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Justin Grapes Spring Sessions Part 1
With the winter out of the way all my thoughts were channelled towards the spring tench fishing. Most years I set myself a target of a double figure tench, it’s a very high target fish to go for but with Bawburgh lakes on my doorstep it was a target that I deemed to be realistic. I’ve been very spoilt over the years fishing at the Bawburgh complex, the venue produces some unbelievable tench. However, this spring my time would be limited, with work being busy and with a couple of boat shows around mid-May it was going to be a tough ask for a double figure tench.
Most of my spring campaigns start off on Bawburgh lake itself, the first lake on the complex to wake up after the long winter. It was the middle of April, a bank holiday, so a three-day session was planned, how else would you spend a bank holiday? With the van loaded I set off for Bawburgh in the hope of getting a bite or two, with it being a bank holiday it was busy, but I still found a good spot to fish.
On arrival I saw a few fish roll close in, I found the spot where they were rolling and put some bait on it and cast out all three rods in hope that they would feed. The first night went by without any action but, nonetheless, I was up at first light to see where the fish were rolling and re cast the rods with fresh worm. There was a few fish rolling but the majority of the tench were rolling further out now, so after giving it a couple of hours to see if I could nick a bite I sent the marker rod out to where they were now rolling to see why they were there.
I found a spot where there was some new weed growth, so I clipped up to the distance and proceeded to put about ten spombs of coconut hemp, casters, maggots and chopped worm on the spot.
It wasn’t long before I had my first bite and my first tench of the spring, not a monster but nevertheless very welcome. Once the first fish graced the bank, I topped the swim up with another couple of spombs of bait to try and get a reaction, after around an hour I had another fish and at 7lb+ they were getting bigger. Another fish made an appearance an hour or so later then the swim went quiet for a couple of hours, however, with it being bright sunshine and hot I decided to put some more bait in ready for the afternoon.
Seeing as it had gone quiet, I was contemplating heading home for a shower when suddenly, out of the blue, my left-hand rod sprang into action, it was a strange fight with the fish not doing much until it got under the rod tip - typical bream. When she laid in the net it looked like a good double figure fish but on putting it on the unhooking mat she started to look a lot bigger. A lovely clean looking two-tone fish which pulled the scales around to a new PB for me at 13lb 2oz. I was well chuffed and called Darryn Stolworthy over to take a picture. After the pictures had been taken, I put a little bit more bait out and finally went home for that shower!
It was well into the evening when I arrived back at the lake, there were a few fish rolling but not as many as I had seen in the morning. The rest of the evening and night passed without incident so I woke up at first light for a re-cast with fresh worm in the hope that the tench would go on the feed. Very little happened first thing but I did pick up a couple of tench mid-morning to finish off the session. All in all, not loads of fish but an unexpected PB bream was the bonus of the trip.