Des Taylor’s June Angling Tip

Its so easy to be feeding and getting no bites and thinking the Tench have turned off for the day when in fact the opposite is happening and Tench are feeding hard but not where you bait is!

Over the years I have taken more Tench on the float up in the water than actually on the bottom indeed I remember a session a few years ago when fishing small cubes of luncheon meat in 10 foot of water and I was catching Tench after Tench about 3ft under the surface and couldn’t get a take on the bottom.

Because I constantly feed “ little and often” eventually a lot of fish come into my swim including Rudd and Roach and these species will take the bait on the drop now when this happens the Tench can either sit on the bottom getting no food or what happens in reality they move up the water column and compete for the bait which makes them very easy to catch.

The session I mentioned earlier I had 20 Tench and 15 of those were up in the water after fishing on the bottom had completely died. I start a session fishing the bottom but with a “shirt button” style shotting pattern with small shot like 6,8 and 10s down the line which gets a much slower fall rate to the bait and as I get bites on the drop I start to shallow up on the float very often ending up only a third of the actual depth of the swim.

I know books and anglers have told you over the years Tench are bottom feeders well I can assure you they will also feed well off the bottom especially when they have to compete with other species for food,