Tench Campaign Part 3.

 

 Well, before I get to the trip I have just finished with I'll catch you up on a visit I paid last week Friday.

 I blanked...

 Well, that's been taken care of let's get on with the trip I finished up on earlier today. I had loaded the van on Thursday morning with all the fishing gear I required for a 36hr stay and the bare minimum of work gear! I finished work around 3pm and set off for the motorway and thankfully my trip from Fulham to Mid-Kent was very smooth and I was back on hallowed grounds and fishing by 5pm.

 Every time I pull up to gates the thoughts of monster fish laying up in the net are rife! There are fish here to make the most accomplished specimen angler shake with nerves and excitement in equal measure. I just want one fish of that standard, until such time that happens I will do my best to empty the place!!

 I got my first run within an hour or so of getting the rods out and it was a good one too of 8lb 3oz, just 3 weeks ago that was a joint PB! now it's a lovely fish. That was quickly followed up by a big male of 8lb 0oz and then a fish of around 6lb. The fish in here are special. Then the rods fell silent until 1am when I lost a Tench to a hook pull not far from the net.

8lb 3oz, great start.

 With my alarm set for 0340, I was awake and raring to go by 0330 ( who needs an alarm when the dawn chorus was deafening, a wonderful thing to experience, which also featured my first Cuckoo of the year ). Strangely the arrival of dawn didn't bring a single bite, I had to wait until 0630, then it all went berserk. I will add the details at this point of what and how I was fishing. 

 Overnight I had issues with little Perch (wasps) pulling the worms off my hairs and got to a point I had to change it up because I wasn't fishing with bait on the hook after 20mins or so, so I made the decision to switch back to snails as I had fished in my previous two trips. Also I had two rods fishing on a plateau which was about 8ft deep and one rod fished to my left about two-rod lengths off the bank in 12ft of water and this spot for me was devastating, for nearly two hours I couldn't keep the bait in the water. 

 I had a run of very good fish starting with a 7lb 7oz tench, this was followed by...7lb 10oz, 7lb 8oz, another 7lb 10oz, 7lb 4oz and a 5lb+ fish, my newly set PB was broken and then broken again, by these two absolute stunners! 

New PB 8lb 14ozs.

New New PB 8lb 15ozs.

 The stamp of fishing I was having in that period of 7am to 11am was pretty awesome, my open water rods also contributed but the margin spot was having it off! 

The 8.15 in all her glory without my face init.

 I was hoping I may have a session like this on here before they spawned and by the looks of most of these fish that aren't ready to go yet, the water temp at 20.3c would suggest otherwise but bar one female most were in this shape, not swollen heffers! 

 The sport didn't end right there as I took another at 8lb 1oz which gave me the right run around, my biggest male tench yet. 

Beauty and the Buff.

 

 And I would love to say that it carried on after that 8.01 male, the effort to keep the bait flying out and rods constantly re-baited was keeping me busy, but that feeding spell gave way to silence, an unexpected one too given the carnage that had just occurred but that silence stretched all the way through to 0615 this morning when my rod tore off for a final time with my smallest fish of the trip around mid-5lb.

 All in all I finished up with 13 Tench, lost 4, bit off by a pike 3 times ( third time I nearly netted it ) and heard the cuckoo for hours, all very nice given my previous attempt, will I get one more chance before the fish spawn? Only time will tell.