Sunday 29 August 2010

Tench. By Design!


I had been told there was a pond near London that contained tench, a fish I've wanted to catch for some time (I've only caught one, once while watching someone else's rod). The only details of this pond were it's location and it may contain tench.

So on Friday the plan was to head to Cannon Hill pond for a couple of hours before continuing my quest for a Thames bream, fishing in the last couple of hours of daylight at Kingston.

It was quite busy, the first person I asked said they had caught 2 small tench - they were in there. I found a likely looking spot and set up an over depth waggler and fished white maggots. First cast a rudd, second cast a tench - only small but I'd caught my target fish.


My first tench by design. Yay.

I continued to catch small fish, roach, rudd and tench. The thing I like about a new water is not knowing what you are going to catch, this was proved after about an hour when I caught a goldfish! My camera phone had packed in by this point, so no photo.


My first brown goldfish (I didn't get a photo of the orange one).

I couldn't tear myself away so I fished into the dark. I caught loads of roach and rudd, 23 tench, 4 carp, a goldfish (orange) and a brown goldfish. No big fish, I asked the locals and they said it was mostly small fish with the odd big carp, they had all heard of tench over a pound but nobody I spoke to had caught one.

It was a great afternoon and I'll definitely be back. I'd like to catch a big tench, say 5lb, I think it's a bit late in the year to start now - so I think it'll be a target next summer.

RIP camera phone, you battled frost and snow while pike fishing, got covered in eel slime, got dropped in the water while carp fishing and died on the banks of Cannon Common pond trying to photograph a goldfish...

3 comments:

  1. Nice one Brian,
    Always nice to catch your target, And Tench are a great fighting Fish to catch, You will find they are getting a bit elusive though this time of year,
    Good Luck,
    ,,,Paddy,,,

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  2. Yeah, I think it'll be a target for next year. This summer has been trying new venues around London... Haven't caught much but it's been fun exploring... But pike season is looming!

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  3. Nice report. I fished here from the mid 1970s until about 1982 and saw a big fish-kill of bream when it almost fried up in 1976 and thousands of huge swan mussels were exposed in the mud. There were no aquatic plants in the pond and the water was always like pea soup. Only caught small bream to about 3Ib max and roach. There were no tench, goldfish, etc. The largest fish i heard of was a 22Ib common carp in about 1977. No idea how the fish had got in there as i had never heard of it holding carp.

    The pond has undergone many changes - mostly for the better - since those days, especially on the habitat and wildlife front. If only the young anglers could be taught to respect the place then it looks like it could be great spot for tench fishing in the future, but i fear fishing will be lost as it has in so many places.

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