Bigger roach.

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

The marina I live at does some nice roach with fish to over 2lbs but being a marina, its stuffed with fish of all sizes.
I have never really fished for bigger roach and wonder what time of year, day and what methods I might be best to use?
I have some ideas but always happy to learn more

Cheers Alan

[suffolk si]

Been doing Best on my local waters at dusk with corn or mini boilies ,more selective unless you have bream there Alan...

[Mike J]

Ah those lovely beauties.
If I had to fish for only one species for the rest of my life it would have to be big roach.

I would expect the biggest fish not to be found with their smaller offspring.
Big roach and by big I mean 2lb plus, like to take their time when 'taking a bait' they sip at it and then take it slow and steady, just sliding the float away, so there is no need for a fast strike, also they often come straight to the surface when hooked which is when they can throw the hook if your not careful
One option would be to bomb them with lots of liqui-bread groundbait, say 4-6 x 4" balls every 20mins or so with the aim of feeding off the small fish and then catching a few biggies as it goes dark. It all a question of numbers, how many small fish, time, money and can you fish the extremities of the feed area at night.
Try not to get to technical with your tackle, mid water with 1/4 of a slice folded over a size 10 is what has me caught me my four biggest roach, all landed 1/2hr after dark in mid winter.

Let us know how you get on.

[dannytaylor]

Mini bolies like si says, but bream will be a problem and carp!

Get on the dink/helicopter bolt rigs with maggot feeders. Fish into dark and Wade through the small fish the big ones will come and you will have a healthy bait supply

[Paul_the_piker]

Hemp and caster fished shallow/on the drop on the pole in the evening until you cant see your float, even after then as they will often hook themselves if the presentation is right and you have some artificial light in the marina. Loose feed little and often, a pinch of caster/hemp (20 or so) then 'flick' the rig over the top and repeat about 15secs after the rig has settled at its full depth. Feed by hand (don't fish further out than you can hold the pole in one hand, maximum of about 9m with practice) and don't be worried about trying to keep the feed too tight as you want the odd item outside of the main area. Start at dead depth and work your way up as the fish begin to compete and start to intercept the bait higher in the water column. Search the area, the bigger fish often hold off the main feed area and commotion and can be caught by adding another section to fish a metre of so beyond the main feed area. It's a real finesse method and takes a lot of practice but once you get into a rhythm its deadly and fast! Everything must be to hand, i'm right handed so the pole is in the right hand and I loose feed with my left hand, so the side tray is on the left with the bait and the landing net handle resting on it.

Worth having some prepared tares as an alternative hookbait as well as these can single out the bigger fish and can be fished in the same way on the same rigs.

Two rigs would consist of the following:

1. Dead Depth/on the drop in up to 6' of water - 4 x 10 wire stemmed pole float (Drennan wire roach) on 0.10mm line (Silstar Match Team) through to a size 20 red, fine wire barbless hook (Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot), single caster, with 5Nr x 11 shot spaced 12" or so apart starting right beneath the float. Flick the rig in straight and hold it back, the float should steadily rise from a horizontal to a vertical position as the rig falls through the water and fish should hook themselves against a soft Nr 4 solid elastic.

The timing of the bait will tell you at what depth the fish are intercepting the bait, earlier it's taken, the shallower they are intercepting it and this tells you when it's time to switch to rig 2.

2. Shallow up to 3' deep - 0.1g wire stemmed pole float (Prestons PB Inter 9) on 0.10mm line (Silstar Match Team) through to a size 20 red, fine wire barbless hook (Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot), single caster, with 3Nr x 11 shot spaced 12" or so apart starting right beneath the float.

If the fish are taking the bait really shallow (12") or you can see them swirling and boiling on the surface, simply bulk the shot on the shallow rig beneath the float. Try to avoid this though as its a recipe for missed bites, make sure you remove any floating casters before you start fishing and put two or three bigger pinches (pouches) of bait in at once to drive them back down. Often you may have to switch back to the deeper rig once this has happened but it can produce a bigger fish.

I have caught bags of silvers in excess of 40lb fishing this method in 3 hour evening matches with individual fish approaching 2lbs.

