TENCH - A PERSONAL VIEW 
- by Davie Caldwell

Davie and the tench of the Forth & Clyde Canal go back a long way. Here he tells of his progress over the years leading up to some amazing catches in recent times .......

I have fished for Tench in the Forth & Clyde Canal for many years now. I got to the stage where, in the very special years of 1991 + 1992, I could catch at least 50lb almost wherever I sat down to fish! Before talking methods and baits though it's worth going back to the beginning.

My love affair with the canal tench started when I first joined the Glasgow and West of Scotland Coarse Fishing Association in 1972. It wasn't long before I heard some vague stories of large catches of tench from the canal that were not really taken seriously.

Walter Doctor, a bit of a loner in the club, was the source of much of the speculation and now we know that we should have believed him!

The fish were introduced in the late 60s and though we originally concentrated on fishing the wides at Kelvinhead, these prolific breeding fish quickly spread along the canal and now are present in many stillwaters around Scotland too. The hard fighting qualities of the tench have encouraged many new anglers and have also led many a game angler to turn to coarse fishing over the years.

When I first fished for tench I used the traditional 'lift method' of float fishing with a large shot just at the bottom. This, while OK in theory, was not very practical on such a wide and deep canal! I soon was using normal waggler float fishing methods to fish overdepth and hit more bites and we usually managed between 2 and 6 fish per session, around 2 1/2 lb each.

I usually fished from the far bank at Banknock and was very secretive about about dragging and pre-baiting my swims even going to great lengths to cover up dropped groundbait. Looking back this was silly since hardly anyone else was ever fishing there! I would pre-bait with 8-10lb groundbait, 3 pints of maggots and sweetcorn. I had no knowledge or experience of tench fishing so most of what I did I had learned totally from reading books!

I started to build up some knowledge by trial and error and catches improved especially as the tench multiplied over the years. I learned a lot by walking along the canal simply looking for areas where I could see huge concentrations of bubbles giving away the location of tench shoals.

Originally the canal had very little weed over it's mainly gravel bottom and lilies were very rare. Over time the silt built up along with the weeds and now the canal is 2/3 of the width it was. The tench gradually spread from Kelvinhead nearer to my home. For a long time Auchinstarry was no good but by 1986/87 it started to fish well and excellent catches were possible.

In those days we would not start tench fishing until July. I would leave for the canal in the evening around 8pm (often from the pub!) take down my loads of tackle then rake the swim 3 or 4 times to stir up the bottom. Pre-baiting would follow then I would fish from 10pm and hopefully catch some tench up until 11 or 12 pm when it usually went dead. I would rake, feed and start fishing again around 4am with a mist on the water and you could catch well untill the sun hit the water, after which it was a waste of time.

Nowadays however it is often possible to catch well in to the daylight as long as you start very early, and it's best to keep feeding. Indeed the biggest catches in recent years have mainly been limited by tiredness on the part of the angler, not the willingness of the fish! If you simply turn up at 9am and start you have little chance of catching many tench. I also feel that June is the most productive month. You can still catch later in the year, indeed many fish are ever caught in winter, but you have to fish finer and catches drop as the year goes on.

I believe a few factors have led to catches lasting longer into the daylight. There is much more weed to shelter the fish and prolong feeding. Better tackle and float fishing methods help keep bites coming when the fish get wary. Nowadays I use a bodied waggler that is as small as I can get away with given the wind conditions, usually fished 1ft overdepth with dust shot trailing.

I first use the pole for tench 4 or 5 years ago in November at Twechar. Feeding just a handful of casters I was amazed to hook a tench first put in. I wasalso amazed at how easy it was to play the fish. I quickly set up a waggler rod though but the presentation did not seem as good. Back on to the pole and I took 4 other tench as well as 7 or 8 good roach in a great days fishing. That really opened my eyes and proved to me that far from being stupid fish, tench might respond better to sensitive bait presentation. The pole also is much better for playing tench as long as you keep the pole up and let the fish swim around in circles till it tires.

I have tried many additives and fancy baits but in my opinion the best attractor is a good rake! The disturbance caused by the splash can even attract fish when things go quiet. Used sensibly it should mean that you can get away with modest amounts of normal baits to keep fish there without resorting to lots of fancy (and expensive) groundbait.

Nowadays I have found that with todays advanced rods and poles 2lb mainline with 1 1/2lb hooklengths and size 16 hooks (18s later in the year) are just the job. You can often get away with heavier tackle but I have never felt the need to step up and feel the finer tackle gets me more fish.

The balance and size of fish in the canal has changed significantly over the years. In the late 60s and early 70s double figure bags of quality roach were commonplace and tench were few but usually well over 2lb. Now big catches of roach are rare and the shoals of tench are larger in numbers but smaller in size.

My style is not static and I don't like to just to sit patiently without catching. I like to get there early and even feed 2 swins so that I can always move if not catching and I am always happy to walk about until I find the fish. You should have no real worries about catching if you prepare properly and if you get it right you can still take catches like some of those I have witnessed in the last few years.

In early June in 1990 I fished in the 2nd basin at Auchenstarry and had a catch of around 70lb of tench. A mate of mine on hearing this fished the same place on the Friday morning after and had almost 100lb, in fact his wife reported him missing since the fish fed until midday! The next day 5 anglers from Kirkintilloch fished from early morning on the Saturday. That was a historic morning since after the action had ended they had taken over 300lb of tench between them, Stephen Hunter taken the best catch of around 90lb!

Such catches are still possible if you do your homework. But even if you don't get 100lb I'm sure, like me, you will get a thrill out of every tench you hook whilst trying!