How To Avoid Silvers?

[peakoverload]

I've found a water that has some, what I think are, quality Tench in it (10lb is the largest reported with a number of 6lb-7lb and an average of 4-5lb). Seeing as the largest Tench I've ever caught is only around 2lb this presents a potential step up for me.

So far I've only fished it once and did hook into a Tench that looked to be around 4lb possibly 5lb but the hook pulled . The trouble is that the Tench seem to be very fussy eaters. Pellets simply don't work at all, I've seen 3 Tench feeding millimeters from my float kicking up a jacuzzi's worth of bubbles and not even had a nibble. From talking to others and from my own experience the bait that seems to work the best is Sweetcorn with luncheon meat coming a close second.

The Tench seem to stick close to the margins which are surrounded by reeds and lily's so float fishing is the best option but the trouble is that I get plagued by thousands of silvers!

Is there a good way to avoid the silvers as much as possible?

If I fish a standard waggler than the hookbait gets taken by silvers 9/10, even a large cube of meat will get nibbled to death.

Fishing the lift method seems to be a bit better as it gets the bait down through the Silvers quickly but it's only around 4ft deep so it's not long before they find it.

Hemp and groundbait are liked by the Tench but this is like crack cocaine for the silvers.

Any thoughts on the best approach to tackle and bait?

[NICK R]

micro boilies is the way to go
i would still fish the lift method but use a hair

[peakoverload]

Sorry, I forgot to mention, boilies are banned .

If I stick with luncheon meat or put 2 or 3 corn on a hair then it's not so much that little silvers actually create a 'proper' bite but that the float is constantly bobbing around making lots of little twitches.

I was thinking that if I lengthened the hooklink (currently around 2-3 inches) so that more of it was laying on the bottom that whilst this wouldn't stop the silvers from attacking the hook bait it might stop the 'bites' from registering but if I do that they could take the hook bait without me knowing and there is a greater chance of either missing bites from Tench or deep hooking one or worse still deep hooking a tiny silver.

[BoldBear]

It’s very hard to stop the silvers from nibbling away at any bait really.

A lot of good anglers in my area have started using the new artificial flavoured Sweetcorn on their hooks with some real corn loose fed around their bait.

I used to shy away from the artificial baits but artificial baits have come a long way since their introduction.

The artificial sweetcorn comes in small 1½” plastic jars with around eight in a jar, you can get it in various colours and has various flavours which they are immersed in inside the jar.
It is also slightly buoyant so that when you hook it it sinks slowly with the weight of the hook; and also the silvers can’t demolish it.

If your tackleshop hasn’t heard of it, I will dig it out when I get home and tell you the name of it.

It may not stop all of the false bites but it might stop some and could be worth a try.

[steve-m]

i had the same problem today but i was using the method feeder. When i had 2 pieces of sweetcorn on the hook my quiver tip was moving non stop. However, when i switched to luncheon meat the 'nibbling' wasn't so constant and i caught my 4 carp on the meat. (no Tench unfortunately)

A few years ago on a pit that i fished for tench on was alive with small roach n rudd and i got the same problem you are having. I tried casting my bait out further than i needed to and slow worked it into my swim quickly followed by a handful of maggots. these kept the small ones happy whilst my hook bait lay in wait for a tench. not 100% fool proof but i caught some nice tench.

[fishypaul]

you could try halibut pellets mate,tench love 'em

[fullcreel]

How about making up a paste? Put on a largis peice and if the silvers go for it, they have time to nibble a bit away, hopefully the attention they give it will bring in the tench.

[peakoverload]

Cheers all for your advice and tips. I'm definitely going to give them a try. It's such a shame that pellets just don't seem to work at all as an 11mm pellet would be the perfect solution but I put out two rods on pellets the last time I was there and didn't get so much as a nibble even though Tench were blatantly feeding millimeters from my hookbait. Talking to others on the lake they too confirmed that pellets generally don't work although there is the odd exception.

[Tyke]

Have you thought of hair rigging two or three plastic sweetcorn ( soak them in flavouring, over night, first) Use the real stuff in your groundbait. The reasoning is that silver fish can break down ordinary sweetcorn, but they cannot chew a hair rigged artificial without swallowing the complete hair. ( this , they are not big enough to attempt ) Therefore you should, apart from the occasional ambitious tiddler, ensure that the tench can get to your bait.
Artificial baits do work, including worm and maggot, but I have found that you must soak them in the appropriate flavouring, first ( available from any tackle shop).

[mikee]

if you are getting them at float fishing range then casters or red maggots has got to be worth a go, fish live red maggots and feed deda ones along with casters and hemp with a little bit of ground bait

mikee