DATE : 15/04/2022
WEATHER : Mild and overcast leading to warm, sunny spells
WIND : South Easterly
VENUE : James Steel Park
TARGETTED SPECIES : Tench
METHOD : Waggler
BAIT : Hempseed and maggot.
FINAL WEIGHT : 2lb, 8 ounces
After almost 3 years of this pond being almost completely unfishable due to an invasive weed species, I decided to have a look down around 2 weeks ago.
Much to my surprise, the weed that has completely destroyed this lake over the past few years, has seemed to have died away, leading to me being desperate to have a Tench fishing session on the pond that I learned to fish on.
This pond is genuinely rock hard, because of this, very few anglers fish it but the Tench make it very rewarding if you can get them on the feed, this usually only happens at either first light and at dusk, with the pond being Gin clear, it usually switches off completely once the sun hits the water, however, at the moment, there seems to be a lot of colour in the water, leading to me feeling very confident of catching a few Tench.
I arrived at the pond around 11am, intending to fish until dark.
My tactics were simple enough, I planned on fishing the Feeder into the middle, using Supercrack Bream groundbait, whilst using dendrobaena as my hookbait, I would be fishing this until around tea time and then I planned on fishing the waggler into dusk, once the Tench switched on (hopefully)
Once I arrived, I noticed my peg was fizzing, this led to my confidence going through the roof, they were there to be caught and in my head, all I needed was me not to be picking up weed after every cast, however, after seeing the peg fizz up, I made a fatal error and decided to pile the hemp in, the fizzing stopped almost immediately!
Two of my mates arrived to fish shortly after I set up, Wheatley fished to the left of me and Eldon fished to the right, It was good to see Eldon out as he hasnt been able to fish much since Covid began a couple of years ago.
After very few signs or fizzing on my peg, Wheat missed the first bite, I think he was admiring the clouds or something as I seen his bite on the Waggler from the next peg but after missing it, his maggots were bladdered, now we were all confident!
As you are literally fishing for a bite on this pond, any sign was greatly appreciated, and after switching to my waggler swim due to seeing absolutely nothing on my feeder swim, using double Red Maggot, hard over depth, my float slowly disappeared, and I struck into a Tench, which then decided to tail walk, another surprise from this pond, but after playing and landing it, I was absolutely delighted as this was a long time coming due to the weed.
After catching this Tench, Wheat then caught a lovely Perch, and although Eldon didnt catch, he was clearly delighted to just be out fishing on a pond full of wildlife, it really is a stunning place, its just a shame that the fishing is as hard as it is, although in my eyes, It is more rewarding catching a Tench out of here than to catch 300lb of Carp from a commercial.
After Eldon left, me and Wheat fished a bit longer, with Wheat packing up at 6pm and then myself packing up at 6.30, I decided to call it a day but feeling extremely happy that the Tench are showing, and despite only having 1 bite all day, I will certainly be back.
A very rewarding days fishing for Tench.
Thank you for viewing and tight llines!
Darren
