Two 11lb tench add to a great tally for 2015

One of best-ever starts to the tench fishing season shows no sign of letting up, with the capture of a string of huge fish.

Josh Fisher equalled the biggest tench caught so far in 2015 when he netted a superb 11lb 10oz fish.

It gave the Norfolk-based tattoo artist the only bite of a session on a gravel pit in the south of the UK just two hours after he’d cast out his rigs.

Artificial casters hair-rigged to the back of size 12 Korda Mugga hooks were positioned over a bed of maggots, groundbait and pellets at 70 yards range, and his fish was beaten with 10lb mainline and a 15lb braided hooklink.

“I blanked during a bream session the night before and I wasn’t even going to bother on the Saturday until one particularly attractive swim on the lake became available and I just had to give it a go,” said Josh.

“I’m so glad I did because this is the third double-figure tench I’ve caught so far in what has already been an incredible start to the season.”

Pete Cranstoun’s first tench of 2015 tipped the scales at 11lb 2oz, and was his reward for a dedicated prebaiting campaign.

The specimen fishing veteran from Newbury, Berkshire, introduced consignments of flavoured wheat, buckwheat and hempseed in the week leading up to his session at a large southern stillwater.

This tried-and tested tactic paid dividends when he legered imitation casters to tempt the fish, along with other tench weighing 9lb 12oz and 8lb 9oz.

All his bites came from an area on a marginal shelf to baits fished in conjunction with a size 10 hook.

“This fish was absolutely huge and wasn’t carrying any spawn whatsoever, meaning there’s a real possibility that a tench with a frame like this could be pushing 13lb at its heaviest,” said Peter.