Tench fishing at Blenheim Palace Lake

[Austin]

I shall be taking my son for a day's tench fishing at Blenheim Palace Lake in early July. I've not been able to find any useful information elsewhere on the web about the best methods for early season tench at Blenheim, and would be grateful for any experience and tips. I understand the lake is very deep so any help on whether to fish or avoid the deeps, plus the best methods for deeper water, would be much appreciated.

I'd love to boat a few tench myself, but I'm determined to make sure my son has a good day!

Many thanks,
Austin.

[Norfolkboy]

I guess groundbaiting is gonna be a start to try and get them into the swim. Hemp, corn, maggots, casters, chopped worm, brown crumb etc.. should get them going. As hookbait, corn, maggots(lots of) and worm are my favourites. Boilies will work too.

Hope this helps a little, but I'm not much of a tench fishermen

[Austin]

Thanks for your help, we'll give it a go!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Dans got it covered but one thing to remember that the best times to get tench are in the early morning ( dawn ) and late evening i.e the last 3 hours of day light

Tench patrol areas so might be an idea to look for natural paths like lily pads or weed beds that the tench will patrol along

Let us know how it goes

[Rob M]

Originally Posted by Fishing Forum Admin

but one thing to remember that the best times to get tench are in the early morning ( dawn ) and late evening i.e the last 3 hours of day light

As Rich says it's an early start or a late finish to nab a good 'un. But thats about the extent of my knowledge for Tench

Rob

[Flatfish]

Hi all for all your tench tips and lakes ect

you must look at

http://www.tenchfishers.com/topwaters.html


Great site

hope this helps

Justin

[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.

[grundy]

Hi All!

My wife and I are a young Aussie couple heading over for a few months and I am hoping to be spending most of that time fishing (of course!).

I have booked in a day at Blenheim Palace, as my wife will be busy in Oxford for the first week we're in the UK finishing off some uni work.


As others seem to have found, tips on fishing this water is hard to find, so I was hoping to get some more tips from anyone that has been during the summer months.
We will be fishing there in this first week of July and the forecast looks slightly cloudy and warm.

I'm used to fishing for Aussie fish species and I'm not very familiar with the types of fish and methods used in the UK.

I will be taking 2 rods and reels.
6' St Croix, 4-8lb rod with a Shimano Rarenium Ci4 2500 (Stradic Ci4) spooled with 8lb braid.
Second setup is for bigger fish that I'll be tackling in Norway, but hoping it will do for Blenheim too:
8' Shimano Exage, 10-20lb rod with a Shimano Sustain 4000, spooled with 15lb braid.

I'm taking a small tackle box with various lures, from spinnerbait/spinners, blades and single treble metal lures.
Happy to use bait of any sort too.

Can anyone make a recommendation? I'm personally hopeing to catch a few Pike as I can't get anything similar down here in Aus and I believe the spinnerbaits should be the best for that.
Might even use the bigger setup for the pike.

Then maybe get some local suitable bait for the St Croix setup?
I think I read that lead weights aren't allowed? Do the locals use weights of any sort or just floats?

I'm happy to sit out there all day enjoying the day, but catching fish of any sort will keep the Mrs happy too. ;)


Thanks for any help/advice people can offer!

- Grundy

[scottish_and_mental]

welcome to the forum fella !! I had a similar problem when i fished Sydney harbour - all weird creatures and even stranger baits - totally alien to what i was used to ..Still gave it a go on my ex's fathers boat and really enjoyed it all ..
Enjoy your time over here both of you - i'm afraid i can't really help on the river and lake side of things but your deffo in the right place !
I can however drink ( we are from the same genepool us scots n aussies lol - something to do with criminals and big ships ) so if you both find yourselves visiting Stonehenge gimme a knock !
Steve

[grundy]

Thanks S&M!

That's my biggest worry so far, you guys talk about all these strange species and gear and methods that I've never heard of before! >.<
And that's just the beer!

I mostly want to catch whatever I can up in the UK that the guys back here can't, just for bragging rights. ;)
I'll be up Scotland ways mid July staying near Invergarry, not sure what I will be catching up there though.

Would love to go out on a charter where ever I can, but last time I took the wife out game fishing for massive Tuna/Marlin, she was spewing over the side for 6 hours straight... , so that's not an option at the moment.
River/Lakes fishing will be it until I can find time to get out and leave her happily on land somewhere!