Rookery Waters, Pidley, Cambridgeshire, 3rd April 2011
Heading back to Rookery Waters we decided to fish Rook Water after Mark had previous success with some early season Tench.
We both decided to fish on the right hand side of the lake at pegs 24 & 25.
The weather was pretty cold and a chilled wind soon started to blow across our pegs. I hooked a nice ghost carp of about 2lb from the off, followed by a roach.
Mark was having trouble keeping his waggler in the swim and took an early decision to move to the opposite corner of the lake, peg 16.
I decided to try and fish out my chosen swim and soon switched to the feeder. The fish turned on and I landed three carp in quick sucession. The action died, and now Mark was consistently getting fish on the feeder. His choice to move was a good one!
I was landing one fish to every couple that Mark was getting. Our banter/abuse continued via mobile phone.
I decided to drop in my margin rig with a piece of corn. The float bobbed and I landed a nice roach of around 10oz. Next drop in, the float sailed away and something more substantial was on the line, the black elastic did it's job and a subdued, but lovely tench came to the net.
Now Tench (tinca tinca) are my favourite fish, it was the first coarse fish I captured when 13 years old so hold a special place with my fishing. Fish was fin and scale perfect.
We weighed our catches, Mark had 22lb, and I ended up with 16lb, so another point to matey, putting me 2 points down... not good, must try harder... roll on Tunnel Barn in April!