The tench fishing has continued to be very patchy over the summer with very few to show for my efforts.

This session I decided to bait fairly light to begin with and slowly build up the bait in the swim. I put in about 2 pints bait consisting of mixed pellet, hemp and corn and a small amount of hemp n’ hali crush, which was used to plug the spod. The pellet was added to the liquid of the hemp and corn and aloud to soften to make a nice cloud and hopefully attract the tench.

My first run came at 4am, a nice tench of 7lb which had an unusual black spot on its flank. The bait in my bucket was a lovely slop now, all the pellet had completely softened so I opted to put a couple more spods of bait in each time I got a run hoping the cloud of attractants would draw more tench into the swim. My approach seemed to work as I continued to take tench at regular intervals throughout the morning and the fish were now really fizzing in the swim.

Another run came and straight away it did not feel like a tench. All my other fish had dived straight for weed whereas this one felt slow and heavy like a big bream. The fish surfaced under the rod end and to my surprise it was a large carp. I quickly netted it and it went bonkers and proceeded to break the cord of my net, I can’t help but thinking i might have had an epic fight on my hands if I had not netted it when I did. The carp obviously could not resist muscling in on the feeding frenzy.

I recognised the fish as one I had caught the previous year and it was now my new personal best at 36-14. What an end to a cracking morning’s tench action.