Trying something different for Tench...

[WesJones1984]

I've not tried this bait for Tench before so I'm interested what peoples thoughts on it were and if anyone has tried this method? I've mixed together yellow sweetcorn, hemp seed, catfood meaty chunks, numerous pellets (tigernut, halibut pellets, carp pellets), Spicy prawn and sweet chilli boilies and chops. Then my hootbait will be a cut down spicy prawn and sweet chill boilie with a single fake sweetcorn on a hair-rig. I know for carp, it's a good idea to have the boilie popped-up 2 inches (as the fake sweetcorn is bouyant). Is that the same principal for Tench? I've viewed some videos of how they feed and they seem to be head down getting stuck in, so not sure if the pop-up is the best idea? Any advice always appreciated.

[chazyboi]

not saying they all do i used to have em on ritchworth toots poped up i think if they hungry they will take anything

[col tencher]

wes regarding popin up baits early season i was useing 2-4in poped up baits with sucsess,baits were varied as a chop and change approach often works, pop up mags,caster {plastics} midi boilies tipped of with floating foam or bouyant corn,these rigs were on flauro carbon in 6ib b/s,stiff rig effect,where as braid didnt give me a better run rautio..

[Tyke]

I find that tench tend to favour sweet baits, rather than spicey.
I have used pop - ups on occasion, but usually find that tench will find a hookbait, even when it has sunk in to mud or weed.
Tench tend to respond to plain brown fishmeal based groundbait, with hookbait samples mixed in, so it might not be necessary to mix a cocktail of groundbait. Indeed it may be counter - productive in that you could attract nuisance species such as carp ( tongue in cheek at this point).
I tend to ring the changes with bait, as I believe it gives me an edge over other anglers, who are all using the same bait because they were told someone had caught a tench on it, back in 1872!
Go ahead and experiment. You may just find a method that opens another era in tench fishing. Good luck

[WesJones1984]

Thanks all,

Just an update on this one, for the groundbait i've been using tiger nut and halibut pellets, cat food (which has loads of meaty chunks), spicy prawn and sweet chill boilies and chops, sweetcorn and hemp. Then I usually drop some red maggot over the top of it. The the hookbait is a spicy prawn and sweet chill boilie on a size 10 hook (not popped up). I've caught no Tench but loads of carp. I've found a new fishing place which has a Tench only lake so i'm going to try the same method there.

[HEWY]

I'm not suprised you've caught loads of carp, lol that mix sounds very "carpy" to me...For tench I very rarely use boilies but if I was going to use a boilie it would probably be a sweet one like pineapple or tutti fruity...I usually use 'muscles' and have had a lot of success with them...if you're struggling to keep them on the hook, you can nuke them in the microwave for a minute or so which will make them tougher...Hope this helps.

Hewy

[WesJones1984]

Well worth a try, thanks.

Think your right about the type of boilie, i've been told that a few times now. I've bought some banana crunch flavour boilies. Do you have any ideas what sort of ground bait mix to use with those?

It doesn't seem right using meat based groundbait mixes with fruity boilies to me. I would probably use pellets like tiger nut, sweetcorn, hemp, boilie chops, what do you think? The lake where I fish doesn't allow proper groundbait so I make mine with pellets etc.

[Ardon]

Try soy sauce on ur bait and in ur ground bait!!!!!!!

Even black pepper brings results!

[chazyboi]

oyster sauce and shrimp paste from the chinese ,,,shrimp paste is belachan what the put in boilies mix it with water at the bank side then mix in your ground bait or add to boilie mix ,,,oyster sauce you can get from asd8 ect in bottle brown liquid

[WesJones1984]

Thanks for the tips, i'll try soy and oster sauce in future. I found out that at the place i've been fishing there aren't many Tench an i've been given duff info about the so called 5lb tench. I caught a small tench in this pool before but that's it. There is a 'Tench only' pool at the Commonwood fishery near me so i'll give there a go I think.
If I do try this new pool i'd probably use 2 rods, one on the bottom using a similar mix but with extra hemp and red maggot. In the cold weather i'd probably use PVA bag with a handful of bait. Probably a boilie on the hook. Then use the second rod using a waggler float and 2 red maggot on the hook.