WHERE TO FISH
Tench, carp and bream the attraction at North House Lake
THERE are few greater sights in angling than a tench lake on a misty spring dawn, with fish rolling and fizzing all around your swim.
We recently visited one water where you can enjoy just that. The four-acre North House Lake, in Wyboston, Bedfordshire, is a triangular shape, with good marginal weed growth and many mature willows separating approximately 25 swims.
Depths range from 3ft to 10ft, and in its waters swim a fantastic head of tench, gorgeous scaly carp and a few large bream.
It’s intimate enough to really get to know, yet not so small that you feel you’ve cracked it after a few sessions. With relatively simple tactics, though, a few quality fish are a realistic goal every session – anything from a couple of chunky tench to a 35lb carp!
SIMPLICITY SCORES
Kevin Sanders doesn’t live far from North House Lake and often pays it a few visits over spring , targeting its tench.
“There’s a great chance you’ll pick up a fish or two and, if they’re really feeding , excellent catches are on the cards,” he told us.
“Tench fishing can get expensive when piles of maggots, casters and worms are introduced. But I’ve had success here on the Method feeder, using no more than a few boilies as feed and some micro pellets, which I soak and mould around the feeder.”
Kev opts for a 12mm pop-up boilie hookbait, fished an inch off bottom by adding a blob of putty just below the hook. “Over the top, I’ll fire out a few small boilies to keep the fish grazing over an area. Also, if possible, I’ll bait up the night before,” he said.
Before introducing any bait, though, Kev will always have a few casts with an unloaded feeder or a bare lead to get a feel for an area.
“You can judge the depth by the time it takes to hit bottom and, by dragging your lead back towards you, you can get a sense of what you’re fishing over,” Kevin explained.
“I’ll use two rods, dropping one on to a marginal spot and the other into open water.”
Plenty of other approaches will work at North House, as we learned on our visit. Kevin was fishing the widest part of the lake, at the ‘base’ of its triangle. Furth
