We are the U.K’s leading manufacturer of imitation baits and were the first to produce the now famous “Popup sweetcorn” back in 1999, the original and best!Tony Gibson Superb Tench.
First session of the Spring targeting the tench on the big pit after a reasonably successful early Spring fishing for the carp. Fishing the days moving about fishing different swims for a couple of hours or so and bivvying up at night in the one swim.
The big tench came early in the morning after the first night.
Because of the weed in many of the swims that I fished (including the one the that produced the big tench), I searched for clean or clearer areas with a couple of false casts on each rod and stuck to fishing at reasonably short range. I also threaded a PVA stick of groundbait down the short hooklink and buried the point of the hook in the groundbait to ensure good presentation of the hookbaits and to keep the hook points clear of the weed.
The bite was a couple of warning bleeps on the alarm, then a slight pause before it took off. It felt like a decent fish from the start, but didn’t do anything exiting at first and I initially thought I was going to land it quite quickly and without any fuss. However just a it neared the landing net it seemed to wake up and put up quite a protracted fight, with lots of the powerful juddering on the line typical of a good male tench, before I was able to finally get it into the net.
From memory its the second largest male tench that I’ve ever caught, so obviously well pleased with it.
Fish: Tench (male) of 9.03
Venue: 90 acre Cambridgeshire gravel pit.
Date: Session (3 days/nights) Monday 23rd – Thurs 26th May.
Tackle:
Rods: Pair “Tony Gibson Multi-Specialist” 12ft.
Reels: Shimano Baitrunners
Line: 12lb Mono
Hooklink: 4.5 inches of 15lb weed green Nash Combilink with the coating stripped off on the hair and by the hook.
Hooks: Size 10’s
Leads: 2.5oz inline flat pears
Bait:
Hookbaits: A 12mm Meaty Fish Bite pellet tipped with a yellow Enterprise plastic maggot soaked in green-lipped mussel flavor fished on a short hair.
Groundbait: A 2.5″ long PVA stick of Meaty Marine groundbait was threaded down the hooklink on each cast.
Tight Lines Tony Gibson