Soon be time for roach

[Mark Wintle]

Did the long drive today to the Thames, leaving home before 6am and beating the traffic. The Thames had less flow and colour than I prefer but with the temperature up and a mild overnight and day I reckon the roach came on a bit. I finished with 16 roach to 1-3 with several others 8 - 14oz, a small bream and some small chub to 1-8, all on flake on a 10 and a tiny feeder and liquidised.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Mark Wintle

[irish greg]

mark

when you say a tiny feeder is it an open feeder like 10grm drennan mesh.or a blackcap or what do you recommend.

[Mark Wintle]

mark

when you say a tiny feeder is it an open feeder like 10grm drennan mesh.or a blackcap or what do you recommend.

Like the Drennan 10gram mesh, or home-made down to 3grams usiing tiny strips of lead and wire mesh.

[Anderoo]

There was a LOT of rain last night and the river is now very high and coloured. Hard work for chubbing but good for roach, so I think it's time to have another go I have Friday afternoon off, let's hope they play ball.

 

After Friday there are several days of heavy rain forecast; I think we're about to get the first floods.

[Mark Wintle]

The days are too short and the traffic too bad for the long drive to the Thames at present and I'm not confident of the conditions being fishable. the more local Stour dropped a lot yesterday to 3ft up now back up to 7ft up. if the Thames clears a bit and stays high and mild then that is the time for a big roach. Coloured and high is better for bream.

[Anderoo]

Having a rethink here, it's a shame to waste an opportunity to fish but the river is raging through and the colour of milky tea, and on top of that there was a very heavy frost with lots of ice this morning. Might be sensible and pass...

[grayson]

Help please- I normally fish for chuib and pike in winter but when the river is 3 metres up and rising as it is today I don't bother. So I fish for roach in a couple of low key commercials near my home. Low key because neither is fished much , especially in winter as most anglers who go there fish for - surprise surprise - carp.

 

The problem I have is that one esepecially has hordes of small roach but with some much better fish too- I have had some pound plus fish and apparently they run to 2lb and more. I like to fish float for aesthetic reasons and feeding is the problem. The fish soon move off the bottom and take mid water or higher but only do so if I keep a regular flow of loose feed. If I stop feeding I hardly catch at all. I want to attract bigger fish and have them feed on or near bottom., not zooming around competing with the scores of tiny fish . I intend to try feeding a couple of catapult's worh at beginning of session and then irregularly - 30-40 minutes at least- putting in another 20 maggots or so. The idea being to keep fish interested and grubbing round for food on bottom but not sending them manic with overfeeding. Also to try caster instead of maggots (dendrobena produces the odd better fish, pellets nothing in winter) .

 

I am much more of a river guy than a stillwater one- am I on right track or do I not have a clue?

[Mark Wintle]

Help please- I normally fish for chuib and pike in winter but when the river is 3 metres up and rising as it is today I don't bother. So I fish for roach in a couple of low key commercials near my home. Low key because neither is fished much , especially in winter as most anglers who go there fish for - surprise surprise - carp.

 

The problem I have is that one esepecially has hordes of small roach but with some much better fish too- I have had some pound plus fish and apparently they run to 2lb and more. I like to fish float for aesthetic reasons and feeding is the problem. The fish soon move off the bottom and take mid water or higher but only do so if I keep a regular flow of loose feed. If I stop feeding I hardly catch at all. I want to attract bigger fish and have them feed on or near bottom., not zooming around competing with the scores of tiny fish . I intend to try feeding a couple of catapult's worh at beginning of session and then irregularly - 30-40 minutes at least- putting in another 20 maggots or so. The idea being to keep fish interested and grubbing round for food on bottom but not sending them manic with overfeeding. Also to try caster instead of maggots (dendrobena produces the odd better fish, pellets nothing in winter) .

 

I am much more of a river guy than a stillwater one- am I on right track or do I not have a clue?

You're on the right lines. If the roach are ONLY quality ones then the pouchful every 20-30 minutes with maggots will get them feeding on the bottom. With the presence of tiddlers I think the caster approach is the first option, again feeding (but less feed than with maggots) at long intervals and laying on with DOUBLE caster on say a 20 or 18. Only you can find out what works so some experimentation is in order. Good luck.

[Anderoo]

I decided at the last minute to go and try for a roach today - the Thames is still a complete mess, but the flood conditions should have meant that fish were now in the little tributary sidestream I mentioned several weeks back. The little river is back in its banks but still raging through, and my suspicion was correct, the sidestream was a nice colour, full of water, and flowing at a lovely steady pace. Plus we are still in a period of very low pressure and wind, which the roach seem to like.

 

I first tried at the confluence where it joins the main river, quivertipping flake with a tiny feeder of mashed bread. I started catching straight away, it was very clear that the stream was full of fish. It's only a rod length or so across in most places, but the fish were appreciating the respite from the torrent of the river. The first few fish were all chub, all giving really positive pulls and were quite a handful on the light roach gear. Great fun! I stayed there until the bites dried up and then decided to try about 30 yards down into the stream itself, in a little run between marginal vegetation. There I started to get little plucks that didn't develop and wondered if I'd found some roach... Another firm pull then had me connected to a decent chub that took a bit of persuading and I started to think, no, must just be chub here too. But the next bite was different, little plucks and then a slow pull and I started to hope, and as the fish came over the net it turned into a magnificent silver and red roach So they do live here after all! Typically all my cameras died at once, but I weighed him at 1lb 1oz, a really good fish. Some more hesitant plucks followed so I decided to leave that swim for a bit and try even further down the stream.

 

It was now almost dark, and the next spot produced even more chub, but no roach. So after half an hour I went back to the roach swim and tried again. It took a while to get a bite but it was a very confident one when it came, and I was really excited to see a second decent roach some in and into the net. One camera had mysteriously recovered by this point so I got a (rather poor) shot of it, a nice deep fish that just missed the pound mark at 15oz.

 

 

After another quite long wait I did get another bite, but bounced the fish off - bugger. That killed it, and I left soon after, but smiling all the way home.

 

I thought there ought to be roach there in flood conditions and it's great to have that confirmed, and at such a good average size too. I think I'll have to get back sooner rather than later...

[Mark Wintle]

Lovely roach, Andrew, and well done on following a hunch. My local Stour has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Still very high and coloured though past its peak. The Thames seems very high too but maybe next month it will improve?