For the past few seasons I'd planned to have a go for the Fenland Tench and finally this year I got my act together and finally made it happen! With a swim pre baited the night before with some Sensas Tench groundbait, casters and sweetcorn I was eager to get down at first light the next day for a 4am start.
The alarm went off at 3:30 am as I scraped myself out of bed to make the short drive to the Fenland drain and as usual there was no one else there when I arrived so I quickly headed off upstream to my pre baited spot. Within minutes of quietly putting the gear down a lovely Tench rolled right on the spot! I couldn't get the rod set up quick enough after seeing this! To keep things simple I'd only packed the sweetcorn as bait so I threw a few grains into the centre of the drain while I plumbed the depth.
First cast at just gone 4:00am and the float was soon away but with a pesky little Rudd on the end! Tiny pin prick bubbles were still appearing right around the float so a bite was sure to be on the cards any minute. I think I must of waited patiently for another 20 minutes before the float slid sideways and slowly vanished. This time the rod hooped over and a lovely Tench was thumping around on the end trying its hardest to bury into the cabbages before I finally bullied her into the net.
At over 5lb it was an absolute cracker for a small Fenland drain and had more than made my session worthwhile. I took a couple of self takes and then quietly slipped her back before re baiting for another go while there was still some fizzing going on. The swim went quiet for a little while until some bubbles started to appear again and the float bobbled and vanished. Another fish was thumping around on the end but this time it was an over enthusiastic Bream! Good fun but not what I was after!
As the morning wore on the bites dried up except a few pesky Rudd every other cast. The weather even clouded over and began to rain but I felt the best time had passed so packed up and headed home, keen to have another go for sure! I even managed to film the session for our YouTube channel so if you fancy seeing how I got on then check out the video below..
