Well in at the deep end I suppose

[The Mog]

One of the reasons I moved over here was because of the Tench fishing. At the time most of the Irish anglers were concerned only with Pike,Trout or Salmon .The English anglers(visitors)would crawl out of their pits at about 10am after a night on the sauce and fling their feeders out over huge beds of bait( Either put in by themselves or by the anglers the week before) and catch Bream all day long. This left a huge opportunity for the avid Tencher. They are not big fish by any means the Irish record is a smidge over 8lb and a specimen is classed as over 6lb .However they do tend to be incredible fighters a lot of them still to this day are virgin caught so therefore extremely wild when caught (both meanings)
Since the advent of commercials and other influences ,Zebra mussels, pesticides and the cost of living to name a few there are fewer visiting anglers now .The Irish (not all )seem to have taken to tench fishing quite well and is a growing sport so to speak .So to the crux of the matter .I have over 40 lakes within half an hours drive all with a huge head of these tench .The best in my opinion Tench fishing ever ,even better than the UK back in the seventies .Where lakes at dawn are empty during the week and you can sit down and relax to the sound of nature waking up around you. They are not in the same class as estate lakes but harken back to the like of Bury Hill or the Stew ponds at Epsom in the late Seventies although bigger and wilder .
In my mind its absolute bliss they are not big but who cares in the scheme of things . I had a red letter a couple of years ago where I caught 7 fish which totalled to just under 42lb including a male of around 5lb 12. (they say a male grows to 60%of the weight of a female in that given water ) and that was in time to get home for breakfast .

The Irish record ( I am pretty sure) gets broken at least twice a year from around here but is never claimed by discerning anglers who just cannot be bothered faffing around with it all and just enjoy the moment for themselves.

Most of the fish caught are on the traditional types of bait you advocate on here .IF tench could speak they would say on any round things they were given to eat perhaps thats why they are average around the same size as in the seventies and early eighties in the UK (before the B**lie revolution). The only thing I use now thats modern apart from line and end tackle for these is small halibut pellets in the groundbait like hemp it resembles small snails and a bag of van de eynde expo mixed in with a load of brown crumb or sim
When the season starts again I will keep you all inform of my antics and if any of you would like to enjoy this timewarp although I am not in position to put you up I will make sure you are put on some stunning lakes and nearly( nothing is certain about fishing so guarantee you a few Tench to boot .Dont hesitate to give me shout if interested or not as the case maybe

[Robbi]

i'm in the North MOG although i have traveled around the South a fair bit for work and holidays,where abouts are you ?

( nearest big town would do )

[Northern Eel]

Hi Mr Mog,

I will look forward to you reports next season.

I would say tench fishing is my favourite, around where I live there are many wild lakes that contain plenty of good tench so I grew up fishing for tench, like where you are fishing here they have often not been caught before & put up a good fight, not quite as hard as the carp but I would much rather catch tench anyway, a much more dignified fish in my opinion, underrated & very much ignored now due the obsession with carp that has taken over modern fishing.

I have found the tench fishing isn't as good as in the 80's & 90's I'm not sure why but its more difficult, gone are the days when you could turn up with a tin of sweetcorn & a bit of groundbait & catch 4 or 5 tench on the float, now it requires much more perseverance & the waters seem very temperamental.
I remember when you would see loads of fizzing bubbles almost as soon as you baited up!
I think it has something to do with less people fishing these waters in the old ways, raking swims, float fishing & sweetcorn/hemp seem to have been replaced with boilies & bite alarms.

I'm planning on putting some serious effort into tenching in the coming season to see if I can roll back the years & score some fine tench, like the old days.

[GazTheAngler]

HI MOG,

I love my Tench fishing and your part of the Emerald Isle sounds like heaven.

My Wife's dad came from Kerry and we tend to go over there once or twice a year. Not much Coarse fishing in the Kingdom though,but there are some cracking looking lakes.

Whereabouts are you?

Gaz

[Julian]

Sounds very nice - like tench fishing as it used to be here thirty plus years ago

[The Mog]

My country pile is near Roosky .If anybody over here wants a heads up on "some of the lakes then I will gladly give Just pm me . I didnt really explain myself properly as I didnt concentrate that much in English so therefore not that eloquent in the written form . What I meant to compare it to was the UK back in the seventies .
Its a good point about the food though.There are a number of reasons for it which really boils down to a vicious circle .but will try to explain my take on .

In the UK the rise of commercials = easy fishing and big weights achievable on your doorstep
The demise of the close season on still waters = No need to travel as far to "bag up" (hate that term)
Fewer anglers visiting = smaller amounts of food going in so fish need to get on their bikes to find food.
Fish looking all over for food = not in the usual places so need to work hard to entice them back.
Smaller catches being made = less interest on returning.

So you see its like a self forfilling prophecy ,and thats without taking into account Poaching, Zebra mussels rip off Ireland syndrome farming issues and lack of money being put back into the huge cash cow that the Irish economy began to depend on .

Off my soap box now . (poss)

If you are willing to put the work in you will catch fish . If you blank then think of the reason (if you can ) why? Dont just blame a bad day on no fish or poaching. Rake a swim and bait the night before and as long as its the right time of year and the barometer is up and down etc you will catch them . Size and quantity in my mind doesnt matter .As long as the surrounding are good and you get a couple of 2 or 3 pounders .The onlt times you will get more so if Zebra mussels are in on the equation them is dawn and dusk .My tench trips tend to be early morning affairs from Dawn till about 9am at the latest .Whats not to enjoy if being out and catching a few fish apart from when the Roach and Rudd move in and it can and will test your patience. Even having upside shotting patterns to try to get past them .On occasion you get a bonus fish of about 12 oz or a 1lb but when you are targeting the "cylons " they are bait thieves and you need to keep red coloured baits to a minimum other wise half the time your float is doing a jig half way out of the water (even with a 2AAA about 18 inches from your hook in 5 ft water ).

Now the bad news I might be on the rough end of a training course in the summer so it might be a weekend only job which does not excite me one bit . The weekend warriors are out in their numbers so a nicely prepared swim can be totally ruined by the fact that when you get to it there is some one already there chucking a feeder or a method for that matter 40 or 50 yds out with out a thought on whats under their noses . Questioning of parentage usually follows but under ones breath

[Robbi]

i've spent a fair bit of time working in Mohill so know the area

[Greentura]

Well that summed us up on our visits to Killykeen in Cavan, enjoying the black stuff at night, lay in and a fry up then feeders over prebaited swims until the nets were full then same again for a week. It's great to hear that tenching is getting popular over there and once the financial situation gets better tenching trips to the Emerald Isle might be a spring/summer holiday option