While many anglers are familiar with tench and maybe even the golden tench, very few will have heard of the blue variety, simply because they are so rare. While initially bred for ornamental ponds, a few fisheries have stocked them, but as they are very hard to source, there are a very select number of places to catch them. Despite this, Charlie Rorison-Jones managed to become on of the few anglers to land one of these rare varieties of one of Britain's favourite coarse fish.
“On a trip to Anglers Paradise, I fished the Specimen Tench Lake, from which I caught this 3lb 8oz blue tench, plus golden tench and some two-tone tench!
“The blue tench was the highlight, as they’re very rare. I had mine on legered luncheon meat, cast just off the margins.
“I was on the water for sunrise, cast out and crossed my fingers. After a while, I was contemplating changing hookbaits, when the tip suddenly bent round, and I hooked a fish that took me all over the swim. My excitement doubled when I saw the colour of it!”
