19th April Horseshoe lake and tench at last

The weather had been warm for about a week now and I had thought about returning to Horseshoe lake in search of those large tench that thrive there. I was hoping that the gloopy weed that had driven me off last time had gone.
I set off from home at 5.30am with the sky already lightening in the east. It just goes to show how quickly the mornings get lighter.
I arrived 50 minutes later to the secured locked gates. A quick turn of the combination let me in.
The sky was clear with little cloud. The forecast was for more of the same over the next couple of days. There were a few carp anglers around the summer bay area and it was here where I started.
The swim has produced some good tench before however I was just hoping that they had started moving into the bay in numbers.
The method was to be method feeder, this time with casters in the mix rather than maggots. One cast with the marker rod showed that the clear patch was still there from the last session and in fact from last year.

Ready to be cast out

By 7am both rods were cast out with 3 rubber casters as bait. It was a chilly start but as the sun rose as did the temperatures. Tench started to roll around the bay and fizzing was evident, alas nothing moved over my baited area. I had put about 1.5pints of hemp out over the area to entice a response.

Carp were moving on the surface all around the place, there must have 100’s. Most of the carp guy’s were fishing on the bottom, but they too were catching on a regular basis.

At 11.45 I had a blistering take which got me weeded, however with barbless hooks the thing got off. I think it was a carp. It’s unusual to hook these on such short hook links. I had another bite that did the same to me 15 minutes later.

As the morning passed the tench stopped rolling but the carp kept on the surface. A bloke moved in next to me and had two carp out very quickly on dog biscuit, both just over the 20lb mark.

The afternoon wore on and I was thinking about the tatics and had I got them right. As evening approached the tench started to roll again and fizz. At 7.30 there was some fizzing over the baited area, then at 8pm a tench rolled and by 8.10pm it was safely in the landing net. Well it might not have been the same fish but it was a beautiful female of 6lbs 14oz.

6lbs 14oz the tatics certainly worked.

Once she was slipped back the rolling continued and I had one a little smaller at 5lbs 14oz.

Then as it reached dusk I caught 2 rudd and had plenty of bites. The rudd were nice fish of about 1lb each and in perfect condition. The action stopped at 9.30pm and I made my last brew of the day and retired into bed.

Then at 10.45pm I had a take but not a belter and finally bought in a tench of about 1lb. Really pristine condition and good to know that they are breeding in the lake.

All went quite for the night other than the carpers alarms signalling that the carp were very hungry after the coldest winter for 100 years.