Early season tench fishing tips

19 April, 2018 | Match & Coarse | Tips | Articles

4 Comments

Specimen ace Paul Elt gives his top tips on how to catch tench at the beginning of spring…

In this article…

• Top tench fishing tactics and methods
• When and where to fish for tench
• Best hookbaits and feed baits for tench
• Top tench tips

Paul continues…

With spring finally upon us after a long wet and cold winter like most anglers I am all too keen to set the alarm for silly o’ clock in the morning throw the tench rods into the back of the van and head to a favourite stillwater, With the lake slowly beginning to warm up the fish are definitely on the move and they are finally catchable again.

 

Where to fish for tench?

I always find different waters switch on quicker than others so its important to select the right water if success is to be found. Its worth asking your local tackle shop or use information from last spring to help you make the right decision. I personally like to get a few runs early spring before switching to the lower stocked waters where the fish are going to be of specimen size later in the spring and takes few and far between.

What and how to feed?

Tench can be fickle at the best of times with even the so called ‘runs water’ switching on and off from day to day. I always bait up on the air of caution. 8 to 10 spods of  Frenzied hemp and small 2mm pellets is about right to start off a session which I will top up as the tench move in and I’m getting bites. Keep the bait small especially early season.

 

What is your top tench tactic?

A medium Drennan flat method feeder is perfect for tench fishing and i fish this with a size 10 Drennan Specialist hook and hair rig my hookbaits which are usually small dumbells or pop-up boilies. I then use a combination of scalded pellet and grubby groundbait to create a sticky mix which holds well on the feeder and I like to cast out regularly to get a response.

 

 

Top tench hookbaits?

My choice of hookbait at the moment is a 10mm CompleX-T Fluro pop-up but The Crave and The Source are also fantastic hookbaits for tench. Being Fluro/bright in colour and floating means the tench pick them out easily especially on silty bottoms. I fish them on short hooklinks.

Top tench tip:

A great little edge i was shown recently is to glug the ready Method ball just before casting in Dynamite’s new Sweet Tigernut Liquid which creates an attractive cloud around the rig and definitely homes the tench into the area.

No sessions are ever the same with the  tench throwing caution to the wind one day whilst a return trip could yield just one or two opportunities , it keeps things interesting and the bobbins moving and keeps me coming back whilst the bigger fish start to pack on weight for to target later in the spring.. Happy fishing..