TENCH. Tinca Tinca
Family: Cyprinidae

Distribution: Common in England, parts of Wales and Ireland

Habitat: A very common fish found in most lakes, ponds, gravel pits, canals and slow rivers.

Description: One of the prettiest of our freshwater fishes, easily identifiable by its distinctive shape and colour.
It has a short, sturdy thick-set body with a layer of silky smooth slime, the tiny scales are deeply embedded in the skin.

It has a short pair of barbules on the yellowish-orange upper lip. The dorsal fin is high and convex, the caudal fin is wide and squarish, rather like a paint brush.

Pectoral and pelvic fins are thick and strong, in the mature male, pelvic fins are almost joined together and cover the vent.

The back can vary from almost black to olive green in colour, graduating to a creamy or white belly. There are lots of colour variations and ornamentals: golden, yellow, orange with black spots, etc.

British record: 15lb 3oz 6dr caught by Darren Ward, Surrey Lake, 2001. A 6lb’er is regarded as a good catch.

A hard-fighting, bottom-dwelling fish that feeds on crustaceans, larvae and bloodworms, and generally found in small shoals.

Loves to root about in weeds and lily beds, but gives its presence away when feeding by releasing a stream of tiny ‘pin-head’ bubbles that can be seen on the waters’ surface.

Generally considered a summer fish, although this year I caught a tench in the middle of January - our winters are definitely getting milder.
The tench used to be called the 'doctor fish' because tench slime was thought to have healing properties, other fish would deliberately rub against them and be cured of all ailments.
his seems strange to me - because tench slime doesn’t come off onto your hands when you handle them!

Bigger and bigger tench are now being caught - there have been several theories to explain this.

One is that farm fertiliser has leaked from the land into the water, resulting in increased weed growth and richer invertebrate life - a large part of the tench's diet.

I don’t agree with this - too much chemical fertiliser in the water can result in algae blooms that choke everything.

My own personal theory is that tench are feeding on left-over boilies and pellets from the booming carp fishing scene.

High nutritional value (HNV) bait, puts weight on any fish - just look at the huge ‘farmed’ trout now being bred.

Baits and Lures: Sweetcorn, mini-boilies or full size boilies broken in half, pellets, worms, bread baits of all kinds, maggots (red in particular), casters, paste, meat, cockles (frozen, not in vinegar) and prawns are all worth a try.

Tench feed almost exclusively on the bottom - feeding mainly at dawn and dusk, but can continue through the day or night.

Conventional float fishing; the 'lift' method; swim feeder and method feeders and even bolts rigs (scaled down) are all good methods of catching tench.

A pole with a strong elastic system is an ideal weapon - allowing you to position bait right upto the edge of weed beds with ultimate accuracy.

Use a strong, forged hook to match the size of the bait you are using and remember tench are powerful and determined fish, their first initial run is always toward the weedbed or other obstructions.

Which ever method you choose, gear your tackle to the size of fish you are expecting to catch, don’t be out-gunned and lose fish simply because you didn’t have kit strong enough to stop fish taking you into the weeds.


Tackle: Float fishing: A simple waggler set-up is fine, keep things as simple as possible. Fish close to weed beds - the tench’s favourite habitat, and feed little and often with free hook bait samples.

Tench bites can be indicated by a couple of knocks, dips or small lifts, don’t be tempted to strike strike too soon - wait for the bite to develop properly - try to wait for the float to disappear completely before striking. Fishing with the float just a little over-depth, will give the bite more time to develop.

Lift method: The float should be attached to the line with either float stops or shot, and a single shot placed 3 - 6 inches from the hook. The bottom shot should be just heavy enough to cock the float. When the tench takes the bait, it lifts the shot off the bottom - resulting in the float laying flat on the water’s surface.

Swimfeeder, method feeder and bolt rigs: Use these when the tench are feeding out of range of a float, perhaps a distant weedbed where you can see fish bubbling, or where bankside disturbances mean they don't come in too close. See tips and techniques for my favourite swimfeeder.

Pre-baiting: A couple of days pre-baiting before a tench bash is considered the best way to attract fish into your chosen swim, unfortunately it also attracts other anglers as well. There’s nothing worse than to spend time and money pre-baiting a swim and then discover an angler sat there early in the morning - benefiting from all your hard work! The long-session guys complete with bivvys etc., have the advantage here.

If you can pre-bait, go for plain brown crumb with sweetcorn, casters and chopped up worms added, a drop of your favourite flavour/additive wouldn’t go amiss. Dead maggots are a good attractor - freeze some overnight to kill them, before adding to the crumb, or try pouring boiling water over them to ‘cook’ them - it just means they stay put on the bottom and are more visible to passing fish.

If you have access to a food liquidiser - try blitzing a tin of sweetcorn into a fine soup - it goes really thick and sticky - ideal for adding to crumb.

And finally... I recently heard of a tench being caught at my local trout-only water, how it got there and why it took a fly are both mysteries.

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