Ideal roach fishing rod

[Mark Wintle]

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...

I didn't use a keepnet yesterday (over 30 from one swim which was pretty much every single roach in the swim!), indeed, rarely do nowadays, and if you return roach back one at a time it makes very little difference. I've done this to get catches of well over 100 roach at close range and prefer to release the roach if I can as they stay in better condition that way. Releasing a netful almost always will kill a swim.

 

The problem with bread is that although you get an instant response you are not getting the roach to feed confidently. Why that doesn't happen with bread in summer is a mystery. I've done best with bread in terms of big catches when using groundbait, mainly in winter but I have got it to work in summer on some Dorset waters (mainly tidal). Some of the Oxford match anglers are currently doing well (on the Thames) with hemp and tares as expected but others are balling in mixes like Gros Gardons and catching over the top on the pole, in both cases bags to 25lbs. With the hemp I was staggered by how keen the roach were for it, with an instant response but the shoal kept feeding until I had caught the lot in each swim. This was in very clear water such that you could see how many roach were there to start with.

[Anderoo]

Interesting, thanks Mark. I'm going to try the hemp and tares approach tomorrow, I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I'm currently trying to decide whether to try a different stretch or go back to where I fished before. New water is always tempting but going back would be a fairer comparison.

[Anderoo]

Well I tried the hemp and tares in 2 different swims, and apart from one tiny chublet not a bite. I gave each swim 1.5 hours, feeding small amounts of hemp very regularly. Eventually scratched out an 8oz roach on quivertipped bread...!

 

Maybe there just aren't the numbers of roach there for the method to work properly.

[Mark Wintle]

Well I tried the hemp and tares in 2 different swims, and apart from one tiny chublet not a bite. I gave each swim 1.5 hours, feeding small amounts of hemp very regularly. Eventually scratched out an 8oz roach on quivertipped bread...!

 

Maybe there just aren't the numbers of roach there for the method to work properly.

There are several factors that seem to be important in catching roach on hemp and tares. It's not easy to get all of them right except through experience but they boil down to these:

 

First find your roach swim - some sort of form is vital (plenty of roach present!) and it does help if it's not too deep though you can catch fishing very shallow in deep water. Cover from lilies or cabbages helps as well as does a gravel bottom to the swim. Next the conditions in that hot weather helps enormously (warm afternoons are best) though on some waters people catch in winter on hemp. Feeding has to be right. The tackle needs to be right. The hemp experts fish very fine in terms of hooks and lines. Yes, you can catch on heavier gear but only if the roach are really going mad. I fish hooks like Kamasan B511 to .08mm line. Finding the right bait on the day is another factor; sometimes tares, sometimes only hemp. The swim can take a long time to switch on - it can be instant but many match anglers on waters like the Nene will feed a 'hemp line' whilst fishing elsewhere in the swim with say maggots and occasionally try the hemp line until they think it is going. I've done this on the Bristol Avon and had 10lbs of roach in the last hour when I'd only had 5lbs in the previous 4 hours. Finally the mood of the roach depends on the weather so the cold front that went through Friday night may have affected the fish. Keep trying and you will succeed; hemp and tares should be good for a few more weeks yet depending on the weather but two years ago I finally packed it in on 4th November!

 

I'm hoping to see what a virgin stretch of the Stour is like tomorrow to see if the roach respond at all to hemp. There's no doubt that the more the hemp is chucked in generally the better the response which is why Throop and Medley respond well to it.

[Anderoo]

I think my bit of river fails in the first vital aspects! Not enough roach and pretty deep, and also rarely fished. I think I got the tackle and feeding right (good enough, anyway).

 

I'll have to try again on a more suitable venue, and wait until the autumn rains provide some flow on my bit so I can start to properly fish the little feeders.

[Matthew Simmons]

Anderoo,

 

Last couple of years I targetted Wallingford with hemp and tares in the autumn - like your swims very deep 10ft and pushing through - but with a lovely crease a rod length out. I started out with maggots on the hook feeding maggots (droppered in becuase of the depth) and loose feeding hemp all the time. Switched to tares on the hook brought the odd fish, they weren't really very keen on the tares, but using hemp on the hook was much more successful - but my hempseed wasn't good enough for hookbait really and it was a struggle to use it. I bought some giant hemp to use as hook bait to hopefully sort out the better fish but the floods came last year and that was that. But food for thought?

 

M

[Anderoo]

Food for thought indeed - thanks Matthew

[Kappa]

Interestingly I really struggled in the deep water last night. A move to the shallower bit a touch further down and a fish a chuck. I was cheating using maggots but I thought I was on a blank before I moved!

 

Interestingly I had two rudd, my first two rudd from the Thames in 20 years!

[RUDD]

On my pole hemp rigs I use stotts or styles instead of shot.

This is to eliminate shot bites.

The rigs are all shoted shirt button style with wide gape mustard canal seed hooks.

I feed a small pouch of hemp every 20/30 seconds and start a few inches off bottom then altering depth regularly until I get bites.

On the hook I will use giant hemp, small kernels of corn / wheat dyed black or this time of year Elderberries.

Plenty of reaction time is needed as bites can be lightening fast.

[Mark Wintle]

In the event yesterday I first fished flake as it was a 'retro' day using old gear and had some decent roach. Later I switched swims and rods to fish a stick with casters as I'd seen a couple of chub in this other swim. After getting the chub on double caster on a 20 I went deeper to lay on with caster, feeding hemp and caster and after a few smaller ones this old warrior turned up. I thought for a moment it might go 2lbs but careful weighing made it 1-14, my best roach this season. As dusk fell the roach stopped taking casters and I switched back to flake getting some more roach up to about 6oz. The swim I'd hoped to fish had a nasty facing wind but noted for another day.

 

Rudd's mention of lightning fast bites using hemp is something that can be solved by getting the feeding right; hard to explain but with experience you seem to know what to do; get it right and the bites are easy to hit. When I first fished hemp on the Thames I can remember getting 10 bites for every roach I caught which was frustrating to say the least.

 

Yesterday's roach: