It had been a slightly slow start to spring for tench anglers across Britain, but last week we saw a trio of ‘doubles’ reported, signalling the start of peak season for the nation’s favourite species.
Each year as May transitions to June, enthusiasts of the warm-weather fish set off in search of a plump specimen, with the very largest reported generally females.
Lee Fisher, however, proved that occasionally, male tench can grow to huge sizes too when he slipped the net under a specimen of 11lb 2oz.
Distinguishable by their bulging pectoral muscles, male tench are generally significantly smaller than females of the species, with any fish over 8lb regarded as a truly special tench.
A double-figure male is an incredibly rare sight, with very few accounts existing of them being caught.
So, Lee was unsurprisingly delighted to slip the net under his huge fish, which equals Les Bowers’ 11lb 2oz male landed last August – a specimen that, at the time, was confirmed by the Tenchfishers as the biggest example they had heard of in recent years.
Catching the memorable male
Although Lee was carp fishing at the time of his capture, with his fish falling to a boilie hookbait fished on strong tackle, Lee landed his tench by design while fishing at Farnham Angling Club’s Mill Lane Fishery, Surrey.
“Having fed a large bed of boilies, maggots and pellets, I fished a Drennan flatbed Method feeder over the top,” he told us.
“This was loaded with groundbait and small pellets. Below it I used a short braided hooklink and a size 14 hook, baited with a trimmed-down boilie topped with maggots.
“I had the bite in the early hours of the morning, with the fish a personal best for me by far. It’s exceptionally large for a male.”
Quick-hit of doubles
Next to get in on the tench action was Leicestershire angler Rhys Barkby, who also landed a specimen of 11lb 2oz, although his fish was a female.
Targeting a water on the border of his home county, 35-year-old Rhys impressively braced this specimen with another fish just over the 10lb mark, with the bites coming less than two hours apart!
“I’d regularly seen tench roll in an area of the 50-acre gravel pit so decided to spend a bit of time targeting them,” he told us.
“Having found a spot at range off the back of a weedbed where I had 10ft of water, I fed a large bed of pellets, corn, hemp and chopped boilies, and fished a simple hair-rig with a 10mm yellow boilie as my hookbait.”
Waking up the following morning, it didn’t take long for Rhys to land his first fish.
“At 9am I had a take from the first double of the session, which I was pleased enough with, but at 10:30am I had an aggressive take, with the fish ripping 20 yards of line instantly.
“The fish put up a great battle all the way to the bank with my barbel rod arched right over, but eventually I had a new PB in the net.”
A spring to remember
It’s not just individual big fish that anglers have caught over recent weeks, as Jake Benson showed when he reported a phenomenal spell of tench fishing.
He’s been fishing at Cambridgeshire’s St Ives Lakes and has landed 28 tench averaging 8lb this spring, capped by a specimen of 10lb 7oz, alongside another of 10lb 2oz, not to mention a few nine-pounders.
This popular complex is best known among carp anglers, but by giving its tench his full focus lately, Jake’s efforts have been rewarded in style.
“The fishing was just incredible,” he told us. “I’d bait up at night with hemp, groundbait, casters and pellets and would wake up at the crack of dawn to fish rolling over my spots.
“I’d cast into the ripples they left and would walk back to my bedchair, knowing that the rod would tear off at any minute,” he said.
On his most recent session, Jake was targeting a gravel bar around 30 yards out, which was covered in fine silk weed.
“Before fishing I must have made about 100 casts with a castable rake to clear a spot to fish over,” he explained.
“I gave it my everything this spring – if any cast didn’t land quite right, I’d bring the rod in and redo it.
“I wanted to ensure I was doing everything to fish as well as I could.”
