Ranking

Tinkas

My local water was stocked with tench last year and some of them are finally putting on some useful weight. many years ago cormorants targeted the water during the winter and wiped out the hibernating fish. The tench now are at the size where they can get their mouths around boilies and hnv baits and I expect them to start packing on some weight... as long as they can avoid the cormorants.

Secret Spots

I  was back on my local water last night and ran into my old mate Kev, whilst talking about this and that he told me about his secret spot which was very close to Cliffs that I caught off last week. I ended up back in the same peg with a rod down the left margin to Cliffs secret spot and a bait down the right hand margin to Kevs spot which was tight into the bank and only a few yards from the rods and to say I was sceptical is a large under statement. A third rod was cast about 25 yards straight out.
As the evening went on I had a few small stock carp around 3 or 4 pound and some small tench and my optimism for a decent fish was starting to slide. Shortly after dark and with me sitting well back my right hand rod roared off and after a dogged fight I was relieved to slip the net under an 18lb 4oz common, a critically balanced snowman accounted for its downfall.
With time ticking on I decided to give it another 20 minutes before I packed up, to save time I flicked the same bait back onto Kevs spot expecting any further runs to  come from one of the other undisturbed baited areas. 15 minutes later the same rod flew off again and after a slightly shorter fight I had a 19lb 4oz common in the net.
Since restocking last year all the fish are down in weight by a few pounds.

 18lb 4oz

19lb 4oz

At long Last

I returned to my favourite concrete hole in the ground, life seems to have conspired against me and its been too long since I wet a line. I picked my spot in a quiet corner and dropped a bait in each margin and the middle rod about 25 yds out. other than a few twitches all remained uneventful.
Around 6 in the evening (it was an after work session) my old pal Cliff turned up and we had a long chat about this and that as you often do on the bank. Finally he said he'd show me a secret spot. It was around 2 foot off the bank on the sloping bottom and a few yards from where I'd been fishing. In addition to the new spot I tied up some fresh rigs using new Fox Arma Point hooks and Korda Kickers to give the hook a more aggressive angle.
Almost immediately I had a couple of pasties on each rod before finally connecting with a 15lb common from my new secret spot. It was a relief to say the least to put a decent fish on the bank.
In the mean time Cliff had put 4 doubles on the bank caught off the top in half the time it took me to catch my common.
Amongst some of the things we discussed was hook sharpening, I'm now on the lookout for a hook sharpener and jewellers eyepiece . watch this space.