/ 
Until a few years ago, gilthead bream was fished exclusively from a fixed station using the tenya, an essential technique for drifting with shrimp.
Exploration fishing
Mostly practised from boats, the main advantage of tenya fishing is that it allows you to move quickly from station to station and to make long drifts to locate schools of bream in the middle of their feeding phase. This makes it an active fishery that lure anglers will particularly appreciate.
There are two ways to practice:
- On large, presumed holding areas, the strategy is to make long drifts until you locate one or more schools of fish and then move the boat back to the precise spot to gain in "profitability". On large plateaus, dorados can be scattered and highly mobile, and you need to keep drifting to find them.
- On more restricted spots such as backwaters, it's more productive to search for the school of dorados using the depth sounder and then move the boat back upstream. This is precision fishing. In this type of position, the shoals are more compact and placed in very precise locations, often corresponding to a meeting of currents or a change in relief. The dorados can then be concentrated in a very small area.
A lead head fitted with a shrimp
To sum up, a tenya is a lead head, usually coloured and fitted with an assist hook (a second hook connected by a strand of braid), onto which a natural bait is threaded.
The most popular bait is undoubtedly prawns, but you can also bait your tenya with a worm, a strip of squid, a langoustine or a crab.
The right bait on the tenya
To ensure that your shrimp are perfectly presented and that your hooks can effectively bite the bream, it's vital to eschew your bait correctly.
Here's how it works:
- First, cut off the tail end of the prawn.
- Set the assist hook on the shrimp's head. If the area is crowded, you can leave the hook point inside your bait.
- Finally, slide the prawn onto the shank of your hook, legs upwards
Lightweight equipment
Like lure fishing, tenya fishing is done with much lighter tackle than that needed for landing. While specific rods are available, a 10-30 g casting rod with a soft, progressive action is particularly effective. Equipped with a size 2500 reel, PE1 or PE1.2 braid and 30/100 fluorocarbon, you'll be able to stalk dorado with a very light outfit offering the promise of memorable battles.
This means that all carnivorous anglers can enjoy this sport without having to invest in special equipment.
An overview of the background
Once your tenya has been freed from its gambas, let it sink vertically to the boat until you feel contact with the bottom. You then lift it slightly and gradually release a little line so that it forms a 45° angle with your tip.
Your tenya should then hover over the bottom, making contact with it from time to time to present your bait as naturally as possible to the dorados present on the spot. No animation is required in current areas, just a long drift over the bottom.
With this in mind, the choice of the weight of your tenya becomes fundamental so that your bait stays close to the bottom without being in permanent contact with it. On the Golfe du Morbihan, we prefer 15 to 40 g models, depending on depth and current intensity.
Discreet keys and special hardware
Gilthead bites on tenya are often as subtle as when fishing with a jig. They will taste your bait over and over again until they finally engulf it. You need to let them play with your bait by "handing it back" to deceive them and hook them on a stronger bite.
The strike consists of a wide, progressive movement of the arm from bottom to top, and is therefore very different from those used when fishing with lures.
All you have to do is finish the fight and replace your drift. There will be plenty of surprises on any given trip, and if you catch the king bream you're hoping for, you'll also catch grey bream, sea bream, pike-perch, sea bass, pike-perch and emissola.
