It was 5am and I was awaked by my dog running around barking at the Milkman, woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I thought, I’m due to go fishing this afternoon, why not have a early morning fishing session, which would be a first for me in a long time. I jumped out of bed and checked the weather, it was really good conditions for fishing, it was slightly overcast; barely any wind and the temperatures felt good, not cold, but not warm. My last session at Burton Pedwardine saw me select Peg 12 and catch a PB Carp of about 12lbs and the target Tench of 2lbs. I felt very ambitious this time and decided to focus on catching a bigger Tench, with the minimum acceptable weight being 5lbs. So, I loaded the gear in the car and went to the local 24/7 and got some sweet corn, as it’s my favoured bait for Tench.
Target Species: a 5lbs+ Tench
Net Weight: Doesn’t matter
Pre-session Plan, Rigs and the Peg
On the way to the venue, listening to Guns and Roses and ACDC on the radio, I remembered something I saw on the TV series, a Passion for Angling, this prompted me to make plans to rake the margins with my bank stick to kick up the nutrients in the mud in the margins. Apparently, this drives Tench crazy and thought it was worth a try. When I arrived at the venue, it was empty and not a soul around. Below is the view of Burton Pedwardine fishery from the car park.
The time was 6:30am and I decided to have a walk around the place and look for signs of activity. From instinct, I wanted to walk over to Peg 17 which is a big double peg and fish the margins there; the only problem was that the possible swims looked dead and full of snags. The best peg in my honest opinion which showed a lot of signs of activity out in the open in the form of bubbles and swirls was accessible by Peg 11. By this time, the sun was rising.
After unloading all the gear from the car and deciding what rigs to use. I remembered the raking of the margins idea. So, I realised I won’t be able to reach with my bank stick, and I don’t fancy having a little swim. So, I used my landing net stick and poked the margins and scraped the end of the stick on the bottom and made sure I kicked up a lot of dirt. As the dirt was being kicked up and settling down again, I plumbed up my swim and found out that the margins in a cross section looked pretty much like the picture below.
I thought about fishing tight to the margins and I found it was only 1ft deep. It is possible to catch from that deep, but it won’t be as prolific. This meant I had to settle for 2.5ft and 4ft respectively. Whilst sorting out a shot pattern for one of my rigs, I notice Tench bubbles coming right up where I raked the margins. After seeing this, I chucked in a handful of sweet corn to keep them interested and there whilst I sort out a shotting pattern.
In the picture, you can see what my rigs were like, as 2ft is pretty shallow, I felt that there won’t be as many silver fish like Roach, Rudd and Bleak in the vicinity. After that feeling, I decided to have a spread out pattern in rig 1 so the bait just drops onto the loose feed with a natural looking presentation.
Rig 2 was there in case the fish were deeper in the water, as you can see, all the shots are in a bulk roughly 6 inches away from the hook. This is to get the bait to the bottom quickly through the silver fish.
I was happy with my selections and I felt it would catch me a few fish. In both rigs, the line used was 6lbs Preston Power line, Preston PR21 hooks, both were size 16 and all the shots used were no 8 pole shots. The floats used in rig 1 was the average looking margin float, a Drennan Choppa margin float. As for Rig 2, it was more or less in deeper water, so I used a float that had a longer tip and a more round body as there wasn’t a lot of wind to disturb the water.
There was a small problem before I started fishing properly... my keep net doesn’t sink, so for the fish’s welfare, I decided to not bother with a keep net and use it as a makeshift unhooking mat. It was a soft wet material, so why not?
The Fishing
I started off using rig 1 and the minute the float went in the water, it disappeared under the water and I duly struck... into nothing. I wondered if the float was too heavy, so I put the rig out in the open to see if the float was overshot. It wasn’t so it was a promising start. As I put the float back in the margins, it didn’t take long for it to go back under and I struck... into nothing again! What is going on I thought. I gave it another go, and this time... it stayed up for about 5 minutes before bobbing along... then straight under and struck! This time I connected into a fish!
This fish didn’t seem to know it was hooked, so I played it slowly and carefully without putting too much pressure on it, and within a minute, a 6lb carp was landed.
The carp was a fantastic start, even though it is not what I am after, but any fish is welcome because I love to catch fish. After putting the rig back in the water, I hooked a small Tench of about 2lbs straightaway. I didn’t take a picture of this fish because the swim was literally bubbling with Tench bubbles and I didn’t want to waste time with pictures just in case there was a big Tench of 5lbs or bigger in the swim.
When I put the rig back in the water, I hooked and landed a few more Carp to about 4lbs and some Tench to roughly 3lbs. After that, the swim died and out in the open, a pristine looking Carp of roughly 8-9lbs surfaced and swam along the surface.
This prompted me to change my rig and fish the 4ft deep swim. This proved to be the best decision of the day as it appeared that the fish in the swim decided to go down deeper into the water. The first fish from this swim felt like a good one as the fight took me all over the peg. I was secretly hoping that it was the Tench I was hoping for. Whilst playing the fish, my phone rang and that signalled that it was time for me to start packing up ready to go home due to the fact that I had plans for dinner. It didn’t take me long to tire the fish out after hearing my phone ring. It was a Tench and it looked like a good one. I landed the Tench and immediately took it to my keep net which is being used as a makeshift unhooking mat.
On first impressions, I would guess that the Tench weighed about 4lbs, so I decided to find out what its actual weight was. The result surprised me as it meant that I have been under estimating the actual weight. The scales stopped at 4lbs 13oz, just 3oz short of my target. I was happy to have caught a good Tench, but slightly annoyed about the other 3oz. I released the Tench and started packing up, loaded the car and drove home after an enjoyable and relaxing 4 hours fishing.
Summary
Fish Caught:
Tench: 5 (Biggest 4lbs 13oz)
Carp: 6 (Biggest roughly 6lbs)
I felt that it was a good day’s fishing and overall, I reflected how I caught the fish. I have to admit that I felt the idea of raking the margins made the difference and could quite possibly be the reason why I had a good catch of Carp and Tench. Also, sweet corn did the business for me yet again and because of this, I felt that it was unnecessary to use different baits.
The venue itself is fantastic as most of the pegs are easy to get access to, however, the main concern is the fact that some pegs are in due need for repair, such as Peg 12 where the front of the peg seems to be crumbling into the water and Peg 1 has no platform at all. The biggest plus of this venue is the fact that its perfect for pole fishing and the fact that it’s a natural pond, not a commercial. The fish in the water are in very good condition, close to perfect, but sadly some of the fish have marks on them which suggest there are some pike in the water. Some of these marks are on the mouths which, suggests poor handling by some other anglers.
Overall, I would give the venue a 9/10 because it provides a good challenge to catch some fish, despite the fact that it needs maintenance work on some of the pegs.
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