Drennan’s Stewart Moss caught this sensational 11lb 3oz Oxfordshire Tench from a local gravel pit after a dedicated campaign this Spring!
With bites having been at an absolute premium this season so far, Stew made the amazing catch after raking a silty area and preparing it with a whole bucket of hemp during the evening after work. The distance to the spot was precisely measured and rods clipped up ready to cast at dawn. Rising at 4am on the Saturday morning, Stew chucked two matching maggot feeder rigs out to the spot, and had landed both fish well before breakfast!
Successful strategy was to fish a Large 2.5oz, Heavy Brown Oval Blockend maggot feeder on a 1m Weedy Green Leadcore Leader, with a 3ins hooklength of 10lb ESP Soft Ghost Fluorocarbon presented just above the feeder helicopter style. Three Drennan artificial Buoyant Maggots (Red-White-Red) were threaded onto a conventional hair, then blobbed with a lighter – critically balancing a size 14 Super Specialist Barbel hook. Two real red maggots were also added to the hook to break up its outline in the crystal clear water.
The fish was landed from a very weedy swim on one of our Distance Specialist Tench & Bream 12ft 2lb rods, with a Shimano Baitrunner 6010GT and 10lb ESP Syncro mainline.