Winter Tench....Hmmmm!

Contrary to the writings of Walton, Walker, Venables, et al, on the twenty first of February Phil and I went Tench fishing! Not strictly true of course but given the recent cold conditions and diabolical current state of the rivers we found ourselves at Napton Reservoir.

It is a peculiarity of science that in deep bodies of stillwater the water at the lake bed will maintain a temperature of four degrees Celsius even in the coldest conditions due to the maximum density of water occuring at that temperature, therefore in theory at least the depths of Napton provided us with a fish catching opportunity.

Big roach are present in fair numbers in this water and would be our primary target but we also believed that tench were no forlorn hope having both caught Winter fish at the venue some years ago.

The reservoirs looked overly full, cold, bare and windswept in stark contrast to Mr Crabtree's perfect June morning on the perfect tench lake where pin prick bubbles betrayed the presence of tench and the float would dither before sliding away and where, I seem to remember, poor old Peter got a b*llocking for shuffling his feet (a bit harsh Crabtree, give the boy a break!).

Phil settled in a peg close to the car park to fish his usual two tip rods with feeders and maggot, I was a few yards away and choosing to float fish maggot. Before long it became apparent that I needed to move, fishing a float in twenty feet of water with a thirteen foot rod (I don't own any sliders anymore) and coping with a considerable undertow isn't my idea of a fun day out!

As Phil continued biteless in the big res I had now found a comfortable position half way down the nearside bank of the small res where the depth was more like ten feet and the lake surface was flat calm.

The sun came out and made for a very pleasant afternoon but despite my very restrained (for me) feeding, no bubbles appeared and my float refused to dither even in the slightest and to be honest for all I know it could have been twenty Celsius at the lake bed with the tench doing the lambada around my bait and playing castanets.

My tally for 2010 still stands at an astounding one fish, hurry up Spring!