A last minute change of plan left me with a few hours free to fish this week, opting for nearby Jeanes Pond at Braybrooke Rec now that the weather has warmed up. Reports of a few tench being caught decided my approach for the session, taking my stiff pole with strong elastic, not so much for the tench, which run to about 4 lb, but to cope with any pike that may take a roach.

As usual the convenience of the bread punch can’t be beaten. There is no need to drive off to the tackle shop for bait, when all you need is sitting ready to thaw in the freezer. Ten seconds for bread slices and 40 for a bag of liquidised bread in the microwave is enough for bait ready to fish with. If I had known the night before that I was fishing, the bag could have been left in the fridge over night to slowly thaw.

To match my pole set up, I used a 3 gram bodied antenna float, bulk shotted to within a foot of the hook and a No 6 tell tale shot 6 inches from it, the rig set for the bait to fish just on the bottom. For ground bait I used 4 ounces of liquidised bread as a base, with about a table spoon each of Haiths Red Spice mix, ground carp pellets and 2 mm Krill pellets. Wetted down, this mix was formed into half a dozen tight balls and spread along the drop off four metres out. The tench here tend to search along the shelf of the drop off and it wasn’t long before bubbles began to rise from the bottom. The idea of the tight balls is to try to avoid the small rudd and roach with the feed sinking straight down, likewise the bulked down float, although lift bites and runaways proved that this was not working too well, although there were some better roach among the tiddlers.

Bubbles were steadily rising and every time that the bait managed to reach the bottom, there was a lift and a slow sink away and another decent roach.

The occasional rudd managed to intercept the bait, holding the body of the float high in the water, then drifting off before I struck. I bounced many of these off due to the lack of give in my pole and elastic.

Another lift, bob, sail away, which I thought was a rudd, turned out to be a tench, carp, or pike. I never saw the fish, just the elastic stretching out, before the hook lost grip. Leaving these bites longer all resulted in a small gorged rudd. Very frustrating. The roach kept coming. They were loving my ground bait, if there were tench down on the bottom, the roach were beating them to the 6 mm pellets of bread punch.

I lost another mystery fish, while I was bouncing off one in three roach. I had already slackened off the elastic, but it was not enough and I assume that the elastic was putting too much pressure on the hook, when the better fish swam off. One of the others fishing nearby, had just caught two tench on the trot and I mixed up some more feed and put it in. Taking a cup of tea and my sandwiches, I walked round for a chat to Kevin to see what he was doing right. A running line waggler rig and maggots on the shelf was his answer, the tench being about 3 lb and a baby of 8 0z. After swapping life stories, I wandered back to my swim and continued catching roach.

Kevin’s brother Trev now came round for a chat and asked about the bread punch and the roach obliged, then I struck into and lost a smaller tench as it fought deep. This pole elastic will need slackening off before I fish again. I had watched another angler opposite fishing a feeder to the edge of a bed of lilies and seen him catch three tench. This was not working. I persevered for another hour, no more mystery fish and plenty of lost roach was enough for one session and I packed up.

The tench rig, that last year had put three tench, a 2 lb crucian and some small common carp in my net, but not today. Lifting my net from the water, I was still surprise by the amount of fish, considering that I had bounced so many off.