Tinca on the top?

[Nigel Rainton]

During my last tench session they were feeding on frog spawn attached to the underside of the lily leaves. Fish up to 7lb were just a few inches under the surface.

[Martin James]

Probably feeding on emergers, usually buzzers Regards Martin

[Loop Erimder]

When I fished the estate lake the other week I saw fish on the top and a couple jumped and they didn't look like carp. Very dark and could well of been tench

[Kev Parr]

I am another who has taken them off the top.

A friend and I fished surface baits for carp well into dark one night and a shoal of tench 'moved in'. We caught several on crust, though they were trickier to hook than the carp had been.

I used to keep fish in a tank and they were fed with floating food. The tench happily came to the surface, though their approach was interesting. They would move vertically towards each morsel, relying heavily on their pectoral fins for stability.

I ended up with just a solitary rudd and solitary tench who lived happily together for many years. 'Ruddy', being far more suited to their 'environment' grew at least five times larger than 'tenchy', though there was never any aggression between the two.


bestest kev

[Nigel Rainton]

The tench in my local pond were cruising around just under the lily pads, partly because of the very hot weather but mainly feeding on snails eggs attached to the underside of the pads.



I thought I would freeline and hang the bait over a convenient lily pad.

On my last visit they were taking luncheon meat so I cast a small ball of meat about 4' into the lilies and watched the line.



It was a very hot day (26 Degrees) with no breeze. It was humid and overcast, good weather for tench.

After about an hour I rebaited and cast to the same lily pad, the bait was hanging about 12" under the surface.



I was dozing in the sunshine and I kept telling myself to stay alert, 'Any second the line will shoot out'.

I lost concentration, staring at the line is tiring. As expected the line twitched and then snaked across the surface. I struck and the reel fell off ! In the ensuing debacle the tench burrowed its way deep into the lily roots. Eventually I retrieved my hook.

I fished for a few more hours but nothing happened so no tench pictures today gentlemen.

I read on another post that fixing a rubber band below the lowest reel fitting prevents the reel falling off and I had done this on several of my rods. However, not on the rod I decided to use ! Another learning point.