John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
October 19th 2009
A Very Welcome Tench
Friday, 16th October saw me filming for Gareth Purnell's Internet Channel down at the lake. The idea was to catch a late season tench and, boy, did we struggle. The big lake is where we wanted to focus but, as the carp boys know, the tench have been conspicuous by their absence now for months. And when Friday dawned with almost hurricane winds, neither angler nor crew fancied the white horses being driven across from the north. The Lobster Pot seemed the safe alternative!
But even in there, the tench proved obdurate. Corn, pellets and worms were all steadfastly ignored and it wasn't until I went onto maggot later on in the day that the tench really began to bubble in anything like earnest. And then, I managed to miss two bites and shed one nice fish close to the net. You could tell the camera crew were in despair. Hope of an early knock off looked like evaporating before a two pound male obligingly came along. He wasn't the biggest tench, nor the most beautiful I've caught this season but he saved the day. I was almost as happy to see him as I would have been my double figure fish from the Kingfisher Lake itself!
But I take my hat off to the carp boys. Though the temperature was down at least five degrees and the wind chill was making it feel seriously cold, the boys were still piling up for their weekend session. As I lay warm in my bed on Friday night, the wind howling around my cottage, I could only imagine what it would be like down there on the lake. I just pray to God those bivvy pegs were firmly hammered in. We all know carp fishing gets a certain amount of criticism from some quarters, but you can never doubt the dedication and skill that our boys display on a year round basis.