Suddenly one of the butt indicators flew to the top

Colnebrook LakeThis gravel pit, at the time, was around 50 acres, was very long and about 80 yards wide. It had an abundance of features though with five small islands and many gravel humps and small bars. It was stocked heavily with tench but the average size was quite high, around 6lb. I believed it had been fished quite a lot but by no means was heavily pressured. I was new to the water and knew no one else who fished there but I had been fishing Harefield Lake for the big bream it held and had heard rumours of the good tench fishing that was available at this lake on the same ticket.My first impression of the water was pleasing, despite its close vicinity to Heathrow, the A4 and some warehouses. The lake though was very mature with big trees all around it and reedy margins in places. I chose to start fishing near some islands where the water was relatively shallow, around 5 feet. I baited heavily with brown breadcrumb groundbait laced with maggots and sweetcorn, using sweetcorn as hookbait with a size 10 hook and 5lb mono hooklink. The baited area was just off one of the islands around 30 yards out, on the side of a gravel slope between two large weedbeds. As darkness fell tench began to roll heavily near the baited area and my confidence grew. Suddenly one of the butt indicators flew to the top. I grabbed the rod and before long I was gazing down on my first tench from the water, a female of 5lb 4oz. I was a little disappointed as to its size and to the fight; it just sort of flapped itís way in. I presumed this to be a one off. The rest of the night produced just one more bite, when again I was bringing a non-fighting tench to the net but this time the hook pulled out. I was eager to get back down there but the next half dozen sessions produced only one more bite, which transpired to be an 8lb bream despite tench showing in the swim. I had persisted with sweetcorn as I had at least caught on it but after the blanks I had a rethink. I did not want to use a natural bait like worm or maggot due to the large head of eels in the water. So after some consideration I decided on a baiting campaign using small boilies. I knew there were a few carp in the water but I had not seen anyone fishing for them nor had I seen anyone use boilies though the other anglers there were very secretive. I chose a different area of the lake, half way along in front of a long island that in fact was the top of a gravel bar with a couple of dead trees sticking out of it. The lake bottom in front of these was like an upturned egg box with a whole series of gravel humps with associated gullies in between. I had tried the extreme margins on previous sessions but found them to be very weedy and not practical, plus I had not seen tench close in at all. I chose a shrimp flavoured boilie that was coloured red and used a 14mm hookbait on a short hair to a size 10 hook. I baited up with 10mm baits and groundbaited at a ratio of 5:1. I mixed in very coarse shrimp meal. This made a really fishy smelling mixture but was solid enough to catapult out the 30 yards to the area in front of the islands. I baited every second day for a week before arriving to fish. There was no sign of fish when I arrived but as evening grew on tench began to roll. The first take came at 10pm and the bite was a flier, the Mitchell 300 a blur as it spun backwards. However once hooked, again there was no fight and I soon netted a 6lb 3oz female tench. Three more tench followed before they ceased feeding around 4am, the biggest a fantastic fish of 7lb 2oz. I was delighted with this but was still wary of expecting too much. As it happens, rightly so, as the next three sessions only produced a solitary 5lb tench. I could not work out what was going on at all. The weed was getting worse but the water was still clear. From up a tree I could just make out the tench moving around the chosen area during the day but as they were definite night feeders this did not help much. I tried reverting to coloured corn and even tried maggots but the corn produced nothing and the maggots, the expected half a dozen eels. Due the weed I kept the bait going in but changed to pop-ups in 10mm size. This again changed my fortunes and in late July I had a bumper session with four tench falling in one night. This time though the success continued with resultant sessions up to the end of September producing at least two tench per trip. I still do not know exactly why the tench reacted so well to the pop-ups nor what they really wanted to eat but it seemed to work. I even caught two of the elusive carp, a 17lb common and a 19lb mirror. On 5lb line they, unlike the tench, really did fight! I learned from others that the water had been heavily fished in the past with sweetcorn, and interestingly, with boilies but lack of action had driven most away, leaving me with the impression the lake had not been fished much. I stumbled on a good flavour, shrimp, and the idea to use shrimp meal in the groundbait was a good one. Also interestingly, the tench were always caught from the margins in the past. So what I was experiencing was the aftermath of pressured tench adapting to a less pressured environment. I did not fish the lake again after that season and many years later the shallow area I first fished was re-dug and turned in to what is now Colnebrook West carp lake, the rest of the lake is also now split in two. The tench fishing I believe has remained hard and they are now very big. One last unsolved mystery though was why those tench never fought. I did not have a single fish that did more than kite a bit, most unlike what we are led to believe from the species. Next week I will take a trip across the Irish Sea and look at tench fishing in the Irish Republic, the tench there are always easy to catch, arenít they?

Have fun!