How to seperate the tench from the carp?

[JerryC]

The first thing I do on waters where carp are present, or indeed at any time, is locate the fish. Locating tench is usually pretty easy, it can be time consuming but by putting time into looking for rolling and bubbling fish you will be saving a lot of frustration later on. I look out for features - Most fish like features but in particular the tench love lilly pads. If you can find a spot with lilly pads then you have a great chance of catching them. They love anywhere that they can hide and feel safe.

Often tench are most vulnerable to capture in quite localised spots of perhaps a few feet in diameter. It is quite common for tench to show regularly in large areas yet within that area there will be one or perhaps two spots where the tench can be especially easy to catch.These areas are commonly quite different to the surrounding area with regards bottom composition. It is true that you will probably catch odd fish by presenting your baits close by these spots but you can’t beat the results achieved by presenting your baits with pin-point accuracy.

The lake's underwater detail is likely to have an influence regarding what measures will make the tench more catchable. In shallow water (for instance) the light is likely to penetrate to the bottom and if there’s a lot of light then the tench will easily be able to see an anglers terminal tackle. The lake-bed composition and contours are important because they dictate the best choice regarding tactics; when deciding which hook-link material, etc.

By using these tactics, and some others, I rarely hook carp when after tench - also with tench being such finicky fish I rarely finish using the same method that I started with.

[Grubenreiner]

Update:

Ive treid it all now but the carp are just to hungry and far too many.

Yesterday morning i was out with a friend and it was like fishing a commercial carp water freshly stocked.
worm, Sweetcorn, breadflake, groundbait no matter what or where, always carp after carp!
In 3 hours we had nearly 30 carp between the 2 of us, all between 3 and 6 lbs. If we didnt get a bite after 3 minutes we were pretty sure the rigs got tangled or the bait fell off.

In the evening i was out again, this time raking my swim in hope of tench.
5 minutes after getting my bait into the swim....carp. 5 minutes later....carp. Then a few roach and finally.......
MY first Tench of the season! Not big, but oh what a pleasure. Finally!
Though i gotta admit, it was definately more of a coincindence then really my efforts paying off.



P.S: It may sound strange complaining after so much action and fish being caught, but i slowly get really pissed off by those small carp that wont let you fish for anything else.

[Taprobanes]

Axel as it has been said on thread fishing for tench is an early morning sport and less so in the evening.

[Bluedun]

P.S: It may sound strange complaining after so much action and fish being caught, but i slowly get really pissed off by those small carp that wont let you fish for anything else.

Nothing worse than catching fish after fish - "utter mortuary boredom" as a wise angler once said.

[Grubenreiner]

Axel as it has been said on thread fishing for tench is an early morning sport and less so in the evening.

I know its true, but as water temperatures were still kind of low i thought id give it a try in the evening when the spring sun has warmed up the shallows during the day.
In adition, on the weekends i tend to not fish the early mornings cause i normally use the nights to visit the pubs Early morning fishing is for weekdays before work....

[Taprobanes]

No Axel.. you use the nights to catch worms,, then you can fish early morning ,, then Pub lunch until worm time again
In fact I have found that lob worms while a great bait for tench are not so good for carp, maggots are much better, so they may be worth a try with them to cut down on the small carp a bit.

[Grubenreiner]

No Axel.. you use the nights to catch worms,, then you can fish early morning ,, then Pub lunch until worm time again

But then id need a driver to get me from the Pub back to the waters edge, you see, when i leave a Pub im normally not in a condition to fish responsively anymore,not to speak of driving a car legally...

[Taprobanes]

OK, there's a saying in England that many men drink to forget, maybe you drink to forget ...those little carp!
And try lob worms.

[GazTheAngler]

Grub,

Taprobanes is right try some lobbies.

I used to fish in Germany 20 Years ago, never had any Tench as we used to fish a backwater of the Rhine, We did astonish most people by putting our fish back though!

Gaz