THANKS to everyone who has watched my tench fishing videos and given them the thumbs up and given me some great comments. If there is anything you would like me to cover in upcoming videos then please just let me know in the comments and I will do my best!
Brilliant Paul. Your best video yet and the best tench tactics video I’ve seen..... & I’ve watched a lot! It would be interesting if you filmed heavily glugged baits and baits wrapped in paste at that estate lake to see if the hook up ratio improved with the softer boilies.
Hi Paul since watching your video’s I switched to using a short hooklink with popped up maggots on my local pits. To my surprise I started catching big roach to over 2 lbs and I’m loving it!
Fantastic video! Really interesting, thought provoking, footage Paul. I agree entirely with your reasoning on feeding little and often and building up a swim (suppose it's pretty much akin to what match anglers do when trying to catch in often less than ideal conditions?). It's undoubtedly a fine balance between putting in enough bait to keep the fish rooting about whilst at the same time not putting in too much as to minimise the likelihood of the hook bait being picked up. in times gone by I've often piled in lobworms, flake samples and mashed bread and caught huge bags of tench although that was on more traditional venues with plenty of fish present rather than gin clear low stock pits and reservoirs. Unless I'm session fishing (I now fishing mainly days), my usual ploy on such venues is to create a dark lasting cloud containing lots of attraction but with minimal food content. The "slop" I use contains liquidised corn, casters and hemp to which I add plenty of finely chopped worms and maggots plus crushed casters. I mix this with mole hill dirt and sometimes a small amount of fine black cloud ground-bait and molasses. Being honest it's a nasty soup type concoction but it creates an incredible cloud that lasts for ages. I normally introduce a few small spods upon arrival then rely on the maggot feeder to create hot-spots around my baits. I'll then add more "soup" after hooking a fish and this often leads to more bites in quick succession. Rig wise again I think you are absolutely correct. I used to believe fish are scared of the components in a rig but logic says they can't be that clever(can they?).undoubtedly small hooks and fine lines do seem to produce more bites but I'm now sure this is simply because they help present a bait more naturally than when using heavier gear. Until recently my go to tench rigs were "Tring" style confidence type set - up's comprising hair rigged caster/maggot/worm on size 14-18 super-spades (10-12 super specialists for worm sections) to 5 -9" Silstar mono links of 3.3lb to 7.7lb bs (dependant on weed). These were always fished on 14lb powergum helicopter leader arrangements which enabled the use of such light gear. I've viewed the set up in the water and it certainly seems not to deter the fish as they suck and blow BUT even though the fish happily revisit a bait presented in such a fashion and thus give several opportunities/bites at the cherry the rig doesn't actually offer 100% efficient self hooking properties. However, having viewed a great video showing Paul Scowen's go to rig, which seems to replicate your set up, I'm more and more convinced that popping up the bait is the way forward. I'd previously lost fish and had no faith in fluorocarbon but since changing to heavier breaking strains its been fine. My links are often only 1 to 2 inches long but I'm sure they hook up virtually every time. Anyway, sorry I've waffled on for too long!..........Great video as always, look forward to the next one. All the best.
Jango Jango hi Jango, many thanks for the comment, very interesting to read how you approach your fishing. It’s very rare for me to use much bait in Stillwater a any more, whatever the species to be honest. On rivers though I will use s lot more as the underwater filming has shown me how quickly it is dispersed - still fed little and often thought My philosophy is that I’d rather fish for a bite at a time. Fluoro - you have to be careful in the lighter breaking strains as there are some poor ones out there. I tend to use Riverge, which a lot of trout fishing friends use. Definitely try popping-up it can make a big difference. Best wishes, Paul
That was a really great vid,straight to the point and very inspiring! Nothing fancy just tips on what works and works well. Thoroughly enjoyed that as I love low stock pits,like the bit about catching not feeding...so true
Very informative and helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I notice that even as the quantity of maggots disappeared from the swim, there were still lots around the feeder. I've just watched another underwater video where all the bait had been eaten in the swim, except for a long line of it under the anglers lines. It seems that while they aren't particularly scared of anglers tackle, they don't really want to eat very close to it. I sometimes wonder how we catch anything at all.
