Tench fishing at Blenheim Palace Lake

[grundy]

No one's got any tips for Blenheim? :O

I'll just have to try a few things that I'd normally do back home. :)
I'll let you all know how I get on.

Cheers,

G

[scottish_and_mental]

Originally Posted by grahamp

I went 3 times last year, twice in the wet summer and again in the Autumn. Went with a boatful of maggot, casters and chopped worms on the first trip and discovered there had been an explosion in the perch population and, despite moving several times, could not avoid hoards of little 3" tykes. Other people seemed to suffer similarly. So, we switched to fishmeal boilies (10 mm) and soft pellets (the sonubaits 8mm hookers but I'm sure there are others) and we caught a few fish up to about 7lb on each trip - best day was 8 between two of us. This may be rubbish compared with what others achieved but its hard to find any info. We fished on the bank opposite the boathouse and the bank to the left of the clubhouse to avoid the armada of boats that rushed off to the bridge (you'll see it when you get there) and the arm. Legering short (20 yds) with halibut groundbait with pellets on a method feeder and long (50 yds) with a similar mix in a feeder did the trick. We chucked in a few extra balls now and again in case a shoal came past but we didn't actually experience that. Never fished beyond 5 pm so can't tell you if the evening fishes any better. The cold winter might have done for the perch fry but there's no way of finding out so cover your bases with a pellet/boilie alternative.

you musta missed this fella

[grundy]

Originally Posted by scottish_and_mental

you musta missed this fella

Yeah, I didn't understand a word of it! lol
Crazy UK fishing slang...

[Scunner 2]

I also fished at the Blenheim Palace Trout fishery at the weekend and the views are just lovely. However, I find it hard to see where the trout reference comes in the advertising. After a whole days fishing I caught nothing at all, not that I don’t try or enjoy a challenge. Three other people fishing each caught a Pike, and another one two tiny what I could only call Pike bait. Two of the guys said that they had been before and fished at the far end of the lake which was good however they were also disappointed. Whoever is meant to be controlling the water/fishery area needs to get a handle on it. As I said earlier the scenery is just stunning and this could be one of the greatest places to go if the Park was to get its act together. Let’s hope.

[scudhuddy]

Hi Guys, Blenheim Palace! a place that draws me back every year no matter how good or bad the fishing is. The best way to approach Blenheim is to get there early, row your boat out very slowly and quietly.. go around the edges of the lake looking for signs of feeding fish, ie.. rising fish, bubbles and the biggest give away is the patches of chocolate coloured water, where the fish have their heads down feeding! my best catch was back in September 2004. We left the boat house and amongst the mist we spotted some large fish rolling on the surface, we kept a short distance from these fish and procceded to catapult loose maggots in their path to try and get them interested whilst we secured the boat and set up our gear, making sure to run the anchor chains quietly through the palms of our hands. Our rods were set up the night before with simple waggler set ups, so it was just a case of putting the rod ends together and fine tuning the shotting and depth. Looking at the swim whilst doing this we could see that the fish were aving it! there was absolute mayhem going on with all the silt and mud being churned up from the bottom along with bubbles all over the place that resembled a working jacuzzi! 1st cast with double red maggot was made and the float didnt have time to settle, it was bobbling all over the place, i struck out of curiosity and landed a pristine bream, just over 4.5lbs. That was the story for the rest of the day! i had a bream a chuck, it was a fantastic day that got a bit boring near the end as there was nothing i could do wrong. We only had 4 pints of maggots between us and a couple of tins of corn along with some worms. The fish did not care what was on the hook or how it was presented! they were just there aving it, whatever it was! I ended up with 464lb of Bream, not a single other species! and no groundbait at all! I must say i have never had a day like that since, i think it is all about timing. You either get there and the fish want it, or they dont and you blank. I still go at least twice a year hoping to have another day like that one. Visits since that have not all been bad, we have had great days but that was by far the best. Also on the tench isuue with size, I have seen lots of double figure tench in this lake in June. There were 100's of tench spawning and amonst them were some unbelievably large tench, although havent caught one of this size yet! the biggest tench i have had was 8lb.13oz Tight Lines