Cheers Brian and oddly enough I managed to break my tench drought today with
a 3 lb lady. The poor sod fishing in the next swim thought I had won the
lottery.

I had her on two red maggots, on a 16 hook, at distance and the man in the
local shop agrees with you as I bought Drennen specialist hooks and can
remember buying them way back as well. Slightly unconventional method, well
unconventional for an old codger like me. I used to use patrrnoster rigs to
catch medium carp with a line to lead of about 6 inches and then line to
hook being about 10 inches, the short line lengths used to give reasonable
bite indication. So I went back to it and got just the one tench, a bag of
small roach and a small skimmer.

I did try the lift method as it was a short session I just could not map the
whole swim and found myself changing depth too often and then only getting
small roach.

The only upset for the day was the new rod, as I can no longer drive due
balance problems ( not alcohol related unfortunately ) I bought a telescopic
rod ( Diawa Vertice ) under the advice of a local angling shop owner and
this was the first fish of any consequence and the rod is so unresponsive,
it seemed flexible enough but I must have lost the touch as I simply over
powered the tench which took a lot of the fun out of it.

Anyone know of a telescopic which really is for light course fishing and
cheep.

--
Gandalf


"Brian Soper" wrote in message
...
Hi Gandalf

I'm surprised at the lack of answers they must all be fishing.

Hooks, I trust implicitly, Drennan Super Specialist hooks in all sizes,
never let me down.

Bait, they find it hard to resist a lobworm, either whole, half or just a
tail. Under a float fished slightly over-depth.

Hope this helps

Regards

Brian
"Gandalf" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Back to fishing after a long break and fed up with looking stupid when I
go to buy new kit.

Two questions please.

The easy one. I need someone to recommend a good eyed hook. I am going to
be using maggot, worm, corn and bread in the main and just be still water
fishing in the main.

Second, harder, question. When did tench become so damn smart. In my,
long lost, youth I could catch them without too much trouble. Feathering
a couple of red maggots by likely spots or a light lead and sweet corn if
I have to fish at distance.

None of that works any more and I even had one tench come up and eat a
few floating casters as I left the swim at the end of the day, now tat
was just nasty.

So anyone got a cast iron method of getting them during the summer.

--
Gandalf