Estate lake tench - back to the blanks

Monday the 18th and Wednesday the 20th of June

After Saturday's decent result I arranged to get back to the lake after work on the Monday afternoon, pulling into the estate I found Archie Braddocks set up on the lawn and stopped for a natter. The news wasn't very encouraging, he hadn't had a bite but was getting constant liners, in fact he must have had four or five while I stood with him, and that was with back leads on, that could only mean fish grouping to spawn or actually doing so.

I left Archie to it and drove around to the car park, heading up into the woods I spoke to two other anglers who alos hadn't had a bite all day and the picture was starting to become clear, the weather had warmed up considerably and it looked like that had sparked off some fish nookie.

I went back into the left hand island swim, same spot as Saturday, and plonked the feeders back out onto the productive area. Almost straight away I too started to get liners, I could see quite a few bream cruising around just sub surface in the bright sunshine and suspected that they were the main culprits. I continued to work the feeders in the hope of a bite late on after the sun had dropped but it wasn't to be and I left for home at dusk thinking that my chance of a big tench might well have ended for this year.

Despite the weather remaining warm I decided that I would pay another visit to the tench lake after work on the Wednesday. Burton Phil (no not Phil Burton, Phil from Burton!) was the only other angler present and didn't offer me any good news, his bobbins were dancing constantly and fish were swirling and splashing close in whilst his baits were much further out. On retrieving his rigs the weed was festooned with fish eggs and it was obvious that spawning had now commenced properly, I was in two minds about wether to fish or not. I eventually decided to go to the other end of the lake in the hope that there might be one or two fish not involved in the festivities but it really did look dead up there, I gave it a couple of hours and decided to leave them too it. The trip wasn't wasted however as I did retrieve my camouflaged waterproof jacket from the bush that I had left it in on Monday!