Gary Newman lands his thirtieth double-figure tench!

Korda’s Gary Newman has been in action with some big tench again, including his thirtieth double with an 11lb 3oz specimen from a Colne Valley lake.

Gary followed up a fish of 12lb 1oz on his previous session with his latest haul, which included other females of 9lb 13oz and 9lb 5oz, plus males of 7lb 10oz and 7lb 9oz, plus two smaller fish.

He explained: “I arrived to fish a weekend session and found that the lake was much quieter than I’d expected and several of the swims which I fancied were free. The fishing had been very slow for the tench with only a couple coming out since I’d last fished.

“One of my favourite tench swims was free, which made a change as it is also very popular with carp anglers on the water, so I decided to set up in there. I know this lake well and have all my spots marked out and written down, but when I plumbed my usual area behind a bar I found that it was covered in Canadian pondweed and wasn’t really fishable.

“Luckily my other area in the swim, at the end of a bar 56 yards or so out was free of Canadian and had a covering of glowing fresh green silkweed, which the tench love to feed over, and all three of my rods would be fished there in depths varying from 5ft to 8ft as the bar sloped off from right to left.

“I baited fairly heavily with caster, using nearly two gallons over the session, plus some 2mm and 4mm pellets, topping up as and when I felt the need to. I was fishing a lead wrapped in Method mix over the top, along with double rubber caster presented on a long hair to a size 12 MWGB hook to a 10lb braided hook link and 10lb Touchdown main line.

“The session got off to a good start with my first fish being 9lb 5oz, and when that went into the net I thought I had another double. I didn’t have to wait long for that, as after having a male of 7lb 10oz I then landed another big female, and this time I could see that it was well over 10lb. The scales settled on 11lb 3oz which was a bit of a landmark for me as it was my thirtieth double.

“After that the swim went quiet for a while until the final morning when I landed three fish and lost one when the main line parted on something sharp on the bar, and I came close to getting a second double with a lovely dark fish of 9lb 13oz.

“It was a fantastic session, not only because of the big fish, which was one that I hadn’t caught before, but also the quality of the other tench that I landed. I’m making the most of the time that I have on this lake before they build HS2 through the middle of it!”