Lift method for gravel pit tench

Been a bit quiet of late, I’ve had a few trips out with the carp gear on the syndicate water without any success. I had a few hours spare this evening, and decided to leave the bite alarms at home, and just take float gear.

Fishing the lift method in 12ft of clear water, I put down a decent bed of hemp, caster and pellet, and fished sweetcorn. Gear consisted of a 12ft 1.25lb drennan specialist avon rod, couple with 6lb line straight through to the hook. No splitshot on the line, with the float and swan shot link being stopped by drennan grippa stops. A size 16 super specialist hook finished off the rig, which provides a very sensitive set up, indicating any sot of feeding near to the hook.

After an hour of nothing, the float twitched, lifted slightly, and then fizzing started. This continued for a short while before the float lifted beautifully and I struck into a nice tench.

Really nice to catch a tench on float, and 20 mins later I struck into my second, only for it to come off. I watched my float into dark, and then walked back to the car, whilst Venus and Jupiter lifted into the night sky. Cracking evening.....and one that i'll hope to repeat soon (perhaps with a larger stamp of tench). Hoping for a little bass trip on the dorset coast this week at some point, as i'm travelling about a fair bit at the moment.