The Glorious 16th

By Clive Kenyon

The Start Of The Coarse Fishing Season In England Was Historically 16th June

After an enforced three month close season “The Glorious 16th” entailed many anglers sitting patiently on wicker baskets as midnight approached in swims they had been carefully preparing and prebaiting for weeks. Tench were the traditional target species for opening day. A net full of these hard-fighting fish was the perfect start to the new season and the following week’s angling press would sport photos of 100 lb nets of tench caught by lucky anglers on opening day. These days the fishing seasons are less defined, but summer fishing for many of us still means tench, lily pads, and orange-tipped floats. Tench can be found in our region in some of the lakes, ponds, and slower moving rivers. The classic signs to look for are patches of small bubbles rising to the surface in shallow, weedy areas. Dawn and dusk are the best times to catch a tench and they will readily take worms, maggots, bread, and sweetcorn baits. Mini boilies have also been used to catch some very large specimens and strawberry flavour is one of the favourite choices. Cooked hemp seeds and ground bread crumb ground bait will keep the shoal feeding in your swim. Set your float slightly over depth and ignore all the movements of the float until it either sails away or lifts in the water. Alternatively many of today’s tench anglers use small swimfeeders and bolt rigs with small strawberry flavoured boilies to enable them to fish at a distance greater than traditional float fishing methods would allow. Either way the right location is paramount to your success.

Tench are hard to come by in our region. I have found them in the river Charente around the Charroux to Ruffec areas and much further downstream, from Chateauneuf-sur-Charente down to Saintes. I have not come across any (yet) in the River Vienne or the Lacs de HauteCharente. The best region for tench fishing is in the drains and canals of the Marais

Poitevin area and the Sèvre Niortaise waterway. It is a fair way to travel from our region, but has an added bonus in that these waterways teem with carassins as well as holding tench in good numbers.

Carassins are almost identical to crucian carp and provide good sport. Coulon is a good place to start if you have a campingcar or caravan, being the capital of the Venise verte, and is situated in a lovely area. Alternatively, a wild card could be the river Charente at Condac near Ruffec. I have had a few tench from that area and through to Verteuil-sur-Charente.

Striking Silver

When many British anglers think of fishing in France they are concerned with huge carp and monstrous catfish. Little thought goes into the other species that inhabit lakes and rivers in France. The French themselves have a long history of fishing for silver fish or poisons blancs as they call them. Roach were the most popular species in France until relatively recently when the inevitable carp topped the poll.

Our local rivers and lakes are teeming with roach. I saw a shoal of yearling fish in Lac de Lavaud that must have been over 100 metres from end to end. In the neighbouring Lac du Mas Chaban good size roach can be had float fishing and ledgering in the Massignac sector. Even the pole anglers take a few too. My favourite places for roach fishing however are the middle reaches of the Charente and Vienne rivers where it is possible to trot a float or fish a waggler in the flow. In the UK hemp and tares are a good combination for river roach in summer. Here you can buy pigeon peas from Gamm Vert and bulk hemp from Decathlon. You only need to feed small amounts in loose feed so a day’s roaching will not break the bank. In fact it is important not to feed too much as the grains are very filling. If you prefer to fish maggots then Pacific Pêche is a good place to obtain them on a weekend when the delivery has recently been received. Personally I find keeping maggots in summer more hassle than it is worth so prefer to use seed baits. Another excellent option is tinned sweetcorn although both maggots and the golden grains will also attract smaller species such as bleak and dace. On a recent trip to the Charente I was plagued with bleak measuring 4” or more taking whole grains of sweetcorn. A change to artificial grains deterred all but the largest of them, but pigeon peas are better in that respect. One of my favourite methods for taking larger roach is to ‘lay on’ or ‘stret peg’. Both entail fishing over depth and nailing the bait on the river bed using an appropriate amount of lead shot. ‘Laying on’ involves a static approach whereas ‘stret pegging’ employs less lead on the bottom so the bait can be dislodged in order to allow the bait to travel a short distance downstream in a series of hops. Fishing higher in the water often results in rudd and dace taking the baits. It pays to search the water column if roach bites are scarce or small bream become a nuisance. If you prefer to ledger then a maggot feeder approach or a cage feeder loaded with groundbait with liberal free offerings included could pay dividends. On successive trips to the Charente in March I had considerable success using sweetcorn bait and boiled maïs concassé mixed in with the groundbait. In order to prevent being mugged by bream it is advisable to fish faster water.

Often bonus fish turn up to these methods. Last autumn I was blessed with two 3 lb plus carassins while ‘stret pegging’ for roach on the mid Vienne, and larger carp, common and mirror, are regular intruders on both rivers. A 10 lb mirror carp on a 2.5 lb hook link, cane rod and centrepin reel adds to the occasion.

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