The big river roach of the past

[Anderoo]

I've been re-reading the roach chapters in Terry lampard's book 'First Cast', where he describes the amazing roach fishing on the Dorset Stour and Hampshire Avon in the late 70s/80s/early 90s. It's just mind-blowing for someone who grew up in an era when it was already over. I've been fortunate that in my lifetime I've seen golden ages for species like chub, perch, bream and I live in hope that there's big river roach boom at some point in my life.

 

Have any members lived through such a big roach boom? And did you fill your boots with enormous redfins, or was it just as hard as now where you lived?

 

A few pics from the book to make you drool:

 

 

 

[Rusty]

Yes I have lived through that boom and would’ve been at my most active (fishing wise) during the seventies but unfortunately I had no access to rivers. My recollections are of stillwater roach which at that time were the predominant species by a long way on the lakes that I fished in Kent.

 

A 2lb fish was still a great achievement but I recall pounders being relatively common and did have one memorable session on the last day of the summer hols. I was due back at school the next day and took some garden worms and the bare minimum of tackle (didn’t have a landing net) to Danson Park for a last hoorah. I caught six large roach in an hour and had to borrow somebody elses net to land them. No point in guessing weights but I don’t remember catching anything like that since.

 

I just wish I’d applied myself to angling in a different way back in those days, the significance of big roach was lost on me really.

 

I bet Mr Plumb will have some interesting accounts of Kennet roach from that era, probably backed up with numerous spreadsheets and records of weather conditions .

[JV44]

Anderoo whilst chubbing last winter we bumped into a guy who regailed me with tales of monster Roach from the kennet in the 60s and 70s taken from some of the bits Rusty loves namely Kennet Trout beats or what were then ,This old boy used to poach it and said it was Roach fishing he has never seen the like of before or since ...not sure they were all the way through the river though...maybe a bit like the perch thing now easy to think all you have to do is rock up stick a lob on and 4lbers a plenty.

Recent captures including yours prove there are still a few gooduns in the Thames and maybe more than we believe just dont get fished for not many matches etc ,that thread on Cemex certainly proves there were some monsters way back then but that bloke was ...well a tad dedicated and well bonkers but some awesome Roach .

[Anderoo]

I was chatting to an old boy at the Windrush a year or two ago, and he told me incredible tales of catching huge roach and dace from that little river in the 70s. It sounded almost unbelievable, but I did believe him. Plenty of two pound roach... He said when he first fished it, he was trotting maggots and pretty quickly caught a chub of just over a pound. Put it in the net, and quickly caught another, then another, then another. A guy then came over for a chat and he showed him these four 1lb+ chub, and the guy said - those aren't chub, those are dace

[gozzer]

Yes Andrew I lived through a few roach 'booms' on a few different waters, but could never improve on my 1lb 13oz PB. The Yokshire Ouse, and Derwent were the most prolific I think, but the odd big one (1 1/2 lb+) used to spring up on most of the Yorks rivers from time to time. Some on here will remember the R Aire around Stocksbridge in the 60s and 70s, we used to call it 'roach alley'.

 

The late 60s saw the river roach disappear almost completely and they became a rarity, so much so that I caught 6 between 4 and 6oz on a match in the early 70s, and I had guys coming down from other match lengths just to look at them! We used to get the odd one from then on, and it was nearly always 1lb+. I think that they were the survivers from the big kill, and had less competition.

The River Authority restocked with a load of roach from Denmark I think, but by then the chub had taken hold and we never had the same numbers of river roach again.

 

John.

Edited October 25, 2012 by gozzer

[Tigger]

As recently as several years ago the small river local to me had lots of roach 2lb plus and then as usual something happened to spoil all the fun...a very nasty pollution incident which pretty much devastated the river. I think the EA have introduced (or at least they say they have) some small roach but even if they do survive it'll be many years before they're of any size. I did catch a few small ones recently so I suppose there is a little smidging of hope for the years ahead.

Several weeks back due to the rivers being up and coloured i'd taken my barbel/ leger gear on the larger of my local rivers and whilst watching my rod tip I noticed fish topping quite regularly 20ft downstreem from me. After a few minuites I noticed some of the fish where virtually porpoising and they where quite clearly visible...huge roach ! I was a bit p!$$ed off not having taken my trotting gear but at least I know the fish are there.

