Still no eels but a brace of p.b tench

Last night I fished my syndicate water for eels, things didn't start too well with a few issues at home meaning I didn't set off until half past 8. Things started to pick up as I got to the car park and I found that I had the water to myself again. By half past 9 I had 3 rods in the water, 1 dyson rig with a small perch deadbait and the other rods were JS rigs with homemade ledger stems baited with worms and a roach head.

After 45minutes I had a take on the worm rig, which was a perch of around 4oz. On this rod I was using a blockend feeder instead of the usual lead, this was filled with blended worms to try and attract the eels.

Small perch

Over the next few hours everything stayed quiet and I nodded off listening to the radio, at around 0130hrs I was woken by back biter sounding and line was peeling off reel on the worm rod. I was in a bit of a daze but I got to the rod quickly, closed the bale arm, wound down and struck, I felt the kick of a fish then everything went solid. The fish had taken me into the weed bed, I kept the pressure on as I was convinced it was an eel and I didn't want it taking me further into the weed, eventually the fish was clear and came to the net fairly easy. It was a surprise tench and a definite p.b. The tench went into a sack so I could get a decent photo at first light.

4lb 15oz - the first p.b tench of the night

Three hours later it was light enough for a photo and as I just about to take the sack out of the water, the worm rod was off again. I managed to stop the fish from getting to the weed bed and although it tried to put up a fight it was no match for the heavy tackle I was using. I netted it fairly quickly, another tench and it looked a fair bit bigger than the first.

Second p.b tench of the session, 6lb

After a couple of photos the tench were returned and I recast the worm rod whilst slowly packing up, within a minute of the bait being in the water I had another take, line was peeling from the spool and I was hoping for an eel, unfortunately it was another perch of similar size to the first. I packed up and was home for just after 6.

I had 4 runs in total and landed all of them, I was slightly concerned/frustrated that I didn't get any attention from the eels but a brace of p.b tench more than made up for it!

Stick float session

On Tuesday I had another morning fishing the stick, the river was very low and clear and with the bright sun I struggled to get anything of size. Bites were steady but mainly from minnow size chub and dace, I had around 50 fish but nothing bigger than 5/6oz, I will probably wait until the river gets some more water in before fishing again.

The largest of a very difficult session