After a frustrating start to his tench season, Buckinghamshire-based specimen angler Adam Perna finally landed the fish of his dreams!
Arriving at the venue early, Adam luckily managed to slip into one of the most productive swims on the lake. With numerous big fish coming out prior to his trip, he felt very confident for a bite or two. Despite good numbers of tench coming out he knew just how hard the venue can be at times, and was going to fish for a bite at a time.
Adam choose to fish 2 rods on a clear area at 45 yards, both with maggot feeder tactics using Drennan Bolt Rig Feeders, a short SinkBraid hooklink and 2 or three Buoyant Maggots presented on a hair with a size 12 Super specialist Barbel hook.
His third rod was fished to the other side of the swim on a small silty area between weed. On this rod, Adam used a small 1.5oz In-Line lead setup fished with Buoyant Casters on a long hair and a PVA bag of casters hooked onto the hook before casting.
Unfortunately during the next 56 hours Adam failed to receive a single take, despite changing rigs and tactics. Not disheartened by the lack of action, Adam knew the unsettled weather had affected the fishes behaviour, and decided to have one more night in the hope the conditions would change for the better.
As the evening fell the wind swung around towards his bank, before dropping and the lake was like a millpond. Then out of the blue, a screaming run at 8:30pm resulted in the first fish of the session and at 6lb 8oz it was very welcome.
A conversation with fellow tench angler, Nathan Long revealed that he had been catching well over the last few seasons using fake corn baits at night. Armed with this new information, Adam switched over his hookbait to two grains of ESP Buoyant Corn which were critically balanced using a small piece of putty. This was then recast to a tight, silty spot between the weed with a small PVA bag of 8mm halibut pellets hooked onto the hook.
“At 3am, I was woken up by the line peeling of my spool. I wound down into what felt a heavy fish. I was given the run-a-round for a good 15 minutes, as the fish kitted from weed bed to weed bed, desperately trying to shake the hook. As it got closer, I could see that it was a huge tench! After several more runs in close, It was a great relief when it finally slid over the rim of the landing net. This had to be the double I was after, it filled the entire net,” explained Adam.
The scales went 11lb 12oz, Adam was absolutely made up. A new personal best and a fish of a lifetime! “The fish was not filled with spawn so another lucky angler might catch it at 12lb+, and good on them if they do,” added Adam.
This fantastic capture earned Adam a weekly Drennan Cup award in Angling Times on the 2nd of June 2015.