The tench campaign (part 1) - A cold start

The tench campaign started on Sunday morning, a short session on a water that is still relatively new to me having only visited it twice previously. Arriving just before first light I felt the chill in the air and noticed the clear sky whilst unlocking the gate. The night anglers car windscreens had frosted over and a quick check on line confirmed over night temperatures had dropped to 0°C. Immediately I thought it would be a struggle, however whilst having a quick walk around the lake a few fish started topping, mainly bits but also a few decent carp started crashing.

I decided on a peg in a bay on the northern bank of the lake as this seemed to have the most activity. The water is fairly coloured so is relatively weed free so decided to use my lighter tench rods, one with a small method feeder and the second rod with a small in line maggot feeder. Both rods were already setup so it wasn't too much after 06:00 when I had them both in the water. I also setup a third rod to fish the lift method in the margin, this water has a two rod rule so I had to bring in a feeder rod to fish the margin.

This seasons tench setup for weed free waters - 12ft 1.25lb Series 7 avons, Shimano 5010 baitrunners, 6lb Hyper-sensor. A small method feeder (l) and an in line maggot feeder (r)

I was using a korum 'grub' feeder for the first time, I was slightly hesitant when buying these feeders as there are a few scathing on line reviews. Many users complain about the feeders opening up when hitting the water, but I'm pleased to say I suffered no such problems. On the method feeder I was using a micro pellet method mix I had some success with last year. The mix consists of dampened 2mm coarse pellets, a handful of robin red ground bait and a few ground robin red boilies. Hook bait with this mix is a 10mm robin red boilie.

I caught a number of tench last year on robin red and now have a lot of confidence in it as a tench bait, also on the waters where I tried the mix the bream didn't seem as keen to take it. I still caught a few bream on this mix but at the time I was using another mix of pellets and molasses and caught far more bream on this mix.

Top - robin red based mix and molasses based mix.
Bottom - small method feeder

During the session I didn't get any interest on the method rod, as expected I had some interest in maggot rig but probably nothing more than small silvers. I fed maggot and worm in the margin throughout the session, hoping to see some sign of tench but again there wasn't much happening. A blank to start the tench campaign it was a short session when I didn't really expect to catch. A good chance to shake out of the tench gear though, still a few bits to short out, spooling new line and a few bits to get from the tackle shop etc.....

A positive note -  during a quick chat to an old chap he revealed that he caught an eel there the day before, a decent size (2lb10oz) I suspected that eels would be in the water as access is reasonably easy but this was the first time I have heard of one being caught.

My next tench session will be on a water closer to home, full of weed, very low stock but a definite challenge.