Noel's
return to angling
Noel's
story...
I used to fish some gravel pits in Frimley when I was a kid in the
late seventies early eighties, alas they've now been filled in and
there is a shopping complex and McDonalds in their place. Anyway I
always loved catching the tench, there's just something about them.
I say used to, because 1985 was the last time I fished anywhere...
like lots of kids, I discovered girls and going out - and  consequently
had no time to fish - until now.
In March 05 I decided
I wanted to take up fishing again and at the start of April visited
my local tackle shop and bought what I needed. So pretty much twenty
years later I'm back on the banks of the local gravel pits.
I knew the pit I was gonna fish doesn't get much bait chucked in, so
over the last month that's what I've been doing, whilst practising the
fishing skills that always came as second nature when I was a boy.
I got the bug back
straight away - with a few smaller tench and lots of bream - and suffice
to say visited the tackle shop and emptied my wallet again.
On one of many visits
to the pit in April I caught a 15lb pike, so here I was only a few weeks
into fishing again and getting more confident each time.
On Saturday 30th
April at 7.45am approx I struck into what I knew instantly was a quality
fish, after a good fight I had him on the bank...a tench and a big one...almost
as big as my smile. Into the weigh sack and onto my brand new scales
- 8lb exactly. A few pics later and he was safely back in the water.
Now the really annoying
bit, I'd beaten my society waters record by 8oz, which I hadn't realised
until afterwards. I didn't get it verified and therefore it's unofficial,
but I did get my scales checked by a committee member on the way home,
and they were correct, so that's good enough for me.
I knew it was a
good sized fish but was kind of unsure (forgotten) what to do exactly,
especially as I had no keepnet. Suffice to say it won't happen again.
So here I am - 4
weeks later and a fully paid up member of the specimen tench gang, my
how the tench have grown over the years!
Anyway you can be
sure I'm now hunting those bigger female tench that I know are in there,
waiting for me.
My male tench weighed 8lb and was a lovely dark colour, he looked like
a real hard nut, a real tough fish who I'm gonna call Phil Mitchell
- its my PB by a long way!
I was fishing in
a North Hampshire gravel pit, sorry my club secretary says I'm not allowed
to say exactly where. The pit isn't fished that often and is kind of
neglected, but still very fishable with plenty of good swims.
I used a large bed
of hemp seeds to tempt the tench and my hook bait was a Cranberry and
Caviar pop-up Boilie.
Regards
Noel
This Anglers Tales
story was kindly sent to us by Noel Paddock
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