Sywell Reservoir


Tench


Tinca Tinca


A hard fighting, distinctive fish with olive green flanks, yellow bellow, red eyes, and large paddle like fins. With two barbules on upper lip.


A common fish in estate lakes, reservoirs, gravel pits, and some slow flowing rivers. It is most common in central and southern England, and in recent years, the tench has grown to enormous sizes in southern gravel pits, and reservoirs.


The Tenchfishers is a small group dedicated to the research, and pursuit of the tench as a species.

http://www.tenchfishers.net

SYWELL MEMORIES
Angling Exploits On A Famous Tench Water - continued

Once I knew where the hotspots really were, and what the going method was I soon began catching large tench with monotonous regularity, and the West Arm of the reservoir was without doubt the best area to fish, where catches of eight tench in a day between 6lb and 8lb became a regular occurrence, and more spectacular catches of 12 fish or more were by no means uncommon for me!

I experienced many more unforgettable days fishing throughout the forthcoming summers which followed and big tench were common and blank days were a rare occurrence! I will always remember the misty summer dawns, early in the morning, as I made my first cast of the day, and watched the big tench roll out in front of me, and then within no time the first fish of the day picked up my bait, and a tench was hooked! Truly fantastic stuff!
During my first season fishing on Sywell, I caught about 50 tench up to 7lb 12oz, and the fishing really was superb! During the summer of 1990, the first 9lb+ tench began to be caught from the venue, and my personal best tench was increased to 9lb 1oz.

Over the seven glorious years that I fished at Sywell Reservoir, I caught a lot of big tench! For the record my catch statistics are as follows:

2x	9lb+ tench (best fish 9lb 6oz)
18x	8lb+ tench
102x	7lb+ tench
(I kept no record of the fish captured between 5lb and 6lb, but I estimate I caught around 250-300)