Burghfield Tench 2012

Stuart Court

I was about to start my first

tench session on Burghfield
lake near Reading, a large
gravel pit more famed for its
50lb+ common carp than its
tench. I arrived on a Thursday
lunchtime and found only one
car in the car park which was
nice as I had 2 likely looking
swims earmarked from the
previous weeks recce which
were accessible from this
same car park. Just to put it
in perspective, Burghfield has
numerous car parks dotted

around its circumference

offering you access to various
parts of the lake so although
there were only 2 of us in this
one it didnt necessarily mean
that the other side of the lake
wouldnt be busy.
The barrow journey to
my chosen swim was
fairly treacherous as with
the persistent rain of the
past weeks the pathways
through the undergrowth
had numerous sections that

were very thick mud making

them almost impassible with
a heavy barrow loaded with
all the gear. This meant that
I had to unload the barrow 3
times and carry the kit past
the obstacle then reload it and
carry on the trek. Eventually
though, after much sweating,
I got where I wanted to be.
Being not just a new swim,
but a whole new lake to me,
I felt the need to chuck the
marker rod around a bit just

to get some idea of what

just have to keep them cool.
Quite
superb
10lb
9oz
Gravel
was out there in front of
On a 48 hour session I tend
PitITench
whichthat
wasthere
fooled by to put them into a large
me.
discovered
an artificial
wasnt
a greatbait
deal of depth
sealed bait box and cover
change anywhere with it
them in lake water, theyll
all being around the 6-7ft
stay fresh for 2 days easily
mark so I needed to find a
like this if you change the
feature of some sort. The
water a couple of times a
tip of an island to my left
day.
looked nailed on as one
potential area, my right hand
My rig is made up of 6
margin seemed a sensible
inches of the new 10lb
option and for the third rod
Drennan Gravel Braid braid,
I opted for an area of softer
a size 10 or 12 Drennan
bottom that id found just
Specimen Plus hook and 2
beyond where the gravel
artificial rubber casters on
and weed started at a range
the hair. This can be fished
of about 70-80 yards. Next
with either an inline lead
task was to spomb out a bed
as shown in the picture, a
of Hemp and Buckwheat
leadclip arrangement, or
laced with CC Moore Frozen a helicopter set up, it just
Bloodworm. I also mixed in
depends on the make up of
a liberal helping of casters
the bottom and how much
as my chosen hookbait was
weed is out in your swim.
going to be caster. This took
On this occasion as the weed
a good hour to sort all 3 rods
was minimal on my spot
but with that done I could get and as the bottom wasnt
the shelter up and settle in to
very silty I opted for the
my new surroundings.
inline setup with a length
of ESP Anchor Rig tubing
My tench tackle consists
to eliminate any tangles on
of three Drennan Distance
the cast. With all 3 rods now
Specialist Tench & Bream
fishing their respective spots
which are 2lb Test curve
I could finally sit back and
and have a nice through
action that can chuck a lead
or feeder really well, so the
70-80 yard spot wasnt a
problem even with small
mesh PVA bags of casters
attached to the hook for each
cast. Tench love casters so
when theyre fished over a
bed of particles they home
in on the neat little patch
of them really quickly.
Normally Id take a gallon
of maggots and fish them
through a feeder but I have
to say, casters are a lot easier
to look after during a long
warm weather session, you

take in my first tench session

of the season, it felt great to
be out and the weather was
behaving too which made a
nice change.
Only a couple of hours
after spombing my swim to
within an inch of its life I
had my first take, I was just
drifting off to a well deserved
afternoon nap as a strong
spring tench tore off with my
hook in its mouth, the buzzer
waking me suddenly. An
impressive battle commenced
from 80 yards out to right
under the rod tip and within a
few minutes my first tench of
2012 was safely in the bag, it
looked a decent fish too. At
8lb 12oz it wasnt the biggest
tench Ive ever caught but a
very welcome fish on my first
visit to a new lake.

