Tench in Latin. (Tinca tinca) is a sedentary bottom fish of the cyprinid family. It lives in stagnant waters with a silted bottom, which warm up well and have a lot of vegetation (river backwaters, ponds, old ponds). It is widely distributed in freshwater bodies of almost all of Europe, except for Ireland, Scandinavia, the eastern Adriatic basin and northwestern Greece, where the tench is considered an introducer. In Asia, the natural range extends east to the western Yenisei. In other parts of Asia it is an invader. The fish got its name because of its ability to "moult" in the air. The caught tench is covered with large black spots due to the exfoliation of the mucus covering the body of the fish from the skin. The fish can reach a length of 70 cm and a weight of 7 kg. The body is tall, thick, covered with a thick layer of mucus, the scales are small. The mouth is terminal, small, fleshy with small antennae on the sides. The pharyngeal teeth are single-row, wide, curved into hooks at the ends. The eyes are small with a red iris. All fins are rounded and very dark. The ventral fins of males are noticeably longer than those of females. The lateral line has from 87 to 105 scales. The color of the fish depends on the quality of the water, the nature of the soil and the lighting of the reservoir. The back is dark green, the sides are olive, and the belly is gray. In rivers, the tench is golden, in shady forest lakes it is dark green, almost black. The tench reaches sexual maturity at the age of 3-4 years and at a length of 17-18 centimeters. Spawning is late, begins in late May at a water temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and continues for up to two months in several stages with intervals corresponding to the maturation time of the next portions of caviar. The female lays small, greenish-colored eggs in clean, slow-flowing water on underwater vegetation. The fish are characterized by high fecundity (up to 400 thousand eggs), but the majority of eggs and young die for various reasons. Larvae and fry develop for a long time and grow slowly. The growth rate of young individuals depends on the habitat: in southern regions they grow and develop much faster than in northern ones. Tench avoids currents and cold water. It tolerates oxygen deficiency well. For wintering, it moves to the deepest parts of the reservoir, where it can dive into the mud. This fish wakes up from hibernation in March - early April and begins to actively feed. It loves insect larvae, worms, small mollusks, and the remains of plant food, which it extracts from the bottom mud, deepening into it by 7-8 centimeters. Tench has good taste. In some European countries, the meat, liver and mucus of tench are considered medicinal products. Large individuals of tench, due to their extreme caution and strength, are among the most difficult, and therefore the most desirable trophies of fishermen. Background information: There are two types of tench: common and golden. Common tench is a natural aborigine of Ukrainian water bodies. It has a predominantly greenish color with a golden tint. Golden tench is an artificially bred breed from common tench. The color of this fish varies from pale gold to red. Some species of fish have black or red spots on the sides and fins. These are the so-called "goldfish" among tench. They are bred in artificial ponds exclusively for decorative purposes. Without knowing when the tench starts to bite, the peculiarities of the fish's behavior, the fisherman is simply doomed to failure. Tench is an extremely cautious fish that tends to swim only in proven places. In compacted reservoirs, it effectively avoids hooks and is an extremely rare prey for most fishermen. To catch a tench, it is important to prepare the right tackle, make bait (preferably with your own hands), be careful when choosing a fishing spot and be sure to observe camouflage. BEST BAITS AND LURES FOR FISHING A THINCH? Despite the difficulty of catching this fish, almost all fishermen know what to fish for a tench. The unequivocal answer to what a tench bites best is a worm. Among all types of worms, an earthworm is better suited as a bait and lure for a tench. We recommend using worms dug up near a reservoir as bait, this is the natural food of the prey, to which it responds better. If you plan to catch a tench on a feeder, the same animal food is added to a pre-prepared bait for the fish right on the reservoir. It doesn't matter that the dug worm looks unimportant, it is much more effective than the purchased version. The reason for the effectiveness of the bait is that during a flood, the worms are washed away by the current, where the tench feasts on them. The fish gets used to the taste and smell of the bait and reacts well to it. There are other attachments, elements of bait for tench, but they are all inferior to local worms. The following baits are relatively popular for catching tench: maggot, earthworm, bloodworm, dough/bread,