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I had a last minute opportunity the night before when 'the long haired general' give me the day off.

Scurried around like a madman geting everything ready, stuff sorted and packed into the car to save time and early morning household disturbance. Then set the alarm for 0500hrs....

At 0500hrs, the alarm went off. Made the flask. Tried to eat breakfast. Not hungry. Too excited. I'm fishing all f*****g day man!!!!!

Then I walked out the front door, and literally froze in my tracks. Real heavy frost in this neck of the woods, and after de-icing the car it's on screen dash computer tells me it's -3 degrees outside.......bugger.

Still, I get to the lake to find I am the only one on it. It's a lake owned by a private river club who have a stretch of the Bristol Avon and they only have about 100 members. Though if you could list all of the 'when not to go tench fishing' pointers... I had them in front of me!

Anyway, had a walk round the lake, (like 'they' say to do) and unbeliveably saw fish bubbles and a few swirls in several swims???!! Are they insane?!? It's -3 degree's for goodness sake!!

Picked a swim, more for convienience than anything to do with fish spotting, though there had been a few shows nearby. And I wasn't wholly optimistic to be honest because of the conditions so was just taking things in my stride. (Rather than frantically casting out with only half my stuff ready, because it's the middle of a heat wave and the lake is boiling already at that time!)

I didn't start fishing until 0745hrs, and I had arrived at 0600hrs. Still, chucked on a massive lobworm from tommy topsoil - (100 lobs for eight quid) and to my absolute shock and awe, the loaded crystal waggler slid under the surface, wobbly tench style, within about 15 mins...

All I can say (rather than waxing lyrically about the whole day) is that I caught steadily for the next 12hrs. At one point everything was falling into place. The clubs bailiff/committee member who was walking his dog stopped to watch the action for a good hour, and he was soon followed by the farmer who owned the land I was fishing on. They were both there to see me land 6 Tench in 15mins (from 4lb to the double PB'ers 5lb 7oz and then 5lb 8oz )... Almost felt like a set up at one point!!

To be fair, after the fog cleared off the lake at around 0900hrs, it turned out to be a gorgeous day, with clear blue sky from about 0930 to 1500. Although when there was a slight breeze it was chilly. But the early indications that day were not good at all....

But yea, I'm still buzzing about it today. In fact, I needlessly went out and cleaned all my gear, and sorted out my tackle today whilst ruminating about Wednesday's shocking haul.... Did I really catch that much?! As I said this s**t doesn't happen to me, just them chaps on the telly, You know... Matt Wilson and John Hayes, and those other nice fellow's Mick Macey and Dean Brown! ;o)

Gotta love big lobworm fished over a small blanket of molassas soaked caster and hemp riddled groundbait, topped up every 90 mins with one or two more balls 'OR' some caster and hemp. But not both...

Still, got to make the most of this cloud that I'm riding. It has the number '9' etched in Tench slime down the side of it...!!!

ATB

Cheers...

Will probably take my dad next week. It's his 60th so it will be nice to see him catch. Though as always with these things, I will be expecting this sort of result for each visit to the lake now!!!

Spoilt...

Will probably turn into one of those intense carp fisherman now. The sort that look like 'industrial estate burglars' in most of their photo's. All serious expressions, dark clothing and wooly hats!!

Not as fantastic as your avatar...... I know the video very well indeed!! Has got me through those last few reps at the gym on many occasion!!

And yes, Tommy topsoil.

They do 100 Lobs for £12. That's £5 cheaper than worms direct plus loads of other worms and quantities. Great service and speedy delivery..
Here's the link to their site;http

www.wormbait.co.uk

Thanks for the toast. I've just read in a few of the angling weeklies, that spring is quite a good time to 'Tench it'. Apparently because their natural bait is a little scarce at this time, and they still have a tendency to be shoaled up a little (even though the temp is on the up) So if you get lucky as I did, it turns into a 4 pounder a chuck for about an hour or so... (It is believed though that the tench only go to about 6lb, but that's fine by me. I have Horseshoe lake about 20 mins away if I wan't a real specimen!!)

Also each one fought like a barbel of similar weight ratio... Though that is more to do with the fact that on this lake they have only really been fished for in the last 2-3 years. It was a trout lake for 15yrs prior, and your lucky if you see more than one or two other anglers there. Which aint' too bad considering it's about 30 acres and one of 3 lakes.

But as I say it's a river club that own it, and for the privalige of being able to fish the lakes during close season, as well as being part of a very well run and vigourously policed stretch of the Bristol Avon (which is also very lightly fished), costs me £230 (£305 if you inc. joining fee for first timers!!) a year.. And membership is restricted to only 120, with a wait to join of about 2yrs.

But you get what you pay for I guess, and I consider myself very lucky indeed. (Just can't buy as much tackle as I would like, becasue I have to save for the annual subscription each year!!)

Cheers...and thanks