Des Taylor’s June Angling Tip

It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeding with no bites and thinking the Tench have switched off for the day — when, in fact, the opposite is true. The Tench are feeding hard, just not where your bait is!

Over the years, I’ve caught more Tench on the float up in the water than on the bottom. I remember one session a few years ago, fishing small cubes of luncheon meat in 10 feet of water. I was catching Tench after Tench about three feet below the surface, and couldn’t get a single take on the bottom.

Because I feed “little and often,” a lot of fish come into my swim — including Rudd and Roach — and these species will readily take bait on the drop. When this happens, Tench can either sit on the bottom getting no food, or — as often happens — they move up the water column to compete for bait. That’s when they become much easier to catch.

During the session I mentioned earlier, I had 20 Tench, and 15 of those were caught up in the water after bottom fishing had completely dried up.

I always start a session fishing the bottom but use a “shirt button” style shotting pattern, with small shot sizes like No. 6s, 8s and 10s spaced down the line. This gives the bait a much slower fall rate. As I begin to get bites on the drop, I gradually shallow up the float — very often ending up fishing only a third of the swim’s actual depth.

I know books and anglers over the years have said Tench are bottom feeders. But I can assure you they’ll feed well off the bottom too — especially when they have to compete with other species.