[Mark Wintle]

I filled my boots from about 1979 to 85 on the Frome with odd ones since, and on the Stour in the late 1980s which is part of the era that Terry is writing about though I fished easier stretches for smaller fish and bigger catches.

 

This whole subject is something I looked at in depth when writing my book and it's clear that before the 70s that 2lb roach were comparatively rare in many of the waters that later became well known but ones up to 1-14 were not too hard to find. Several examples of this; the Frome - one or two over two pounds per year, rarely bigger than 2-02, until 1979 after which multiple bags of 2lbers and ultimately fish over 3lbs; the Stour much the same with pound plus roach common but a 2lber very rare; the Wensum prior to the early 70s, the Hants. Avon, again fish to 1-14 common but a 2lber difficult; the Windrush in the 60s rarely produced two pound roach with much more chance of a pound dace - a mate, who sadly died last year, grew up on the Windrush with John Everard and his father (not John's) was the sec. of Newlands in the 60s. Later there were big roach in the Windrush.

 

Due to some misreporting in the press there is a myth that loads of Danish roach were brought in but the actual evidence is of millions of Dutch/Belgian roach being brought in, especially 1972/3, until the Ministry of Ag. stopped it in 1974. That's not to say that there were no Danish roach brought in only that some reports were proved wrong and corrected, and, of course, the Guden was very much in the headlines at that time along with other Danish rivers. Possible also that these stockings led to the presence of ide in some waters. The roach disease hit very hard especially in Yorkshire and East Anglia from 1966-68 but those fish that did survive had much less competition (Wensum, Waveney) and grew big and the rest is history. Some waters benefited from the 1975 strong year class ( the dry winter of 75/76 was helpful) especially the Stour as these were the fish that Terry targeted in the late 80s. Terry brought all his big roach pics round when I was doing my research, some amazing fish, and he's as sad as the rest of us that such fish are now so rare.

 

Pollution is something that hit the upper Stour around 1984 onwards several times and the fantastic big roach around Sturminster Newton and the stretches below are very much a thing of the past. Plenty of small roach due to major restocking but the days of when one in three roach was a pound plus seem unlikely to return; lucky to get one or two over a pound per year now.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Mark Wintle

[The Flying Tench]

A few years ago I was talking to an elderly chap who fished the Kennet in Newbury as a teenager - it must have been in the forties. The flour mills were still in operation, so naturally the roach used to gather in the pool below the mill to eat the bready stuff that came down. He used to ledger with bread (no feeder of course), and usually caught a few roach, often over a pound, not unusually with a 2.

 

I was talking to someone else who fished the Kennet and Avon Canal at Hungerford - I would think in the 80s, though I'm not sure. He mentioned one match where he looked in one chap's keepnet, and he had about ten roach all over 2 pounds.

 

Though of course exaggeration is possible. I was talking to someone a few weeks ago who said he saw someone - who I am fairly sure was Rusty - catch 15 two pound perch! Rusty's blog gives a more reliable account!

[philocalist]

The really big roach look superb, don't they? We never really saw fish like that further north BUT there are now 2lb plus roach in certain known swims on the river Wear, some even on free stretches in Durham City centre! The biggest I'm aware of (as in accurately weighed and witnessed) is a whisker short of 3lbs, with substantiated rumours of fish exceeding that weight too.

 

Unfortunately, most of these big fish are well past their prime: older and often battle-scarred, apparently by the bloody cormorants that lurk along the river ... I'm guessing that when they've gone, we may be back to square one again, at least for several years :-(

Quite recently (I think within the last 12 months or so), the angling press ran an article on these fish, and whilst they are cetainly not easy to catch or locate, the local angler concerned WAS able to provide roach in excess of 2lbs for the cameras!

[Steve Burke]

Like Anderoo I've very much enjoyed Terry Lampard's book "First Cast".

 

The Beult, a tributary of the Medway in Kent was really excellent for monster roach some 30 years ago. The problem was there were so very few of them following disease, plus there were no small ones. Indeed I don't recall catching a single one under a pound for many years! I never did have a 3lber, but a friend caught at least 2 up to 3-14.