Time for tench at Denton Reservoir

This is the time of the year when Journal angling correspondent Dave Coster starts to think about some serious tench fishing.

There are several venues around Grantham where this species can be found, but the biggest fish consistently come from Denton Reservoir. However, this is not an easy venue.

Dave said: "Over recent years dense water weed has been a big problem on this reservoir, which feeds the Grantham Canal. The water is often very clear until mid to late summer, promoting weed growth even more."

Then there are lots of resident swans. Dave counted no less than 42 last weekend, not that he does not like these birds.

Dave said: "The problem is they are constantly rooting up the large beds of Canadian pond weed, so much so that currently more than half the reservoir has 15-metre rafts of the stuff lining its banks. This makes fishing very tricky."

On his first tench fishing trip this year at Denton, Dave lost a big fish in an unseen underwater weed bed and that was all the action he managed.

The water was gin clear and the big carp in the venue were spawning, constantly crashing out of the water by a dense floating weed bed on the dam wall side.

This was stopping lots of walkers in their tracks, wondering what was going on because some of the carp in this water are huge.

Dave told the Journal that when he fishes at Denton, many passers-by, enjoying walks in the beautiful countryside around the reservoir, often stop and ask him what lurks beneath the surface.

He said: "Most are amazed to discover that there are carp to well over 30lb and that bream to 15lb and tench to 12lb have been caught in recent years."

Dave said that most of the specimen bream and tench are accidentally landed by anglers targeting the carp, but he likes to fish for the tench in particular with traditional feeder and float tackle.

His best fish last year was landed an eight-metre margin pole, although he has caught even bigger specimens with feeder gear. Dave said he doesn’t bother weighing these fish, because when they get to this size, they are all special in his opinion. But he still intends to catch even bigger ones this summer.

Fishing at Denton Reservoir is for Grantham Angling Association members only. Membership is available to anyone in the UK, costing £25, £13 concessionary, plus £6 for a key to the gate at Denton Reservoir.

+ Check out Dave’s Fishing Diary on the Angling Direct Blog website: https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/community/dave-coster/