After an unsuccessful 4 day session trying for another bream I decided to concentrate my efforts on the gravel pit’s tench.

The first morning produced 5 fish but all were small. The fish fell to rubber casters hair rigged on a Korum S3 Size 12 hook fished in conjunction with PVA bags of casters fished over a bed of Sonubaits hemp and F1 fishmeal groundbait.

The rest of the day was fishless but I hooked a good fish the following morning. I was beginning to think it could be a carp as it powered off when the hook pulled. Telltale slime on the line showed it had been a tench and I was not a happy angler for the rest of the morning.

 In the evening I did manage an 8lb 8oz tench but the following morning was fishless so I opted on a move to the other side of the lake. The warm weather got the carp in the lake in the mood to spawn and they followed me and spent all of the following night swimming up and down the margins giving me a succession of line bites. I had minimal sleep but not to worry I thought, I’ll be up at first light and get some bait in the swim and the tench will be feeding in the overcast conditions. How wrong I was – the only time the bobbins moved was when spawning carp swam past! To make things worse it started to hammer down with rain half-way through packing up.

It just goes to show that even with the best of tackle and bait you don’t always succeed! I’ll be back next week and hopefully the tench will be in the mood for a good feed and the carp will leave me in peace – unless I decide to fish for them!