CONTRIBUTORS: Peter Gibbinson (Foreword), Colin Allchin, Len Arbery, Stewart Barnes, Kevin Clifford, Simon Cooper, Mick Cutler, Matthew Fernandez, Shaun Fox, Dr. James Gardner, Darran Goulder, Brian Hankins, Dave Harman, David Highe, Phil Jackson, Gary Newman, Ian Peacock, Martin Salter, Stuart Sharpe, Kev Shore, Mark Simmonds, Richard Storer, Jason Summers, Chris Turnbull, Rob Ward, Frank Wheeler.
REDeye
SOLD OUT
Cover size: 245 mm x 175 mm
Pages: 320 pages
Print: Full colour throughout
Binding: Cloth-bound in red (hardback) embossed in silver and gold to front cover and spine, red and black ‘top and tails’ matching ‘pistachio’ green endpapers. Silk laminated dust jacket. With special ‘REDeye’ book-mark.
The leather-bound edition and vellum-bound edition are both sold out.
by Peter Gibbinson.
There is something about tench that takes me back to childhood, and the tranquillity of a calm summer morning sitting by a lake – that anticipation and excitement is the measure of a fishing trip, and the feeling remains to this day, albeit the lake and tactics have changed with time.
Perhaps it is the unknown; whereas big carp are often named and relatively oft-caught, tench waters have a habit of throwing up a surprise leviathan, and as a species they also have the uncanny knack to all but vanish into the ether, often for several years at a time, only to turn up unexpectedly when you have written the water off; but what constitutes a ‘big’ tench? Prior to the rapid increase in sizes seen post-’70s and ’80s, a five-pounder was considered a very big fish and a four a ‘specimen’. A combination of low stocking density on gravel pits, eutrophication, and the effects on biomass of cormorant predation saw eight- and nine-pound fish as the new targets, with a ‘double’ a realistic ambition.
However, it is easy to have perspectives distorted by seemingly large numbers of double-figure fish caught each year – but an eight- pounder is still a specimen, and a double, for many, remains the fish of a lifetime.
