Alan Rio really did have a red letter session on a recent tench trip

“I decided on a 3 night trip to a club lake as the weather was looking good with a big low pressure forecast. When I arrived at the lake it was quite busy and I squeezed into a new area that I had not fished before but had various weed and bars in front of me at about 60yds. I managed to find a really clear spot on the middle rod and left hand rod that was super smooth. I baited up with chopped worm, caster, particle and added some tutti frutti bait booster syrup and tutti frutti stick mix to bind the mix prior to spombing. I put out 15-20 spombs and got the rigs ready.

I decided to go with a naked 2” rig with a worm kebab hookbait as this ensured a very accurate placement onto the smooth spot. Also, similar to the lift method, a 2inch rig imitates the lift method and ensures a positive bite. The worm kebab was loaded with 3 juicy large lobworms, chopped down removing head/tail to ooze out attractors.

I had the first bite early into the evening of the first night and bites continued from then on. I topped up the swim on regular intervals with the same mix. From then it just went mental as I landed tench of 6lbs 5oz, 8lbs 15oz, a male 9lbs 3oz, 9lbs 11oz, 9lbs 12oz, 9lbs 13oz, 10lbs 3oz, 10lbs 7oz, 10lbs 7oz, 10lbs 10oz and this 10lbs 13oz beauty.

Interestingly the doubles came on in a group when the pressure dropped to 997mb which came with overcast cloud and rain. Using a barometer app on my phone I was able to watch the falling pressure. My total bait input for the session was 200 lobs, 5 pints of caster, 4 pints of red maggot, 6 pints of particle, 2 tins of corn along with a bottle of syrup and a bag of stick mix but when you get a hit of fish like that you have to keep them grubbing around and interested.” said Alan.