Jon Arthur takes a break from matches to grab an evening’s tench sport on the waggler!

Sometimes it’s refreshing for me to get away from the hustle and bustle of match fishing and spend a pleasurable session targeting tench. I’ve come to one of my childhood venues, Napton Reservoir in Warwickshire, to demonstrate how to target tench on the waggler. Hopefully you’ll see how simple and enjoyable this style of fishing can be. 

I have been visiting Napton for over 30 years. We used to cycle here to fish as kids and get up to all sorts of mischief. I walked my late dog Gemma around here many a time and we even had a school fishing trip here once, when my school mate Andrew fell in! They even used to windsurf on here, but that’s long since stopped. It’s now owned by Leamington Spa AA and is a members-only water and possibly worth the price of membership on its own.

Tench sport can be brilliant in the late afternoon

The reservoir feeds the adjacent Grand Union Canal, which is why it is surprisingly low at the moment, but the decreased depth actually makes it more comfortable to fish with float tackle – once you’ve negotiated the weed beds and boulders! It’s always had a famous tench population, plus big roach, rudd, bream, specimen carp, huge pike and there’s even rumours of a massive catfish lurking in the depths. It’s always the tench that I target and I’ve sat on one of my favourite swims to see if I can catch a few for the cameras.