As the commercial fishery scene continues to expand it is soon going to reach saturation point if it hasn't done so already. It would seem the days of the carp waters which produce a fish a chuck to the pleasure and match angler are numbered, with many anglers realising there is little skill, in catching fish which haven't got enough to eat.

Some far-sighted fishery owners have already recognised this and are starting to stock at least one of their lakes with silver fish and tench. Some have even purposely dug lakes, which have been stocked with tench and only tench, though at present they are few and far between. Never the less there are enough tench waters about on commercial fisheries to make a trip well worthwhile and in the past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to try many of them out.

Past tench
To say they have replaced the old traditional estate lakes is not really true, some of the better ones which are well established, make a pleasant change from the over stocked carp ponds, but you cannot reproduce a lake which has matured for hundreds of years in a matter of a few years, or even a decade. However, they are generally well landscaped, are usually very attractive and fit somewhere in between the carp ponds and estate lakes, filling a niche in the market.

I am not against carp fisheries, bet some of them are so overstocked that it is impossible to catch other fish, which the water may also hold. One lake which I know holds perch over 4lb is so overstocked with carp that I have caught them on just about every bait I have used including dead and live baits. I have even had one swallow a live gudgeon so far down that I was unable to remove the hook. Carp have even been seen taking dead fish from the surface like they would a piece of bread.

Carp alternative
After having fished waters like this it is nice sit down knowing the first bite you get will be something other than a carp weighing anything from 2lb to 7lb - usually 2lb.
Some fishery owners believe that all anglers want carp, but this is not so and I know one fishery boss who runs a commercial lake on his farm who will not have carp any where near the place. He is not short of customers and it's a real pleasure to fish there. I know perhaps I shouldn't say this, but he doesn't suffer greatly from litter either. There is no suggestion that all carp anglers leave litter, far from it, but there are a great many who do. It seems that many of those who fish for tench want to do so in nice surroundings and they try to keep it that way.

Slow and expensive
Tench are slow growers and because of this are very expensive to buy, so many fishery owners only buy very small fish weighing just ounces, if that's what you want to catch, fine, but if you want bigger fish then you can usually find a water where are of a reasonable size. Certainly there are plenty of waters with tench in the 4lb to 5lb range. There are not many commercial fisheries with very large tench with the possible exception of a few gravel pits run as commercial fisheries, but these are not the dug out type of waters I am writing about.

Same problems
These commercial tench waters are not usually difficult to fish and catching from them doesn't so much require any particular technique, but to be successful regularly you will need a little watercraft. Whether these lakes are big or small the problems are nearly always the same, the tench are not spread out equally and may be in only one or two swims in any numbers. Just fishing anywhere you can find a swim will usually result in a fish or two during a days fishing, but to get a bag of them you need to find the main shoal.

Even moving your bait a few yards to a different part of the swim you are already fishing could make all the difference to how many you actually put on the bank.

I remember fishing one fairly small water which holds lots of tench which ranged from 1lb to 6lb, but which also contains lots of very small roach and rudd and before we made the trip, I remember saying to my friend who I was to fish with, not to bother with maggots. At the time he had been catching lots of tench from another water float fishing with maggots and despite my warning started to fish them. He was convinced that he could eventually bring the tench in if he continued to feed with them as well as fishing them on the hook.

Barely had the float time settle before it sailed away as a hungry rudd swallow the double maggot bait. Another cast and another rudd and so it went on cast after cast. And did I say I told you so? Of course I did.

Bubbles
Meanwhile I wasn't catching much either fishing worms on the quiver tip with a cage feeder loaded with ground bait I was casting to the point of an island, but a few yards away down the right hand side of the island, I noticed a few bubbles bursting and floating on the surface. They appeared too big to be tench yet I was convinced they were. My next cast was among the bubbles and within a few minutes the tip smacked round and I was into a small tench, which despite it's size gave a good account of itself on my 3lb line and light quiver.

I turned to watch my friend who was still snatching out small rudd and the occasional gudgeon. He was still convinced he would eventually bring the tench onto feed, but by the time 1 was on my eighth tench I could tell by the tone in his voice, he was beginning to lose confidence. To be fair he did eventually catch a few tench, though most of them came when he changed over to sweetcorn and bread flake.

It wasn't just the bait, which gave me the edge over my friend; it was casting in the right place and feeding the swim with groundbait. I didn't need to change swims to present my tackle in the right place, the feeding area was only a few yards away, yet 1 am sure if 1 hadn't cast into the right spot I would have caught very little.

Light groundbait
All of the tench I have caught from commercial waters have responded to light, but regular groundbaiting either with a feeder, throwing in small balls, or both. The trick is to make sure it is the right place and you are fishing with the right bait on the day. How do you know what the right bait is when one day the tench may feed ravenously on a bait, but totally reject it on another? The answer is trial an error; I never leave my bait in the water long before recasting and if I am not getting a response I change my bait until I do,

Continual recasting is good, for every time my tackle hits the water an explosion of groundbait floats down through the depths laced with a few hook baits. While I am fishing I am also looking for any activity on the surface, such as bubbles, mud, or rolling fish, anything to give me a clue as to where the tench are. If I find the tench are at the other end of the lake men I do not hesitate to move, regardless of how much bait I have already put in.

Early catches
Now that the close season on still waters has been abolished the tench season starts earlier than it use to on most waters and some of the best catches can be made in late March and early April. At this time on a local club water anglers have made some amazing catches of tench from 2lb to 6lb with as many as 40 in a bag.

A bait that works later in the year is cockles, perhaps because the fish have wised up after having been hooked on all the regular baits. Whatever the reason I have caught a number of good tench fishing with cockles at the end of the summer.

When fishing with cockles I do so with them on their own and not with a feeder as I usually do with the other baits. Sometimes I just lay on with a float, but as often as not, I fish them on the size 8 hook with only a swan shot as weight for casting. I either watch the line, or fish with a quiver tip, both work equally as well, though the quiver has the advantage if it is windy.

Cockles are a good bait for most fish so if you try them don't be surprised at what you catch, bream love them and so do carp, but if you are fishing one of those purposely made tench fisheries there may not be any carp to catch.

Mini boilies can be a very good bait for these commercial fishery tench, but I have to say I do not use them very often, preferring to concentrate on the more traditional baits. This is not because they are traditional, but because they can be fished straight on the hook and I do not have to bother tying a hair rig. Never the less I always have a few in the back of my car just in case.

Bread flake and crust are also good tench baits and I have caught plenty of good fish on them, but to be truthful 1 have had more success with bread on gravel pits and marshland drains, than I have ever had on commercial waters. Just why this should be so I have no idea, but that is my experience and again I only try it when I cannot catch on the other baits.

There are of course, many other baits which will catch and they are all worth a try, but I rarely find I need to look any further than the ones I have already mentioned. So if you want some fun with tench try one of those commercial waters that do not hold carp. You will not need any special baits, or equipment to catch them, just a bit of common sense.

This article was originally published in Coarse Angling Today