View Full Version : Tench & Resistance
What are your views about the feeding habits of Tench with regards to resistance? I have been going through a few of my old books and one of the general views is that a resistant kind of a rig is not the best kind for Tench although we all know a disproportionate amount of large Tench are caught each year using bolt style rigs. Should we be looking at reducing the amount of resistance that the fish feels or trying to shock them into running off and hooking themselves?
Also which rig do you thing is more sensitive – a fixed paternoster or a running rig?
Tom
There is no doubt there is a ceratin elegance about float fishing for tench with a quill float. However, much to the horror of my accompanying traditionalist rods I tried bolt rigs and mini boilies at Blenheim Palace Lakes last summer. I was assured that this method would never work, especially with boilies, at a lake frequented by purists using floats and baits such as corn and casters. However, I knew otherwise and sure enough it worked a treat ! Threre were no dropped runs and all takes were converted. Due to the way they feed and their mouth physiology, I have found that tench are no better at ejecting these rigs than carp are. QED.
Matt (DOC)
Sorry guys, I have never used a bolt rig except in sea fishing, it's a float or light link ledger for me every time.
Tony
I have to agree about using a float - there is nothing like seeing a stream of bubbles rise followed by your float twitching then dissappearing. However it is not always practical to use a float - if it is really windy and choppy, your fishing at distance or there for a long session.
What would be you favourite rig for Tench (other than the float) - Most of my Tench have been caught on a free running feeder rig although my biggest Tench (not huge a 5lb 10) was caught using a semi fixed lead. I think a lot of the time what we think may be a free running rig may turn out to have a certain amount of resitance to it especially if fishing over silt or weed as the weight can get plugged in the bottom. This then resticts the flow of the line turing it into a shock style rig.
What do you think?
Tom
I pole fish,float fish and ledger for tench but best success has come to fined down 'helicopter rigs',sometimes,as Ian has suggested,changing the lead for a weighted feeder.
[b]Smarts
I think it was Jim Gibbinson who did some experiments with a fellow angler in the water while he pulled on one end of a supposedly running lead rig. He found, by direct observation, that these "running" leads did in fact move a considerable distance (enough to effectively become a bolt rig) unless (i) the lead was 5 oz or more or (ii) the line was pulled directly at a 180° angle from the angler. Thus, I think it is indeed as you say, and many many anglers who think they have a "free runing" lead in fact do not. The harsh realities of life are sometimes a useful enlightenment (Judus, Chapter XVIII).
My best ever Tench session was at the original Twyford venue when it was under leisure sport. 12 Tench between 4 & 6lb all on float fished brandling an caster fished close in.
I do feederfish for tench on a lot of occasions but will always feed up a float line just in case. I have found the old blue still foats the best with the bristle tops. A tench only has to sniff at it and away it goes. It takes some weight as well I think the largest is 4AAA it inly takes 1 no.4 shot to take it down the 5" so lift bites are very obvious as well.... luvly jublee
Tony
I agree Scopio, I also use the blue floats and canel dart floats for close in work. these are weighted floats and need only 2 x No 4 to **** and set. I have used this set up for 9 or 10 years with great success with tench and crucian carp (Crucians being real finicky feeders).
In response to Ian's comments about resistance and other species. I would agree with his comments but with the exception of catfish. There is a long-standing myth regarding catfish and resistance. Over 80% of my cats have been caught with boilies and bolt rigs (deliberate cat tactics and NOT whilst fishing for carp). Also, I have found that when using bottom baits the fish are hooked on the edge of the lips or the rough pad, which is a poor hook holding point. Conversely pop-ups seem to nail them in the scissors every time.
Resistance is not always futile ! (Laviticus Chapter VI, Verse II).
Resistance is futile (The Borg - Star Trek The Next Generation)
Sorry cheap gag.
I have certainly found pike to react adversely to resistance. The runs I get seem to be more confident when deadbait leger fishing a lead on a long (12") free-running link as opposed to a lead directly on the main line. Could this be down to the pike picking up a bait and creating an angle where the line runs through the leger swivel causing enough resistance to drop the bait, as opposed to a greater amount of slack with a free running link?
Not sure if I have explained myself very well.
And of course there is the fishes perception of resistance and their reaction to it to consider. With catfish for example, I suspect that it's not so much that they are bothered about resistance, but more to do with the fact that the hook tends to just pull out of the mouth without taking hold as they swim off.
Hence catfish tend to give quite slow or jerky runs (usually anyway) because they are not frightened by being pricked (since they probably haven't even noticed the hook link in that cavernous indestructible bony mouth). They then quite often just fall out in the fight if you haven't hit them hard enough unless you are lucky with the hook hold in the scissors. You can of course increase your chances of a good hook hold as described by John "Colne Valley Cat Slayer" Prentice, by using pop-ups on a bolt rig.
It is possibly for this reason alone that cats "appear" to be sensitive to resistance when in fact it is, in a way, resistance that is sensitive to the catfish !
This is just my theory. Perhaps a real cat expert will tell me if its ********.
...Deja vu??
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Nobody replied on a separate thread. Must be crap then.
rhornegold
03-05-2001, 17:20
Tom,
Resistance in Tench fishing matter very little I have found out in recent years, having used method feeder type rigs over the last few years with a resonable amount of success.
As long as the resistance is constant I have come to the conclusion the baitrunner type resistance help put more fish on the bank.
The only exception to this is Pike fishing where I still use open bail arm and rear drop off indicators.
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