Wanted a tench one day guy across from me was using bloodworm flavour bait I’m unsure whether ground bait or hook bait but he had one tench after another Will try that tactic next summer
Hi Richard, in heavy weed I swap to a drop-off inline lead and a PVA bag of maggots as the feeder can get stuck in the weed, especially if a tench makes a headlong rush into the thick stuff. I will almost always use popped-up maggots. I normally use a small piece of rig foam (either on the hook or you could put it on a hair) as the buoyancy you get from floating maggots is often not enough to keep a size 10 forged hook up. Best wishes, Paul
Great vid Paul as always,I have fished for tench once my pike fishing ends around April/may and it's fantastic when there really feeding hard ,fizzing in the water is an understatement 😆😆, myself and friend on one 48hr session had 265 pounds of fish and amazing the baits the will take,maggots to double prawn hair rigged, anyways tight lines all the best from Dublin Ireland
We have amazing Tench fishing in Tasmania and no ones doing it here.crazy its so fun. Ive seen them bashing hatches and they love grasshoppers. check out some I have caught on grasshoppers.:)
@@Ror0009 Hi Davey I'm also from Australia and fish for Tench, yes they are exactly the same .They were introduced here in the Southern states from the UK .Same fish ,same habits,same everything.
Great to hear your thoughts and I agree with a lot of what you say particularly regarding not giving them too much food. I've found a method feeder (the 3 lobed variety rather than flatbed) with 3 -5 worm sections on a quick stop rig really good when they're not feeding much. I use a fishmeal based method mix with a fair amount of bits and pieces (hemp, corn, maggots, casters, pellet etc.) added and wrapped around the feeder so its about the size of a goose egg, seems to give off enough attraction to draw them in and seems to hold their attention without risking overfeeding. Certainly worth a try if maggots aren't working their usual magic. Best of luck
Amazing underwater footage! Been catching tench at my club lakes this past month and it really feels like summer is coming now! Really enjoyed your video and the tips. Thanks.
Bivvies and Buzzers are not my style. Using a pole, 14 hook with Scopex flavored pellet I had my red letter day with 110lb of tench, biggest 5lb. Never done it since. Nice video again.
petemason57 that was a real red letter day. There’s a video on here with my friend Duncan Charman catching tench and crucians on the float right under the rod tip. 🙂
Thank you so much! I switched to your helicopter rig with the feeder at the end (with a slight adaptation in the form of an inline method lead instead of a grub feeder... although I have purchased some of those as well, but I don't have any money left for maggots unfortunately :P ), and I finally started catching tons! So far, I've caught 3 rather huge tench, lots of big bream and a small carp in about 3/4 fishing sessions. Again, thanks for making that possible! Kind regards from the other side of the Channel!
Hi Emiel, wow! Thanks for taking the time to write such a great comment. I am really pleased that the rigs and ideas are working for you so well. Yes, of course there is no reason why you can't use a Method feeder instead of the grub feeder, actually we use it sometimes like this with grounbait on the feeder. Good luck and tight lines! Paul
Abother excellent video. Question, when you are playing a fish on the helicopter rig, does the line stop just slide down to the feeder under the pressure?
Paul Cuddy thanks Paul, glad you liked it. Yes, the stop will slide down. I’ve never found this to be a problem, but you could set it up like some chod rigs with either a piece of tubing or a chod tail to act as a slight shock-absorber. I like that stopper slides down as the feeder natural hangs down when playing a fish so having it ‘short’ means it picks up less weed. Years ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of fishing with a helicopter set-up with the swivel direct on the main line either - this cause a guillotine effect that cut the main line. With modern lines their abrasion resistance means this isn’t something to worry about - just don’t use a super-thin for its breaking strain main line.
Another excellent video Paul, we are all so lucky to have your insights and tips into these allusive fish. It's interesting how they repeatedly blew out the boile. There are some great videos on RU-vid now I feel very fortunate to learn from guys like you who take the time to put this content together for us. Thanks....
Graham Wright many thanks Graham. Yes, there is so much great footage on RU-vid now. I know some people think it takes a little of the magic away, but I love watching fish and find how they behave fascinating.
Your welcome @@drpaulgarner I don't think it takes the magic away a find it fascinating as well. Thanks to footage like this we now know we're being had over half the time, and its not as easy as even the best of us think. Paul Scowen's video's are really interesting, particularly one of his latest ones pointing out the importance of line lay. Tight lines fellas.
Thanks El Carpo! Yes, I am definitely planning on making some barbel videos. Our river fishing season just opened, so hopefully I will have some footage soon. :-)
Great video - and I that modified rig for the margins might solve some of my problems! I was just wondering the hook link situation works on this rig - I'm reluctant to pop maggots up directly over a feeder, I'm sure a short stiff link would work for maggots on the deck. Perhaps some kind of tiny combi rig with maggots and foam would do well although I wouldn't know where to start!
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P1_4742PQJ4.html Check the rig out in this video. Popped up maggots using foams works with great success
Will Coombs hi Will, yep it works even when right by the feeder. When I first tried this I was concerned about foul hooking, but that’s never been a problem.
Hi Gary, you can do that mate, although I tend not two for a couple of reasons. It can lead to more tangles and snagging up, plus there is the chance of the second hook catching a fish whilst you are playing it in (because the two hook lengths are going to be pretty close together). For safety and simplicity, I'm happy to stick with just the one hooklength.
