← All species
🐟 Tench
A robust, olive-green fish traditionally associated with early-morning summer sessions, when tench are often the first fish feeding as the water warms.
Identification
Thick-set body covered in tiny scales and a heavy coat of slime, olive-green to almost black in colour with small, deep-red eyes. Has a single small barbel at each corner of the mouth. Males have noticeably larger, thicker pelvic fins than females.
UK habitat
Favours still, weedy waters, lakes, ponds and slow canal stretches, across the UK, tolerating low oxygen levels better than most coarse species. Classic dawn feeders, especially through late spring and summer, often signalled by strings of bubbles rising from feeding fish.