In message , Gandalf
writes

You mentioned that they were good for tench, my record for tench over
the last three years is abysmal with only one 3 lb in all that time.
Bit late in the season now but any advice on pellets other than just as
groundbait.

First thing is to find somewhere with some decent tench! You say you're
in Wiltshire, though, so there are plenty of waters around you holding
good tench. I'm a member of South Cerney AA ( http://www.scac.org.uk )
which has a number of good tench waters. It has two small waters at
Wickwater available on day ticket, one of which is a "carp puddle" and
of no interest to me, the other of which is more of a heavily stocked
general coarse fishery, and a bit more interesting. I prefer to fish the
more "natural" pits, but this small day ticket water is fairly easy and
contains a good average size of tench; perhaps 5lbs or so. The general
coarse water is shown top left in this photograph:

http://www.scac.org.uk/public/lakes/...2/wick1&2.html

The location of the lakes is shown he

http://www.scac.org.uk/public/lakes/lakeswin.swf

Before I joined the club I used to buy day tickets from the clubhouse at
Ham Pool, but it may be possible to buy them on the bank or from local
tackle shops, I don't know.

I've stopped tench fishing for the year now, however I expect it is
still possible to catch some. I prefer to float fish for tench. It's not
always the most efficient way of catching them, but if we were into
efficiency we would buy a seine net. I would adopt a scaled down
approach. The water will be clearer now, so my summer tackle of 6lb
mainline to 6lb low diameter hook length and a #6 or #8 would be too
heavy. I should think more of a heavy match setup, with a 3lb low
diameter hooklength and a #16 or #14. You still need some power to get
the fish out, and anywhere near snags a good tench will make mincemeat
of 1lb bottoms and #20 hooks.

I probably wouldn't use pellets at all now that the water temperatures
are lower and the fish less hungry. I'd start by loose feeding maggots
and fishing a couple of maggots on the hook. I'd probably put a little
hemp in. If bothered by small fish, I'd change hookbait to a medium
sized worm, or a couple of grains of sweetcorn. Bread is great for
tench, but on waters like Wick the roach and rudd will have it off the
hook before it sees the bottom.

--
Steve Walker