Finding Tench (tinca tinca)

If Carp fishing is all about location - then I would say that Tench fishing is all about location and location. Tench very rarely stray from their preferred routes. Luckily, once you have found their patrol routes, these usually remain the same for years (it may be possible to change them by extensive fishing pressure, but I have never seen it happen). Tench love swimming along features. The features can be anything from the edges of reed beds, the border between two types of vegetation, the margins, to gravel bars (or so I have heard, I have yet to fish a gravel pit for Tench). Try to keep your eyes on the water as much as possible. Several Tench showing themselves in the same place - or along a feature - usually means they have a patrol route there. With a bit of experience it is possible to look on a seemingly uniform lily bed and predict where the tench will patrol. There are usually "canals" of open water within the vegetation - these are hot spots. Try to find places where several of these open stretches meet, or where they reach the end of the reed bed. These places are usually road crossings or roundabouts where several patrol routes cross. Avoid small open patches within the vegetation. These usually look nice enough, but unless they are connected to the open water they are usually only the home of one or two Tench.

Daniel located them alright - edges are often patrolled by Tench

Seasonal changes

In the spring you can usually find them in and around the emerging vegetation. Sudden drops in temperature may push them out to slightly deeper water. Try to find the warmest water. Once in early spring when fishing for Rudd in a bay in the archipelago I found an area of coloured water (coming from a ditch), the water there was some 5 degrees warmer than in the rest of the bay. Nearly all Tench and Rudd must have gathered there. I started fishing at noon, by dusk I had used up all my hook baits (1 kg of prawns and two loaves of bread). I lost count at 37 and caught a lot more after that...

Around spawning time a lot of Tench can be found in really shallow water - and it is tempting to fish for them there. It is often futile, though, as they have their hands (or fins, rather) full with the spawning business. Try to find slightly deeper areas close to the spawning site, where the fish that are not yet ready to spawn might be holed up. There are far less fish there - but they are willing to feed and usually extremely spawn-bound. A few cold days can put the Tench off spawning, then you have a chance of tremendous fishing in the shallow spawning sites. These tench are usually partly spawned out, so if you are only interested in really big fish - then I would suggest fishing slightly deeper anyway.

This one was caught in deeper water close to a spawning site

After spawning they are ravenous. You can quite often catch lots of spawned out Tench. They are some 15% lighter than before spawning, but its fun! The most enjoyable time is probably when there is a mixture of hungry spawned out fish and a few spawn bound ones mixed in.

This one came as a pleasant surprise after catching loads of spawned out fish

I have too little experience of autumn fishing to have an opinion. The ones I catch when fishing for Carp are usually caught in more of less the same places as in the spring and summer (though no longer concentrated around the spawning sites).

It is possible to catch Tench in the winter, but I am not very keen to spend time trying. Tench caught under the ice in test fishing gill-nets usually have food in their stomachs, chironomids and oligochetes being their preferred food items. Ice-fishing with a bloodworm would be a good challenge for someone more eager than me.

Finding big fish

The universal big fish rule applies. Find lakes (or rivers) where there is a lot of food and little competition. Tench in a lake tend to be of similar size, so if you try a new water and catch only small ones - then it is likely that the lake is not a big fish water. If, on the other hand, you catch no Tench it could be well worth the effort to persevere, as the few ones that are in there may be large (if there is any). Still, in one lake we fish at times we have seen huge Tench rolling - but we have yet to catch a fish over 2 kilos! The bigger Tench in that lake probably live their lives slightly differently from the others, and thus are able to break out from the norm. I have no clue how to catch them though.

Large males are rare, so if you catch one this size the females are probably quite big