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Roach

Graham Elliott said:
Welcome Nick.
I am targetting a big Wye roach.

At the moment the river is full of dace. Hard to get through them on the float so looking at the feeder.

Avon top or Quiver tip in your opinion.?
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Hi Graham

river roach fishing is something i'm not really qualified to comment on as i have little experience - sorry

but i would guess quiver tip would be the answer?
 
Dump the casters/maggots... Try flake/crust on a 10/8 hook, hard on the bottom. Steady water 5-8 feet deep. Light feeding upstream a little with mashed stale bread. They also like cheese. ;)
 
and don't forget that roach love boilies - i have had great success on 8/10mm boilies

pineapple and butryic acid in winter and any creamy type bait in summer (the old Hinders Supreme Cream was unbeatable)

geranium oil is often mentioned as a superb roach attractor - i found it totally useless in boilies/maggots etc
 
regarding roach on boilies - they can become totally 'addicted'

i fished a Lincs gravel pit for carp using mainly 14mm boilies (prefer smaller baits but thats another story)

in the first year the resident roach largely ignored said bolies but in the second year they went mad!!

not huge roach (to just under 2lb) but i've had them on double 14mm boilies!

i remember Wyreside (up North) - a carp lake with roach who again became boilie addicted and in the end 2lb plus roach became a 'pest' and i think were moved to a new home?

right or wrong such is the attraction of boilies and the nutritional profile that can give many species a massive boost in weight
 
Yes. Had quite a few this season on 12mm Source boilies. However do want to catch on the float.

Might try some mini pineapple ones soon
 
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1lb8oz and a pb. Lovely end to a great day on the BA.
 
Fish Casters if you can get them, they tend to attract better quality fish and also disintegrate on the strike causing less hook pulls than maggot. Get a small amount, 1/2 pint of mixed maggot for a change bait and swap between the colours to get extra bites. What works on one day sometimes does not work on others. I think its down to what they have been caught on recently, changing from red to Yellow can sometimes work wonders or vice versa.Try to keep your options open. If you can only get maggot then get reds with a 1/4 coloured and then at least you can see by changing colour their preference
 
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What Mark said although if using bread mash as feed then white.

Don't be afraid to try 3 or 4 on the hook now and again. It will sometimes encourage a bite from a shy better fish
 
Graham, that's one my dad showed me when i was a kid, bitter cold day on a Christmas club match, most blanking, my dad was catching using 4 maggots on a 14 hook,barbaric. I was blanking and then had 3 fish in the last hour all on 4 maggot, First and third prizes won. It was also a great match tactic on the canals between Denham and Rickmansworth for the Chub.
 
Mark.
On the Avon at Salisbury I always use 4-6 on a size 14. Partly defeats the shoals of minnows. Allows you to hit bites and if nothing hooked carry on down river knowing the baits not been stripped.
To a degree it also works with spooky chub as you note.
 
Our club used to fish the Dfds knockout team competition 30 plus years ago, when drawn at home we would often fish on the canal at Rickmansworth ,we were never beaten there. We would all get a bonus chub or two on 4 maggot hookbaits which for some reason worked better than single baits We even knocked out Dorking who were the favorites back around 1980. We were an OK team but always got stuffed when drawn away
 
I remember a day in the pipe swim on the Royalty years ago. Barbel were caught in the morning but bites dried up in the afternoon. As we fed maggots shoals of chub and roach greedily devoured them on the drop but a single maggot on a hook was totally ignored (because they could tell the difference). In marked contrast a bunch of 4 or 5 was taken with total confidence. On the upper Thames chub would even avoid a single on a 24. The way to catch them was to wait for a boat to pass and cast into its wash when maggots were scattered all over the place and the chub could not tell the difference between one on the hook and a freebie. Vive la differance!
 
Mark Swaby said:
Fish Casters if you can get them, they tend to attract better quality fish and also disintegrate on the strike causing less hook pulls than maggot. Get a small amount, 1/2 pint of mixed maggot for a change bait and swap between the colours to get extra bites. What works on one day sometimes does not work on others. I think its down to what they have been caught on recently, changing from red to Yellow can sometimes work wonders or vice versa.Try to keep your options open. If you can only get maggot then get reds with a 1/4 coloured and then at least you can see by changing colour their preference
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I used to never be without casters, when tackle shops were common. In the coldest of weather's, a single caster on a legered 16, used to catch me fish to 2lbs on the Gt Ouse.
 
A couple of tough days after roach on a out of sorts HA for them as sharp temp drop.
Did manage a few up to the 1lb and one estimated around 1.8.

Change to the Test and managed fish to 1.14 abd 1.11 plus few between 12oz to 1.8.

However the two big 2's were obviously rudd or rudd/roach hybrids!

Some perch and lots of spotties and graylings to 1.8.

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Graham Elliott said:
A couple of tough days after roach on a out of sorts HA for them as sharp temp drop.
Did manage a few up to the 1lb and one estimated around 1.8.

Change to the Test and managed fish to 1.14 abd 1.11 plus few between 12oz to 1.8.

However the two big 2's were obviously rudd or rudd/roach hybrids!

Some perch and lots of spotties and graylings to 1.8.

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Are the first two pics the same fish?

Looks like pure rudd to me.
 
Hi Graham
If that possible rudd of yours is from the Test then it's very interesting as about 3 months ago I started catching a lot of rudd, much more golden than one in your photo, from my section of the Test (The section you fished with me). As I have never caught rudd from there before I wonder if someone has dumped a load in the river. I don't believe we have had enough rain to flood any lakes.
Mike
 
Hi Mike. Hope all is good.
They started to get caught from there at least 2 and a half years ago and to near 3lb. However there are also hybrids roach rudd to over 2lb that would suggest they entered some time earlier, possibly downstream and have taken time to work up or entered as mixed fish from a lake during flood.

The ones earlier have appeared bright gold as you say.....as do the bream! Not sure if these captues are possibly x rudd roach. What do you think?

For info I have also had 3lb + bream roach hybrid.

Pm me if you want chat more.
 
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