Ideal roach fishing rod

[Phone]

Anderoo,

 

For specimen hunting shelled flaxseed and pumpkinseed are much more likely to seperate smaller from larger fish. Shelled flaxseed is "better" in every respect than hemp in sorting mixed shoals of carp. Pumpkin seed is one of my favorites for sussing out single (known) fish.

 

You have to be dedicated to spending a few £. (after the pricing blunder I made earlier this week I'm afraid to hint at a price - but NOT cheap). I wouldn't use animal grade.

 

Phone

[Mark Wintle]

When the big roach are really having hemp and tares the bait for sorting out the big ones that avoids the tiddlers is maple peas on a 10! Choice of swim is important; not too deep if you're not that experienced, say 4-5 foot, and at close range, preferably with weed cover close in like a cabbage bed.

[Anderoo]

The close range and cover parts are ok but the shallow water part is trickier, it averages about 10ft. I'll give it a go when I next get a chance to go and see what happens.

[Phone]

Anderoo,

 

Pretty much exclusive to UK carp fishing.

""""""

Maple Pea - [black Peas, Carlin Peas, Brown Badgers]

These dark brown mottled peas are cooked and eaten in Lancashire county, England and not much anywhere else. They are commonly provided by mobile food vendors at fairs and other events as "Black Peas", sometimes served in cups with a little vinegar. Even in Lancashire they are of uneven availability, mostly in October and November, but are also grown in Canada as a minor crop. Boiled maple peas are considered a top carp bait in England where carp fishing is popular. The photo specimens, sorted from a bag of racing pigeon food, are about 0.25 inch / 6.4 mm, 240 to 260 mg. NOTE: Wikipedia and sites using info from there say Lancashire Black Peas are the toxic Lathyrus niger which is very wrong.""""" (http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/bp_legumev.html)

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have a comparison log in my beans and peas section.

 

Phone

[Anderoo]

Grabbed a few hours at the Thames again this evening, very hard work this time. Lots and lots of crayfish making things difficult and very little fish activity. I scratched out a small silver bream and a nice fat roach of about 12oz. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get enough time to try the hemp approach.

[Mark Wintle]

Good luck with the hemp and tares. Like most methods the real way to learn is to try it a few times, experimenting with floats, shotting, hooks and feeding, then you can weigh up the advice - all sorts of approaches can work depending on the swim, size of roach, conditions etc. I've been fishing it on and off since 1975, had plenty of failures but plenty of success, too, on waters as diverse as the Thames, Nene and Stour plus some stillwaters. It does seem to work best on waters where there is loads of hemp thrown in (used to be the case on the Thames and Nene when they were heavily match-fished) but not an absolute requirement. I intend fishing it again tomorrow on the Stour though unsure of exactly where; on the Stour the barbel anglers condition the roach to take hemp.

[Leon Roskilly]

Bear this in mind too

 

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134%2FS0032945213040024

 

[Mark Wintle]

No doubt that in the right conditions roach like the taste of hemp. I had over 50 roach yesterday on hemp in 3 hours, fishing 3ft deep runs through the weed in bright sunshine and gin clear water. Nothing big, about 8oz the best but good sport with some dace as well and no minnow trouble. I hope to try it on an unfished bit of river on Monday where I know there are some roach so it will be interesting to see if they respond.

[Anderoo]

Another topic just made me wonder whether the roach get edgy after the first one is caught because I'm releasing it straight back into the swim...

[Kappa]

I was thinking that!