Ideal roach fishing rod

[Anderoo]

Ps despite them being the same weight, the Thames fish was 5cm shorter than the tributary fish. I reckon the tributary fish would have been pretty big in its prime, a big '1' certainly, maybe even a '2'.

[Anderoo]

Pic of the Thames fish, just because it was in such spanking condition. Looking forward to a few more of these

 

[John Weddup]

remarkably similar to this little fella I caught sunday.

 

It weighed 1lb 6 ozs looks to be similar length

 

 

 

 

 

[Anderoo]

Nice one John, I hope one day I'll be able to call a 1lb 6oz roach 'little'...

 

PS yours is quite a bit longer - I make it 31.94cm, and mine 27.47. (The tributary fish I make 33.36cm.)

Edited August 27, 2013 by Anderoo

[Leon Roskilly]

This time of year I'll feed hemp and trot through with elderberry.

 

On the tidal Kentish Stour, the larger roach tend to be further out from the feed line, and deeper, so I invested in a 17ft rod to reach them whilst trotting.

[Anderoo]

I guess the starting point for waggler fishing with hemp/tares is a bulk around the float, a few tiny droppers down the line, fishing at dead depth, shallowing up if/when the fish start coming up in the water - feeding a few grains every cast?

 

I used to fish for roach with hemp many years ago at a fairly shallow stillwater, but I haven't tried it properly on a deeper river (I guess it's about 10ft where I'm fishing, very little flow this time of year).

[John Weddup]

Anderoo with any flow and deepish conditions I would personally have more weight down below to get the bait down to where the bigger fish are quicker and be able to keep it down there. I am very nervous about catching lots of small fish amongst the bigger ones for fear of spooking the big fish.

 

However as Leon says hemp and tares work for bigger fish when you get them in a feeding frenzy by proper feeding. They then all become easy to catch. Having said that I rarely get hemp feeding/fishing correct.

 

Oh and tiny droppers down the line do get attacked as fish think they are hemp giving loads of false line bites. Not good for fooling the big ones when you keep striking at nothing.

 

Thanks for calculating length of roach for me

 

John

Edited August 27, 2013 by John Weddup

[gozzer]

A couple of lovely looking roach there gents, well done.

 

When fishing hemp and tares I always used bunched small shot, Nos 8 and 10s, instead of a larger No 6, as droppers. I find this almost eliminates 'false' bites. I also feed for about 15 mins before actually fishing.

 

John.

[Leon Roskilly]

On the Medway I find it can take up to half an hour of feeding hemp before the roach cotton on.

 

But don't overdo it, just a small pinch of hemp on each cast (around 10 grains), rather than a handful.

[John Weddup]

But don't overdo it, just a small pinch of hemp on each cast (around 10 grains), rather than a handful.

The old boys who taught me made a real point of the feeding. A few regular rather than a load all at once. And I mean regular very frequent. Its that getting them in the frenzy that they make mistakes. That's when you get the big ones but its so hard to judge.

 

The good seed anglers are really very good anglers.

 

John