I met Dominic at his house in Exeter slightly after 5am this morning, owing to a troublesome SatNav, or user error; either way I found myself on the wrong side of the city at our agreed meeting time. It was already light before I got to Dominic's and transferred my kit to his car. We set off for Newton Abbot, to a complex of old clay workings called Rackerhayes.
There really aren't many waters like these pits in my local area. As far as traditional stillwaters go, these must be the cream of Devon fishing. There are five ponds available to the day ticket angler, with three of those holding at least specimen tench, if not bream aswell, and all are beautifully landscaped. Actually to call them ponds does them a great disservice, as you might agree from the photographs. We settled on Linhay, which I have fished once before, and decided to share a large T-shaped platform and compare different styles; I set up a pole, and Dominic a waggler on a long rod, to cope with the depths which were around 10 feet.
Last time I fished here, both myself and Ben, who accompanied me on that trip, had success by loosefeeding casters and hemp, so I adopted this approach again. I had a roach and a perch instantly which was unexpected, seeing as I had five tench, no roach and a single perch on my last visit. It soon became apparent that the swim was occupied by good numbers of both and I couldn't resist setting up a four metre whip to catch some on the drop.
Whilst I was in two minds though, Dom was into the first of two tench around the 2-3lb mark, later to be followed by a beauty weighing 6lb 2oz, all on worm. The third of these fish was my cue to nick a little groundbait and chopped worm, and introduce it into my swim. I also decided to move over to a long rod aswell, mostly due a dodgy stonfo which I was concerned was not particularly secure. I simply disconnected my 1 gram pole rig and tied it to five pound reel line, using a sixteen foot rod.
I layed a worm and caster cocktail over the groundbaited area, and the float simply kept going, but after a scrappy fight, the hook pulled from a male tench of around two pounds. I kept myself busy thereafter with a go on the whip every now and again, adding a couple of rudd and three roach/bream hybrids to my perch and roach catch. I kept missing the net with my whip fish but gathered together maybe 7 or 8lb by the end of the session. Due to the sizzling heat, we knocked it on the head not long after midday.
I did get another chance on the rod, landing a mint-conditioned tench of 5lb 8oz, which I slipped straight back after some pictures. This one also took a worm/caster cocktail, and it's amazing to think that I didn't bring any worms on my last visit. Lesson learnt I think, that whatever the reputation of the water, tench will always have a worm. Next time, I will also pack some groundbait and probably travel much lighter.
Do have a read of Dom's blog too, where you'll find pictures of his tench as well as recent exploits on the fly.
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Do have a read of Dom's blog too, where you'll find pictures of his tench as well as recent exploits on the fly.
