The Tenchfishers member had volunteered as a steward at the group’s National Tench Championships on Oxlease Lake at Linear Fisheries, Oxford, and decided to spend a few days fishing himself after the event closed. He kicked-off on feeder fished worm kebabs, but with nothing other than a small pike to show for his efforts over his first 24 hours, was tempted to go home that evening. However, Chris decided to stay for another night and changed his tactics, deciding to bait the near margin with hemp, maggots and groundbait in preparation to fish the float the following morning.

Waking up early, Chris rigged a waggler lift-stye, and used artificial maggots as his hookbait, which he T-rigged, and dropped it over his baited area at 4:15am.

About 15 minutes later, his float disappeared, and Chris hooked a fish that held deep, fighting doggedly. When it surfaced, Chris guessed dared to think that he may have hooked his first-ever ‘double’, but once in the net and on the scales, he couldn’t quite believe the figure ahead of him. After releasing the fish, he noticed numerous tench rolling in his swim, so recast his feeder rod. However, after such a result, he admits his heart wasn’t really in it, so he left at midday, still feeling slightly stunned.

Since the capture, the tench has been confirmed as a joint complex record at Linear as well as the Tenchfishers’ float caught record.

Well done Chris!