Failure to prepare... You know the rest.

Sadly this week, due to life commitments (work being the main one as I am sure it is for most) I have been unable to get out on the bank. However, that has not stopped my mind from being preoccupied with the thought of fishing, and what's second best to actually going fishing.. planning to go fishing of course! Almost all of my fishing adventures are planned ones due to my work schedule, and luckily for me, I often find myself with a day off in the week to wet a line. A lot of my fishing when I was younger was done spontaneously. There was a small lake on the estate where I used to live that had a good head of small roach in, and a handful of carp! The carp were hard to catch; due to their small numbers, locating them was a problem, but I did manage the odd one or two off the surface during the summer on floating bread. I think I've gone a bit off subject here, but the point I was trying to make was that when I was younger if I had a burst of spontaneity and fancied a dabble, I could be out the house and catching hand sized roach within five minutes. But now, planning in advance is a must for me. I quite like it actually, it gives me a chance to consider what species I want to target (or if I just fancy fishing for bites), it gives me a chance to locate a venue as I now like to try and fish different venues as much as possible (where would we be without Google), it gives me a chance to rummage through the tackle box and get any supplies that I am short off and it allows me time to get the bait I want if I haven't already got it.

Species Selection

Just this morning, I sat with a cup of coffee and watched John Wilson long trotting the Hampshire test with a wire stem stick float and centre pin reel and with every dip of his float, my left arm jerked as if I was holding the rod myself (don't worry, my coffee was in the other hand!). I watched on in envy as he caught grayling after grayling. But being as it is currently closed season on the rivers I suppose replicating John is out of the question. A quick glance at the weather out the window, and a thought to the time of year pretty much made the decision for me. Tench. Being as we are a third of the way through May already, I'm actually a little late to be going on my first Tench targeting session of the year, but as they say, better late than never. The Tench is actually a favourite in our family. Both my Father and Grandfather claim it to be their favourite species, and I'm pretty sure I've heard my uncle say something similar, although he no longer enjoys the pleasure of angling. Personally, I wouldn't put the Tench as my outright favourite species, but its definitely there somewhere near the top! Anyway, I've found my target species, now to find my target venue.

Tench (Tinca Tinca)

  

 Venue

Having now decided which species I was going to target, a choice of venue was required. I first went through a list of local venues in my head of where I had caught Tench before but I decided there were too many other species in the lakes I'd considered and I would most likely be plagued by Carp (there's a sentence that doesn't get said very often) So I turned to my old friend Google to see what he would suggest. Initially my search results came back with some famous Tench venues, places I was expecting such as Sywell reservoir and Horseshoe lake, but these are large waters that I just don't feel my angling skills are up to yet. So I continued to search and on the next page I was surprised to see a venue which I had  added as a bookmark only 2 weeks previous. I had added 'Watersmeet country inn' with the intention of visiting one day to target their main lake for carp, but completely forgot they had another lake called 'The Tench lake'! The lake holds mainly Tench and Bream to 10lbs along with some smaller carp. I'll hold off describing the lake as I will no doubt cover that in my blog when I return from the trip, but from the pictures I've seen, it looks absolutely mouth-watering! 

Watersmeet Tench Lake

 

Itchy Feet

So there we have it, my next angling adventure is all planned out and I cannot wait to go. I am already running through my head what set up and bait I'll be using, how I am going to fish, what I'll change if my first approach doesn't work etc. My planned day to go is Monday 18th May, however at the moment I am due working for a few hours in the morning and for an hour in the evening, but with the nature of my job, cover is easy to arrange so with a bit of luck my colleagues will understand my need to fish and agree to cover my shift. Hopefully I will return triumphant and my willingness to prepare will not lead me to fail, but you'll just have to wait to find out!

Tight Lines,
A R Howorth