea legs needed an outing :) 

 Adam very kindly suggested as the guest I should have first run...I did try to say no but he wasn't having any of it, so when the freespool was sent into meltdown I was up! 10mins later a nice SkipJack tuna was aboard and dispatched quickly as it was approaching mid morning, stuff your normal elevenesses, sashimi skipjack is where its at, bloody lovely and the chef done a brilliant job with it later on with a light batter, brown rice and fresh salad. 

First blood, athletic SkipJack

 Adam then had a skipjack and then I hooked something that was a lot better than the skipjack and it played me hard, this fish didn't want to come up as we fished over nearly 100m of water just off the coast, after about 15mins she was nearly done and with a steady battle alongside the boat the captain reached out with the gaff and 20kg+ Yellowfin Tuna was boated! what a fish and what a battle. 

Readying a YF!

Mega!!!!

Ditto

Ditto

 If I thought skipjack carved off a 10min old fish was great then this yellowfin was in a different league, my god it was incredible !!!!

SkipJack sashimi

Nom Nom!!!

Yellowfin Sashimi

I am certainly a conservationist with my angling but when you are abroad the rules are different! Plus they are life experiences and one that one must enjoy during your lifetime. Great company, great fishing and great food on the deep blue sea in wonderful coastal scenery. 

Adam battling a spirited SkipJack

 After that yellowfin Adam lost a good fish so it was back to me, the next take was something you could only dream of, the sheer speed and power that this fish went at had the reel screaming! Atef the captain was 100% sure it was a DogTooth Tuna, the characteristics of the fight were to him made it undoubtably so. I just couldn't do much with it, in the end the flourocarbon leader must have cut across its teeth and she was gone, I was gutted but looking back just to experience that type of sustained power is a first for me. 

 Adam, if you ever read this, cheers brother!! It was a blast.

End of Season Review.

 

 The 2024/25 season was certainly one of the quickest, I can not believe its over already but it was pretty good! 

 Highlights of the season are fewer than I would have hoped for along with only one new personal best set.

 My Spring angling was not easy but topped my Bream campaign with a 15lb 10oz specimen PB, I had a fair few doubles too in the aftermath but the 15lb barrier was always my target. 

 The summer seemed to come and go very quickly but the capture of my first 3lb river Rudd was most certainly the cherry on top, there was a couple of cracking back-ups too but barring that it wasn't until early September that things on the Barbel front kicked off.

 That trip up to the Nene in early September bought an end to a 6 trip drought when a 12lb 8oz torpedo slipped up as darkness fell amongst large swathes of cabbages where I found a gravel run which no doubt is used by the fish as a highway between areas, but the Barbel I had the following evening off the Soar was certainly not expected but sometimes thats how angling goes! 

 To be cradling a 12lb 9oz Soar Barbel was much more than I could have dreamt but as I said the angling universe works in strange ways. Rivers number 25 and 26 had been completed inside 24hrs!

 Next up was the Wye, a river that certainly gives up its fish, just not big ones, early October that all changed, when that rod went over around 10/11pm I knew it was a big fish, yes it only just made the cut but they all count! 10lb 1oz and river number 27 had been completed.

 For the majority of the autumn and winter I was on the tools and only fished a couple times, some nice Grayling were caught and Chub, it wasn't until recently on the Dorset Stour that I finally had another proper result when a day spent hunkered down in foul weather was rewarded, not only was it river number 28 completed but weighing 15lb 6ozs it was the 4th river I have had a 15lb+ Barbel off of, a figure I want to increase over the duration of this challenge as a sub-plot.

 And the STATS are in....

 Sessions - 20

 Blanks - 12

 Barbel Caught - 18

 Doubles - 4

 Mileage - 4120

 Only 20 sessions for Barbel in 9 months, now that is poultry! Next season I shall have to do more! and the majority of that was the Kentish Stour.

The Dying Days.

