A small victory

Well, the tench beat me again, although I did have a decent fish roll over my bait this week. The biggest confidence boost was to catch something, although quite what it was I'm not sure, on fake corn in the dark.

For some reason I'd got it in my head that fake baits only work in daylight. So landing the hybrid above was most welcome - not just because it prevented another blank. No longer will I hit the hay with the nagging doubt that my fake baits are a waste of time and I'd be as well fishing with bare hooks.

PS General consensus on the Total Coarse Fishing forum is that the fish is a bream/rudd hybrid.

PPS Or maybe not!

Tormented by tench

The picture above just about sums up my first tench session of the year. As so often happens I picked a swim that tench moved into at various times, even over my feed, but apart from two or three possible line bites the bobbins remained motionless for the best part of two days.

I've noticed everywhere I have fished for tench that when they are bubbling in my swim I hardly ever catch them. They're frustrating red-eyed buggers!

Not to worry, so long as you learn something a blank isn't wasted. From this session I learned that my waders leak...