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Roach

Paul,what diameter is your hooklength,are you still fishing with the thought that your tackle might hook barbel?.Try loose feeding closer to you, if the Roach are boiling as you say, they should come to where you feed,you will make it easy for yourself and avoid the barbel.Try fishing a very small dibber pole float(size of a matchstick) as close to you, as the fish will come,fish at half depth to start,on an 0.10 mm clear line,like preston reflo power,grease the line above the float.Use as soft a rod as you have,sit down comfortably(this will get the fish closer and make you strike faster ) get the line between the rod and the float tight,and get used to striking fast.When the roach are boiling and still feeding, its just your tackle is too visible,the bait is sinking too fast or its on the hang and not sinking anymore that will not get you bites.They are taking on the drop only,so you need to keep laying the line back on the water often.Have you tried a Pole?.You might try greasing the line below the float, half way to the hook,this will slow the bait down,do not fish any shot down the line.Try picking out the baits that sink slower,eg the black casters or pellets that just about float,but will sink with the weight of the hook.The fish you are seeing are used to being caught on the bottom and are feeding where they do not often get caught,its well worth targeting them there.How do you loose feed ? you must loose feed with one hand and lay the tackle into the loose feed with your rod in the other.If all else fails try a small clear plastic pike bung with the bait shallow,no shot,they might just hook themselves against it(but its not really kosher). Lots to think about,hope some of it makes sense.
 
Paul. Terribly frustrating I know. But I most certainly would just fish bread flake over mashed bread and target the better fish with a decent flake piece on a size 12. Roach cannot resist bread although it might take an hour to get first bite.

Dont feed anything else and keep the bread mash in a fine pulp with very little substantial pieces. The bits you pull of the hook will be enough.

The bites you will get will be slower and hitable.

It seems you are fishing deep at distance so my preferred method of holding back stret pegging might be not possible.
 
Tares ????
Try fishing a whip or pole...............
Yep, those hemp bites are lightening !! I've even had them BURY the float and perform an 'air strike'..........
 
Paul, i guess you are fishing a very pressured, heavily fished, very shallow pegged section near to W-----------d,Full of Barbel,chub,carp and large roach.Most normal methods will cause you a major issue with the larger inhabitants when you are trying to catch the roach.My answer earlier was based purely on what i thought would succeed when i saw exactly the issue you described whilst fishing the section for barbel a couple of weeks ago.Alas i had only barbel tackle on me,(what a wally)i watched good roach for hours and they acted like stew pond trout,just like we used to plunder years ago on the Colne.(when it had roach and not cormorants eating all the silvers).
 
Graham/Paul, bread punch over liquidised bread. Also, stick to just two baits, your feed/hookbait.

Pellets and hemp WILL bring in the barbel.

Paul, I can use a bait dropper up to 20/30 meters.
 
Very perceptive of you Mark, indeed I got some of the 0.10 powerline for my return visit and adopted the no shot down method, I'd even bought some pole floats but haven't used them yet.
I'll just have to pray for rain to have some chance of getting in the swim again, LOL. I'm not an early riser.
Chris and Graham, I'm beginning to come round to the bread idea, entertaining though the boiling is it seems to make the fish harder to catch.
Re the hemp/pellets, I did leave my bait in the water whilst chatting to a women looking for her lost 16 ducks!! You can guess what happened.
The fish are only about 1 1/2 rodlengths out so no problem using the dropper, I thought the disturbance wouldn't be good in such a shallow swim though.
Thanks for all the feedback guys.
Cheers
Paul
 
I got there at 0520 on a monday morning and the car park was full,over 15 anglers and only 20 pegs,some had arrived at 0320 and waited in the car park,until opening time,madness.Fishing is so much more satisfying if you can solve those little problems and get a good result,getting them on the drop is just one of those delightful things you just need to solve,good luck.If you see me i'm the bloke fishing a clear pike bung,on 0.10 preston with a pellet 12 inches below--after all else has failed,ha ha.
 
It's an interesting fishery!, if only for the behavior of the anglers fishing it. The 6.00am race to the 'hot' pegs must be a wondrous site, something I haven't seen personally but I well remember the seven o'clock dash to the lawn swims at Aldermaston, must be similar.
The ludicrous thing is that the early risers desert these so called 'hot' swims at the first sign of rain very often and they also love to get home in time for tea. 2/3rds of the fishery, which involves a little walking is largely deserted.
I find it good for a bit of occasional amusement but much prefer less pressured waters generally.
 
The rules say 5am but it seems a lot arrive earlier and queue at the gate.Its quite a nice fishery looks wise,most swims cannot be seen from either side, some are only 10 feet wide,they are full of fish, but its really busy. Combat fishing ,boy did i love those guys pre baiting my sturgeon swim at the bottom of the bar with all those salmon guts.But what a horrible way to fish, 200 anglers standing 5 feet apart, all trying to foul hook salmon
 
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I am new to BFW and this is my first season on the Ribble I have been an angler for nearly 35 years but on started river fishing six years ago at the same time I started targeting roach on stillwaters.
I have had some good results so far on the Ribble.
My best so far 1lb 14oz caught on the wag fishing caster and hemp.
 

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I was at a family celebration in Yorkshire yesterday, one of the guests happened to be the grandson of Wilf Cutting the one time roach record holder with a fish of 3lb10oz caught in Hornsea Mere, East Yorkshire in the 1920s.

The guest happened to overhear me chatting to a cousin about angling and introduced himself. Interestingly the grandson, himself now about 70, has the fish set up in a case and has only recently had his interest rekindled after being tracked down by a collector. The grandson recalls Wilf telling him that at first the record was rejected as it was assumed to be a roach/bream hybrid, only when insisting that bream were not present in the mere at the time were two gentlemen sent from London to inspect the fish. On seeing the fish and conducting a scale count on the lateral line they concluded that Wilf had indeed caught a new British record.

When in the area the grandson has invited me to see the fish and is happy for me to take photographs. I'm looking forward to seeing a bit of angling history.
 
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First session after Roach this season and in between the trout and chub was this cracker my biggest river roach at 2lb 13 oz,had 8 other roach over 1lb to 1lb 12oz . All on the stick float, long rod and centre pin cannot wait for the next visit.
 
Mark Swaby said:
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First session after Roach this season and in between the trout and chub was this cracker my biggest river roach at 2lb 13 oz,had 8 other roach over 1lb to 1lb 12oz . All on the stick float, long rod and centre pin cannot wait for the next visit.
Click to expand...

Proper roach that had some big roach years back on the Yorkshire derwent but to be honest I doubt there are many left if any at all over a pound caught them up to 1lb 10 oz and some possibly a bit bigger unweighed but no twos happy days:D
What bait did you catch yours on bread was always the proper way to catch big roach on the Derwent fining down after a bit of water on magic fishing but sadly a thing of the past on the Derwent at least.
 
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