Tench off the bottom

[NorfolkTinca]

I've never caught tench with hemp (the attraction of which is often supposed to be its resemblance to water snails) as a hook bait but after clearing out a load of snails from the wife's pansies I'm considering using these larger specimens as bait next time I'm on a tench water.

I had the same idea and also failed, but cockles were successful.

[Northern Eel]

That's very interesting. I am inclined to believe that tench use the mid and upper layers a lot more than we might think, especially in very weedy waters where a large part of their diet is to be found on the plants, rather than in the mud. There's one water I know where I suspect a lot of the "fizzing" is actually tench aggressively stripping snails from the weed, nowhere near the bottom. This water seldom produces anything to legering, but float fishing is far more productive, and I suspect that the float-fished bait is not always quite as firmly on the lake bed as the theory might suggest. On an easier water, I'd experiment with mid-water baits, but this is a place where you get one fish a day if you're lucky; not a place where it's easy to learn.

Very interesting, I have a local lake that is now relatively wild after it was given up by an angling club almost 30 years ago, it was never stocked with carp and is known to be predominantly a tench water, the tench feed in a peculiar way, you can get them fizzing in front of you, 2 rod lengths out in 7 feet of water but hooking them is close to impossible, we call them ghost fish, a light ledger results in nothing, I have only ever caught them with maggot on a sliding float, my friend caught one by striking at a mere wobble of his float, something I would never have struck, we’ve tried different baits and methods but it’s excruciatingly difficult, I’ve spoken to other anglers who have had the exact same experiences there & were left scratching their heads, the bottom is soft and peaty and the water is fairly coloured, there is only access from one side and only 3 viable swims, I wonder if as you say they are stripping weeds of the bottom or maybe the bait is sinking into the lake bed and the fish are feeding too deep into the lake bed.

[Robbi]

only ever caught Tench float fishing with the bait ( sweetcorn ) suspended 1" above the bottom.

[Woodytia]

Paul Garner has a video on YouTube that in which he demonstrates his version of a helicopter rig especially for Tench which uses a piece of red foam cut to the size of a maggot to lift the hook bait up off the bottom, I think it fair to say he has caught a lot of big Tench. I'm certain I've caught them with a bait like breadflake that is resting on weed.

[Olly]

A buoyant maggot + normal ones for the hookbait. Or casters + plastic floating one.

Feed - dead maggots - they cannot burrow into the silt.

[Liphook]

I'm no tench expert but when I started to target them seriously I was advised to use casters and to fish darker casters on the hook. At that time I was in my teens, took the advice and didn't really think too much into it. Later through watching tench waft up baits with pectoral fin and gill action I realised that they are perhaps better described as " just off bottom feeders". Olly is right in my experience - dead maggots and a critically balanced hook bait can make all the difference at times. Of course at other times a swim can fizz like a jacuzzi but I still can't buy a decent/ 'hitable' bite! How can you explain them being almost foolish in early season and yet almost uncatchable only a month or so later?