Bumper haul of male tench, including my largest-ever! - Tony Gibson

“I was fishing a Cambridgeshire pit and chose a swim where there was a clear gravel area between weedbeds at around 50 yards. I decided to put two rods on that spot, and a third down the margin to see what was about. 

“After using a Spomb to bait the swim up with a stinky mix of crumbed Dynamite Baits Complex-T boilies, mixed 2mm and 6mm pellets, hemp, corn and groundbait laced with liquid worm extract, I cast 2oz lead rigs with boilies tipped with corn to the spot. 

“An hour later I had a twitchy bite on the bobbin and struck into what was clearly a tench. It put up an heroic fight, and tried to snag me in weed multiple times, but eventually what was possibly my largest-ever male tench of 9lb 11oz slid over the net. 

“By the end of my 48-hour trip I’d caught 13 tench… of which 11 were males! I’ve never had a tench trip like it before.”

Tony Gibson with his 9lb 11oz male tench