Amazing 11lb 12oz tench landed

The capture of one of the biggest tench of the year shows why many anglers are targeting tincas in search of a new personal best. Dan Gale had a patient approach to thank for helping him to fool this 11lb 12oz specimen.

After finding an area of new weed growth on his local club water, the 33-year-old made the decision to feed up to the mark during the evening but not cast his rigs until sunrise. “I fed hemp, pellets, maggots and sweetcorn to this new spot, which I knew could be a banker for a big fish,” Dan exclusively told Angling Times.

“It was tempting to cast a rig over the top from the word go, but I wanted to give the tench time to settle on the bait.”

At around 5am Dan finally cast a Drennan maggot feeder loaded with red maggots to his chosen spot, and exactly an hour later his bite-alarm screamed.

“From the off I knew I was into a good fish but there are lots of carp in this water,” Dan continued. “I’ve been fortunate to catch a few double-figure tench from here before, though, and at the back of my mind I knew I could be playing one of the very big ones.

“My doubts were finally quashed after a strong seven-minute fight when the fish finally surfaced – it was without doubt the best fight I’ve ever had from a tench,” he said.

By the end of the session Dan had added four more tench to 4lb to supplement the 11lb 12oz monster – which smashed his personal best by 1lb 2oz.

Just a day earlier the Southampton specimen hunter took a 9lb 2oz tench from the same swim on the same tactics.

He concluded: “This 11lb 12oz fish is my fourth over 9lb in five mornings of fishing this year – so I’m absolutely over the moon.”

All his fish fell to helicopter rigs with Drennan maggot feeders, braided hooklinks and fake corn and maggots on line-aligned size 12 Korda Mixa hooks.