wherever it wanted, whenever

it wanted!
With my rods all soon rebaited and re-positioned back
onto their spots the action
begun and remained steady
for most of the morning. One
tench after another was taking
my bait, they were all of a
good average size too with a
couple of 7lbers but mostly
8lbers, this is the sort of
action I go tenching for, it is
fantastic fun when it goes like
this.
No more tench came my
way on that first evening but
I knew I was in for some
more in the morning as I saw
numerous fish roll over my
baited spot as the light faded.
Sometimes I reel in at night
when tenching as you can
often get pestered by nuisance
fish such as Eels, Bream and
Carp; the hot period for tench
is normally from first light
through til mid morning on
most waters so by not fishing
through the night youre not
generally doing yourself any
harm, as long as you set your
alarm for silly oclock.
However, on this occasion I
decided to leave the rods out
and see what occurred.
What occurred was, at 5am,
a Burghfield carp picked up
my little size 12 hook baited
with double artificial caster
(which was placed at the tip
of an island to my left), and
proceeded to flat rod me
at will, whilst leading me
through weedbeds and my
other lines! Inevitably, I
lost the battle after this carp
completely humiliated me,
my tackle was powerless to
stop this thing from going

As the afternoon wore on, the

bites slowed somewhat, I was
still picking up the odd fish
but it wasnt as hectic as it
had been earlier. This is quite
normal with tench though as
they dont often feed hard
throughout the whole day as
a rule. The lull in action can
offer a good opportunity to
top up the spots with more
particle so its ready for the
next morning. At this point
I decided to put 2 of my 3
rods on the 80 yard spot as
this was the one where all the
tench had come from and my
right hand rod in the margin
had received no action at all.

Fully baited up with all my

remaining particle I got to
thinking about the carp I had
lost the evening before. The
spot on the tip of the island
was clearly a carp patrol
route so not wanting to lose
another one, I re-spooled with
some stronger line and tied
on a chod rig to see if I could
tempt another take. I felt
much more confident with the
heavier line as it had been like
walking on eggshells playing
the fish on lighter line the
previous night.
This turned out to be a
shrewd move as at 11pm
the rod rattled off and I was
attached to another powerful
carp. I was amazed, this
was Burghfield, 94 acres
of hardcore carp water and
within very little time I was
attached to my second carp.
An epic battle ensued, a full
half hour of under the rod
tip plodding was taking its
toll on my right forearm but
I resisted the urge to try and
hurry this fish into the net
as previous experience has
taught me that this doesnt
usually end well. Eventually

though, I got her head up

and slid the net under her. I
knew it was a decent one
just by the sheer weight
during the fight and a quick
look into the net with my
head torch confirmed it was
indeed a very good sized
Burghfield carp of 35lb 2oz!

took me ages to get back. I

slowly pumped the fish back
towards me only to see it
tear off again on numerous
occasions but eventually my
second carp of the trip was
nestling in the mesh of my
net. This one was a right fatty
and weighed in at 32lb 4oz.

I did not recast the rod after

the fish, as I suspected the
rig and mainline would need
a good check over after the
epic battle, something I
would be able to do far better
in the daylight. So with only
my 2 rods out on the tench
spot still fishing I didnt
expect much action through
the rest of the night. I was
correct, nothing happened
through the night but as
predicted, at first light I had
another take. As I lifted into
the fish though I began to
realise the familiar feeling
that this was far too powerful
to be a tench, I was into
another carp! Again I battled
this thing on light line and a
small hook, it stripped line
off my reel at range which

The tenching was patchy

after that, there were a few
fish showing and I did catch
a couple more but I got the
feeling that the carp had
cleared my spot out and there
was no bait left out there
to hold the tench. I was
completely out of particle
now too so the game was
pretty much over from there,
my 48 hour tench session was
at an end but with 11 tench
up to 8lb 12oz, 3 hooked
carp, 2 landed, both of which
were 30lb plus it was not
bad for my first session on
Burghfield! Im more than
happy with that...

Stuart Court