The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Out on Sunday for a few hours early morning Tench fishing but feel could have missed the boat on it this year. When do Tench tend to slow down before winter? Is September leaving It a tad late?

I was tenching on Sunday and they were fizzing! I can be quite certain I was the first angler after them so I think it depends on the water and how much pressure they've seen. They quickly become quite twitchy. I have caught tench in the only unfrozen corner of a gravel pit in January so they will feed all through.

So I think it is very much dependent on the water, finding the fish and whether they've had any pressure or not.

Tench will feed into late autumn but, once the early season build up after spawning has passed they can become quite finicky about bait size and you may need to scale down for them. Peter Stone glued cork to his hooks to create neutral buoyancy as he was convinced the 'weight' of the hooks was putting them off!

Dave Burr wrote:Peter Stone glued cork to his hooks to create neutral buoyancy as he was convinced the 'weight' of the hooks was putting them off!

This is so true Dave. Seen it myself too many times for it to be a coincidence. On Sunday we fished for half an hour in a fizzing cauldron with four maggots on a size ten and no bites. As soon as we counter-balanced with a buoyant plastic maggot we had bites and caught tench!

The most extreme example was at Felbrigg, a few weeks into the season, where I had to get the weight of the bait and hook critical and with a split shot an inch from the hook, before I finally got one (and quickly a second) after fishing in a fizz for probably two hours!

ExeAngler wrote:Out on Sunday for a few hours early morning Tench fishing but feel could have missed the boat on it this year. When do Tench tend to slow down before winter? Is September leaving It a tad late?

Dont quite undestand your question?
You are going tench fishing on 19th July but feel it maybe too late ???
But then talk about September??
Well, September may be more difficult for tench but its now only mid- July, so plenty of time for good summer tench fishing ove the next few weeks.
It was always claimed that May, June and July are the best months , with another good spell in Mid September until temperatures drop significantly at some point in October being reasonably productive, but in some waters it is possible, though not easy, to catch tench almost any month in the year.

The water I am talking about is open all year. Before they spawned the Tench were being caught in large numbers. They already seem to have switched off, which is why thought I may be too late already. I am going to carry on with it until September, so was wondering if anyone had continued to Tench fish this late,in the Summer. I suppose the post had two questions really. Already have have scaled down to 18 hook and 2lb bottoms. I have been lucky and Landed all the fish I have hooked. It is a hard water to crack. You have fish rolling and fizzing in you peg but still can't catch them.

Season used to start 16th June - tench day! But they now seem to feed up prior to spawning on 'no close season' waters and can be caught almost all year round on many waters.

Caster, both real & floating plastic sometimes hair rigged, did the trick for me as they can get very very finicky!

One I had on the old Mordex and Mitchell 410. Didn't get a chance to do much angling for them in the end.

They can switch off during August and back on in September, it depends on the water and the time of day you fish for them. Apparently, the bigger the water the more likely one is to catch them during the day, even during August.

I've caught them during all hours of the day and throughout the year even in winter. I fish mainly for carp and I believe it's due to feed going in all year for the carp and the Tench take up the opportunity to feed,