.... and more importantly tench, bream and carp.
They all begin to feed in earnest ahead of spawning. As the weather warms up so fishes appetites increase, gorging themselves on the new abundance of insect life beneath the surface. Carp investigating everyting and anything that lands on the surface, gently slurping down any edible components.
The tench are unlikely to be visiting the margins just yet. Deeper water away from the bank is more likely to contain our quarry, until the waters have truly warmed up.
Hair rigged fake casters, maggots or sweetcorn will be the downfall of our teddy bear eyed summer favourite. A Drennan Bolt Rig Feeder filled with maggots, with a 2 to 3 inch hooklink presented over a bed of sweet groundbait, laced with hemp, casters, corn and maggots will see a few fish on the bank. Head to the gravel pits for the larger specimens, and the estate lakes for a more plentiful supply moderate sized fish in the four to 7lb range.
Bream will be found in open clear areas of water, devoid of weed, with a nice clean bottom. Bomb out balls of Dynamite or Sonubaits fishmeal based grounbait, laced with chopped worms, casters and micro pellets. The smell will attract them, the delicacies will keep them there. A similar set up to the one mentioned above for the tench will do the trick.
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st tench of the season. Armed with a big pot of worms, and fishing the waggler,2 rod lengths out from the bank Pete took his first tench of the season, a cracking 6lb 11oz fish, five minutes later he took another at 5lb 14oz.... What a start to the morning. Both these fish came before 6.15am, under the spell of morning mist and a wondrously loud dawn chorus. Perfect!
