The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

With the glorious 16th just over a month away I though members might be interested in one of my techniques for tench fishing on waters with a muddy or silty bottom. I call it “trundling”.
I don’t claim to have invented this as I picked it up from a chap fishing a Keston ponds several years ago

Its simplicity itself, just a light ledger rig, drawn very slowly towards you. I use a tiny drilled bullet) and a 12” hook length. Hook size is a 10, 12 or 14 depending on the size of your bait. Bait is worm or maggot with loose maggots or chopped worm as ground bait. Any Avon style rod will do and centre pin with a ratchet. Mine is loaded with five pounds BS line, but you may want to go a bit higher if there are carp about. You also need two rod rests positioned so your rod tip points towards the water. Position the rests so the rod is immediately to hand and from your chair or box you can turn the reel while the rod is still in the rests.

Cast out, put the rod in the rests, put the ratchet on, tighten up and leave for a few minutes. Then, keeping the rod in the rests, slowly wind in about one turn of the reel, leave for a few minutes and repeat. It works on the principle that gently stirring up the bottom attracts the fish’s attention and they will swim into the silty cloud and grab your bait. Takes can be very violent signalled by either the rod top nodding around and/or the ratchet sounding. I’ve had some of my best bags of tench using this method and double figure carp as well. “Natural” baits such as red worm, a lob tail or a bunch of maggots seem to work best and especially good are small slugs if you can find them. I’ve not had as much success when using bread flake or corn

As much as I prefer to watch a float, in high winds, the ledger is often your best bet and, if like me, you find staring a bobbin or quiver tip a little boring (and lets not even talk about buzzers) this semi-active style of fishing may be an option.

perchbasher wrote:With the glorious 16th just over a month away I though members might be interested in one of my techniques for tench fishing on waters with a muddy or silty bottom. I call it “trundling”.
I don’t claim to have invented this as I picked it up from a chap fishing a Keston ponds several years ago

Its simplicity itself, just a light ledger rig, drawn very slowly towards you. I use a tiny drilled bullet) and a 12” hook length. Hook size is a 10, 12 or 14 depending on the size of your bait. Bait is worm or maggot with loose maggots or chopped worm as ground bait. Any Avon style rod will do and centre pin with a ratchet. Mine is loaded with five pounds BS line, but you may want to go a bit higher if there are carp about. You also need two rod rests positioned so your rod tip points towards the water. Position the rests so the rod is immediately to hand and from your chair or box you can turn the reel while the rod is still in the rests.

Cast out, put the rod in the rests, put the ratchet on, tighten up and leave for a few minutes. Then, keeping the rod in the rests, slowly wind in about one turn of the reel, leave for a few minutes and repeat. It works on the principle that gently stirring up the bottom attracts the fish’s attention and they will swim into the silty cloud and grab your bait. Takes can be very violent signalled by either the rod top nodding around and/or the ratchet sounding. I’ve had some of my best bags of tench using this method and double figure carp as well. “Natural” baits such as red worm, a lob tail or a bunch of maggots seem to work best and especially good are small slugs if you can find them. I’ve not had as much success when using bread flake or corn

As much as I prefer to watch a float, in high winds, the ledger is often your best bet and, if like me, you find staring a bobbin or quiver tip a little boring (and lets not even talk about buzzers) this semi-active style of fishing may be an option.

Thanks. I like the sound of this and will give it a go after June 16th. :thumb:

This is also a great method for big perch!!

Bigfish wrote:This is also a great method for big perch!!

I've got an old edition of "Fishing" magazine somewhere with an article (I think by Colin Gamble) called "Perch on the agitated lob" describing a very similar method.

Well it certainly worked, only problem it was a 10lb common carp and not a tench. On 4lb line and a 1lb test curve the rod was bent round to the handle.

Thanks for awakening this thread Gobio. I forgot about this and will now give it a go.

Now this is a traditional method, reading this takes me back many years when a slowly retrieved bait was known to be a killer method at times. Perch are a good target and we do the same with pike either sink and draw or just 'twitched' back. Tench are very curious fish and frequently bite within seconds of a cast being made, this method focuses on that principle and despite the unnatural appearance of some baits crawling along the bottom, the fish don't know what to make of it and bang! Fish on!

I do like the sound of that I just may give it a go on Monday

This reminds me of a session two years ago. I hadn't any bite for hours when I fished a static bait with a light quivertip rod. I can't remember why, but somehow - surely by coincidence- I noticed that I got bites after moving the bait slightly. So I pointed the rod tip towards the bait and moved it in relatively short intervals and held the line between my fingers in order to feel for bites. Suddenly I caught fish after fish and yes, even a small tench. It worked well even after dark which was a surprise for me. Whenever the bait was still on the bottom - nothing, when moved almost everytime a decisive pull. Perhaps this method will work for me in a particular swim I fished for tench a whole season without any rewards. Very frustrating season that was...

I've used this or something similar for wary chub. I often fished a stretch of river where the chub would spend ages messing about with a static bait. Casting and gently retrieving a little at time would often result in a good bite