 

 Well, the lead up to the end of the season didn't go as planned, unfortunately the weather wasn't great but still wanted to try. First off I planned to get myself up to Yorkshire for a go at the Y.Rother, a river I had purchased a ticket for back in the summer but it wasn't until 7th of March that I finally got up there! 

 203 miles of tarmac had to be covered and it was my new vans inaugural journey! sadly my trip ended up with a blank on that river, I arrived at 4pm and fished until 4am but had one little chub wrap and the temps had dropped so much that my confidence had ebbed away and opted to leave there at 0430 and yes there were loads of other options such as the Swale, Idle, Y.Ouse, Y.Derwent, Wharfe and the Aire but the conditions up there were very different to the south, so opted to drive back 203 miles to home, not a wink of sleep for 39 hrs, once in overdrive I can do long spells without kip but I do pay for it later on as when I do get to sleep and finally wake up I suffer with really strong headaches where I sleep so deep.

It's hard industrial past on full show.

Not seen waste as bad as this before, eye opening
amount of plastic littering the trees.

 However, before I did that I drove to a secluded woodland in Kent as I had gotten wind of a very rare "legitimate" small population Large Tortoiseshell butterflies, for me it was one I needed as I look to complete my list, as I ambled around I bumped into Terry Hearn who was also searching for the LT so we had a chat about things fishy and fluttery and after 4hrs of searching we came across what we were looking for "species number 53" was in the bag (not literally), success! Now with the gear in the van and a 20 min drive across the beautiful Kent countryside could I finally get that KS Barbel I so badly want?

YESSSS!!!! Finally got to photograph one, lifer.

 Nope.....of course I didn't....again. But, I did see something else that was mind blowing, 3 Beavers! just 20 metres away from where I was fishing, I couldn't quite believe it. Oh, and I also had a nice chub of 5lb 9oz and 3 Bream to about 4lb.

5.9 Chevvy.

Barbel' friend, shame no Barbel seem to exist here :) 

Beaver dental work

ditto

yikes 😳

 After that on March 12/13th I arranged to take my Dad down to the Dorset Stour as we looked to go for a big end of season Chub and Roach, I knew of areas where they were present so we targeted them, another stroke of misfortune meant that neither of us caught across both days! It was not easy at all, but at least we had a good catch up! 

 Last day of the season was spent with Brian who I knew was in London owing to his hospital commitments, with that I opted to fish super light and went about searching for fish in any nook and cranny they may have been held up in, by the end of it I had landed 10 glistening chalk stream Barbel to 7lb 2oz and Brian managed 10 also to 7lb on the button, it was good fun and a far cry from the rigours of my 40 Rivers Challenge! 

7lb 2oz, best of 10 😜

Who says you can't celebrate a draw!

 Roll on June 16th, we go again!

Not So Sweet 17....

 

 After my trip to the Dorset Stour on the Thursday I opted to head home for a good nights sleep and woke up on the Friday morning fresh and raring to go for river number 28 had been completed, could I do the unthinkable and finally make a trip to the Kentish Stour and catch a Barbel? 

Gnarly and foreboding, like my chances of a KS Barbel.

Liquid shit looks good on those branches.

Looks nice, without the liquid shit on the surface.

 Well, I didn't and not through the want of trying. I fed little bits to try and get fish to come up into my area but that didn't work, I sat in spots for 2-3hrs at a time to allow fish to find me but that didn't work, 4 swims and 10 hrs later I gave up, the river started to rise fairly quickly owing to a deluge of rain in the morning. 

Bored.com

 Cold water coming in after a mild spell and an increase of debris coming through is never a good time to target Barbel so I packed up and buggered off. As I got my gear to the top of the bank I knocked my bucket over and rolled down the hill where the lid flew off halfway down the hill....bait went everywhere...just great....no Barbel and lost around half a kilo of pellet and handful of boillees...I was done, the rats could have it. 

 Anyway, I had a great result on Thursday, the KS sucks!!!!! 17 trips now on this river...hmmmmm.

No, that's not a KS Barbel, but one day, I might get one.