With the close season in force on the rivers I went over to the Clay Pit to try my luck for some spring tench. We had had a few warm days and when I arrived the water in the side pond was coloured, indicating some aquatic activity. On my previous trip in winter the water had been clear and I blanked. Chatting to a chap as I tackled up, he informed me that he believed that cormorants had raided the pond, which was a bit disheartening. But I took a positive view that even if this was true perhaps the tench had evaded their attention.

I had brought maggots as I suspected that smaller baits would be a better bet with the water probably still being on the chilly side. I also had sweetcorn and bread but in the end stuck with the maggots.

There was no 'quick bite' and it was quite a while before the float showed some movement. Striking I hooked a small fish that almost immediately came off. At least there was life down there! It was some time later that a more positive second bite resulted in a firm resistance, followed by a dogged fight. I suspected it was a tench and indeed it was. A light coloured fish that weighed in at 4¼lbs. A great start although I had had to wait for quite a while and was surprised that no smaller fish had troubled the maggots. Perhaps the cormorant story was true.

After another lengthy wait a lift bite didn't develop into anything more positive. But some time later I struck on another lift bite and was again into a decent fish. A second tench came to the net more quickly, being somewhat smaller. Although it weighed 3lb, which was more than I thought from looking at it.

There was still no indication of smaller fish being interested in the maggots. Quite a while later I was thinking that I should perhaps try a change of bait as the float hadn't shown any sign of movement. But while that thought was in my mind a positive bite resulted in another good fish being hooked, this time feeling bigger than the previous one. And indeed it was, a beautifully coloured tench of 4lbs 2oz.

I had been catapulting small amounts of maggots during the session and had lightly groundbaited before starting fishing. This seemed to get the interest of the tench but following the third fish I didn't get another bite. However, three tench exceeded my expectations, especially in view of the cormorant warning I had received before even casting in.

It would of course have been nice to get one more fish but that would have been greedy, the three I caught being more than I expected.

I packed up feeling very satisfied.