Virgin Tench ?

There is a water in Tunbridge Wells less than 10 yards from the main road that rarely gets fished. It's known as "Brighton Lake" and was probably man made in the 19th century. According to a reliable source, many of the lakes inhabitants which were mainly Carp, died during the prolonged freeze of 1963.

When we were kids, in the early 70's, we used to watch the Carp cruising around. There didn't seem to be too many, perhaps a dozen or so, but to us youngsters, they looked like giants. In those days, lots of locals used to fish there hoping to hook one, and to my knowledge, I'm not aware of any ever being caught.

In the summer of 1976, on a very rare visit to the lake, I was fishing a waggler with a lobworm when the float lifted and glided away. I fully expected a long battle with one of the monsters, but was very surprised to land a Tinca of about 2 lbs. We had never seen a Tench in there before. Aside from the visible Carp, there were only a small shoal of Rudd and odd Perch.

Over the years, I've often been tempted to try again. Some times it's totally over run with weed. In 2008 the path surrounding the back of the lake was rebuilt, and then the following arctic winters saw some of the weed die off. I decided that this year, I was going to have a proper attempt to see if any more Tincas were present. I walked around the lake and counted 8 Carp up to 15lbs and aside from some mysterious fry, saw no obvious signs of feeding Tench.

My trusty rake revealed the weed was going to be a major problem if anything substantial was hooked. I designed this tool to be easily carried in my box. Dad used to say it looked like half of an old BBC2 T.V. ariel, but it works well and is very light to throw. While I was busy raking, Carp were already being inquisitive in the swim, oblivious to the commotion I was causing, and while I was setting up the rods, there appeared to be feeding fish. The "heavy" gear had two hair rigged soft pellets which ultimately never got touched, whilst the float rod and waggled two red worms on a B611 size 14 saw loads of action. Six Tench and a Perch was my reward for a very satisfactory session. OK, they were nowhere near as big as the fish I caught 38 years ago, but I'm sure there must be some bigger specimens. The best was barely a pound, and everyone of the little buggers got into the weed before being coaxed out.

I had some funny looks from walkers and some people feeding the ducks and geese. An extra bonus for my evening session, was seeing a Kingfisher land on the island. I'd like to have stayed longer, but I'd run out of half decent worms and the light was rapidly fading. With less than two weeks before my river campaign starts, I think it may be a wise move to enjoy a dawn session here? 

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