At 7.00pm on Wednesday evening, soaking wet and cold, I put a can of luncheon meat, diced into ¼” cubes, into the middle of a sparse lilly bed. Yes, in the middle. I also caught a couple of tench about 3lb and lost two others.
Thursday morning I arrived at the lake at 7.00am and put my gear in the pre-baited swim. Then I went home again because I had left the bait in the kitchen. Oops. The water was like a mirror, there was no wind, just the remnants of the dawn mist. Fish were bubbling and the American bullfrogs were laughing at me, very loudly.
I decided to use stronger line than usual, 5lb bs Drennan straight through, a bigger hook, size 10 barbless, and no shot to weaken the line. I used a plastic ledger stop to lock the float, a crystal waggler. Self-cocking and easy to cast.
It was a comfortable cast to the edge of the lilies. Within a few minutes the float dived towards the lily bed and a firm strike produce the usual heavy, thumping lunge of a big tench. I clamped my hand over the spool and heaved, the rod hooped over and I slowly gained line. The line squeaked as it cut through the lily pads which floated away in the swirls and splashes. It was a good fish, a female about 3lbs.
I released her from the landing net and cast again. Same result, another nice tench. The third cast produced my third tench ! Things looked good. The fish were a bit spooky by now so I rested the swim. I was feeding a few ½” cubes of luncheon meat every ten minutes. After three hours I had caught twelve tench, three of which were close to 5lbs. The smallest was 3lbs.
Her Ladyship arrived with a picnic lunch and we sat in the sun for half an hour, with hot-cross-buns, chocolate, crips and coffee. Yummy.
By 1.00pm the sun was blazing down and the bites had stopped. Fish were rolling in the lily beds, they were taking snail’s eggs off the underside of the leaves. Time for a different approach. Off with float; freeline in the lily beds. I threaded a fluorescent red sight bob onto the line about three feet from the hook. The sight bob was a sponge ear defender (a shooting accessory) which floats high in the water but could also soak up water if I needed a longer cast.
I cast into the lily bed and the luncheon meat was taken on the drop. The line chimed and squeaked, the fish thrashed about, the sponge sight bob deformed and slipped through the lily stalks. Slowly, the fish came into open water and eventually, into the net. For the next three hours I was busy targeting individual fish as they browsed under the lilies. By 4.00pm I had stalked and landed several fish, the biggest was 4lb 14ozs.
I was tired, sun burnt, de-hydrated, running out of bait and on the point of going home. One last cast. I saw a fish and put a lump of meat over a pad as close to the fish as I could. The line immediately shot out and I connected with a fish that tore around the lake leaving a trail of chopped up lily leaves in its wake. With every thump on the line, my estimation of the size of the tench went up, could this be the elusive 7lb-er ? I eventually saw it, a common carp of about 6lb !
Things went very quiet after that. At that time my tally was 23 tench and 1 carp. I wanted one more tench. I crept along the bank, saw a fish, dropped a lump of meat next to it and to my relief it took the bait. Twenty four tench on April 24th; a good time to leave. The clouds were billowing, heavy rain is forecast for Friday. A perfect days fishing.
I stared at the float and was certain it would go under.
