TENCH ace and former Angler’s Mail reporter and columnist Gary Newman, has landed yet another double-figure specimen, a lovely female of 12 lb 1 oz.
It was his 29 th double and sixth over 12 lb and he hit the headlines way back in 1994 with his PB 14 lb 4 oz monster from Bury Lake.
Gary from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, who now works full time for Korda, squeezed in a weekend stint at a local Colne Valley gravel pit.
The giant tinca was part of a six fish haul with other specimens going 9 lb 10 oz, 8 lb 7 oz, 7 lb 15 oz, plus two five-pounders.
Gary, 39, said: “It was nice just to get the chance to get out on the bank for a few days having been so busy lately!”
“The lake had been fishing very patchy for tench so far this spring with not that many being caught, and due to work I’d been unable to get down anyway, but with the Bank Holiday I managed to fit in a three night session.”
Strip of cleaner gravel
Gary, who recently wrote a revealing piece for Angler’s Mail’s Carp Crew section, about targeting weedy waters, picked his spot carefully.
He said: “I was fishing the front of a gravel hump where it dropped off into around 6ft of water and there was a strip of cleaner gravel with fresher weed on it, surrounded by thicker, older weed.
“I kept the bait going in steadily, topping up the swim 3-4 times a day depending on what action I was getting.
“In recent years the fish in this water have become wary of spodding on top of them when they are feeding and doing so can sometimes end the action for the rest of the day.”
Good hit of fish
Gary continued: “I had to wait until around lunchtime for my first take, which was from a small male, and things picked up again in the evening when I had fish of 8lb 7oz and 9lb 10oz just before it got properly dark, plus another around 1am out of the blue which weighed 7lb 15oz.
“First light saw another 5lb-plus male and things were looking very promising for a good hit of fish, but then the wind turned much colder and the lake just seemed to completely switch off.”
Giant came late after lull
The best came last for Gary, who explained: “The rest of the Sunday was completely uneventful and there wasn’t even much showing anymore – not just in front of me but the whole lake looked dead and no one else had a bite that weekend, with a few packing up early it was that dead!
“I decided to stay on as I felt there was still a chance, and on this lake a big one out of the blue is always possible, but Monday morning passed without a bleep.
“I was going to give it until around 1.30pm before packing up as sometimes lunchtime can be a good feeding time on this water, and sure enough at 1pm I finally had a take.
“I thought that it was a decent one due to the way that it was fighting and as it came over the net cord I could see that it was definitely well over 10 lb. I weighed it at 12 lb 1 oz on two different sets of scales before taking a few self-takes and slipping her back,” he concluded.
Gary used double Enterprise rubber caster hair rigged on a size 12 Guru MWGB hook.
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