Tench, synonymous with mist filled dawns and lilly studded estate lakes, over shadowed by their Carpy cousins in the species popularity stakes, though still a cult fish to some.
It's a bit late in the season to be waxing lyrical about the humble Tench, but I missed out on any early season sport with the Tinca's due to passionately pursuing the Bass on the coast.
Despite this I have still managed to catch up with a few this year, especially lately. The fish in my local waters seem to be on the feed big time, obviously they are sensing the Autumn just around the corner, followed closely of course, by winter. The odd thing is nearly all the fish that have been falling to my feeder mix in conjunction with an artificial corn hookbait, have been males. I wonder whether this is just a coincidence or wether there is a specific reason for this.
Tench do display varied feeding habits throughout the season, early doors they will take just about any type of bait, large small or otherwise, but as the season moves on they seem to become pre occupied with very tiny food items and can be frustratingly difficult to catch on anything other than maggot or small worms. At some point they seem to disappear, exactly when seems to vary from year to year, but again is this due to the exhaustion of a particular food source? triggering the Tench to begin hibernation? Very oddly we have caught occasional fish in the winter, sometimes when the lake has been partly frozen over!
I find Tench quite mysterious as well as enigmatic and very lovely, though strange in appearance when compared to other fish! There is certainly something about these green bodied, red eyed hard fighting beasts that I can't quite put my finger on. But one thing I do know is that I love catching them and always will, and if I have my Coarse fishing head on at the right time next year I will make an extra effort to target them specifically and maybe even from a mainland gravel pit if time and energy allow.
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