Plate XI
Tench
Tinca tinca
The tench is a stocky, dark olive-green cyprinid with a brassy sheen and very slimy skin. It is a bottom-oriented, sociable fish that is mostly active at dusk and night and roots in the mud for food. In the Franconian Saale it avoids the fast current and keeps to the calm, weed-rich areas – in backwaters, groyne fields, impounded stretches and along bank and reed margins.
How to identify it
The unmistakable combination is very small scales set deep in the thick, slimy skin, glowing red to dark-orange eyes and just one pair of barbels at the corners of the mouth. Added to this are the consistently rounded fins on a strikingly high, sturdy caudal peduncle.
Look-alikes
The most likely candidate is the carp, which however has a long dorsal fin and two pairs of barbels (four barbels), whereas crucian carp and Prussian carp have no barbels at all. The red eyes, the very slimy, fine-scaled skin and the single pair of barbels reliably set the tench apart from all of them.
Tip
You catch tench deliberately at weedy, current-sheltered spots, classically with the lift rig and lobworm or brandling; in the kitchen its white, firm and low-bone flesh with a slightly nutty aroma is rated highly, and before cooking you only need to wash off the slime thoroughly.
This profile is provided without guarantee; biological details and especially closed season / minimum size must be checked against the current AVBayFiG and your permit before relying on them. Rules & closed seasons.