10 QUICKFIRE TIPS
1 PUT A POP-UP HOOKBAIT ON
Tench love to patrol weedy and silty areas, and this can prove problematic when casting a baited feeder rig to the spots that they favour. Get your presentation wrong and your hookbait will be buried away amid the muck on the bottom, making it nigh-on impossible for the fish to find it. Bright mini pop-ups are very effective for tench. A 12mm version presented on a chod rig is very visible, and the rig’s mechanics mean that any tench that picks up the bait is likely to be hooked.
2 TURN TO CRUSHED HEMP
Getting tench over your baited area is your first task, but it’s equally important to hold their attention once they arrive. The offerings that you have introduced will dictate whether you are successful, and crushed hemp is aproven winner for keeping them occupied. Include afew handfuls in your groundbait mix and the tiny, active particles will make sure the tench are attracted to the bed of feed, which won’t fill them up too quickly.
3 ROTATE HOOKBAIT PRESENTATIONS
Many anglers think that making the correct choices in the bait department will be enough to catch them quality fish, but how they’re presented is just as important.
There are two styles to rotate between during asession –simple straight hooking and hair-rigging. If you start to miss bites when straight hooking, it’s likely to be down to the tench not mouthing the bait confidently.
Switching to ahair-rigged bait is the answer. This enables them to mouth the whole offering without feeling the hook and, once they try to swallow it, the hook goes in and it’s too late for them to eject it again.
4 BUILD UP THE BED
You may be tempted to reach for a big pole cup or Spomb to put down plenty of bait at the start, but this could be the kiss of death. As with all species in spring, how much food tench want on any given day is hard to predict, and putting too much in when they’re not particularly hungry can ruin your chances.
Build your swim up gradually, using a small pot each time you ship out or recast a Method feeder every 10 minutes. If you’re getting bites straight after you’ve fed, but then a lull ensues, it’s a sign that you can up the ante a little.
5 GLUG YOUR HOOKBAITS
As already mentioned, it’s impossible to know how hungry the tench will be when you start fishing at this time of year.
With that in mind, you need to make sure your hookbait is the first thing they are drawn towards, and flavouring it with a pungent glug will do just that. Make sure your loosefeed doesn’t have the same aroma so that the fish can easily pick out the heavily scented offering.
6 MAKE STODGY GROUNDBAIT
Most anglers will tell you that a light and fluffy groundbait mix that falls off a Method feeder within minutes of hitting t