Make sure you have a damp towel to hand as well!

Slimy but great fun!

[chris_parry]

Hemp and caster fished shallow/on the drop on the pole in the evening until you cant see your float, even after then as they will often hook themselves if the presentation is right and you have some artificial light in the marina. Loose feed little and often, a pinch of caster/hemp (20 or so) then 'flick' the rig over the top and repeat about 15secs after the rig has settled at its full depth. Feed by hand (don't fish further out than you can hold the pole in one hand, maximum of about 9m with practice) and don't be worried about trying to keep the feed too tight as you want the odd item outside of the main area. Start at dead depth and work your way up as the fish begin to compete and start to intercept the bait higher in the water column. Search the area, the bigger fish often hold off the main feed area and commotion and can be caught by adding another section to fish a metre of so beyond the main feed area. It's a real finesse method and takes a lot of practice but once you get into a rhythm its deadly and fast! Everything must be to hand, i'm right handed so the pole is in the right hand and I loose feed with my left hand, so the side tray is on the left with the bait and the landing net handle resting on it.

Worth having some prepared tares as an alternative hookbait as well as these can single out the bigger fish and can be fished in the same way on the same rigs.

Two rigs would consist of the following:

1. Dead Depth/on the drop in up to 6' of water - 4 x 10 wire stemmed pole float (Drennan wire roach) on 0.10mm line (Silstar Match Team) through to a size 20 red, fine wire barbless hook (Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot), single caster, with 5Nr x 11 shot spaced 12" or so apart starting right beneath the float. Flick the rig in straight and hold it back, the float should steadily rise from a horizontal to a vertical position as the rig falls through the water and fish should hook themselves against a soft Nr 4 solid elastic.

The timing of the bait will tell you at what depth the fish are intercepting the bait, earlier it's taken, the shallower they are intercepting it and this tells you when it's time to switch to rig 2.

2. Shallow up to 3' deep - 0.1g wire stemmed pole float (Prestons PB Inter 9) on 0.10mm line (Silstar Match Team) through to a size 20 red, fine wire barbless hook (Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot), single caster, with 3Nr x 11 shot spaced 12" or so apart starting right beneath the float.

If the fish are taking the bait really shallow (12") or you can see them swirling and boiling on the surface, simply bulk the shot on the shallow rig beneath the float. Try to avoid this though as its a recipe for missed bites, make sure you remove any floating casters before you start fishing and put two or three bigger pinches (pouches) of bait in at once to drive them back down. Often you may have to switch back to the deeper rig once this has happened but it can produce a bigger fish.

I have caught bags of silvers in excess of 40lb fishing this method in 3 hour evening matches with individual fish approaching 2lbs.

Make sure you have a damp towel to hand as well!

Slimy but great fun!

Paul,
That is a brilliant reply and totally agree with every word.

Big roach love hemp and casters. The biggest problem the angler faces with caster is presentation as it's such a delicate bait to cast any distance but in the confines of a marina it has to be pole fishing with caster every time.

If I could just add one more tip to Paul's reply it would be to try double caster layed on the bottom using a dibber float just for 5 minutes, once every half an hour, at the very back of the feeding area.

[Kev Berry]

when fishing on the trent for the last few years we have had some clonking roach on 8-12mm halibut pellets intended for barbel, most seem to wriggle off the hooks when they reach the surface due to the stiffness of the rods but we have landed them over 2lbs,
a couple of old lads who have a caravan on same site as me and fish the same old pegs all the time have supposedly had a few 3lbers on 2 x 6mm lumps of luncheon meat, again on barbel gear.

Not "proper" roach tactics, but maybe worth a try on lighter tackle and softer rods

[Daniel]

For me it would depend on how small the small fish average.

If they average 4-6oz it shouldn't be too hard to sort out the better fish but if the smaller fish are averaging 8-10oz you'll find it more difficult to pick out the better fish.

If there are big numbers of 4-6oz then avoid bread at all costs, you'll simply spend all your time rebaiting the hook. Pauls advice will catch an awful lot of fish but you'll have to catch a lot of the average fish to catch a better fish or two, great sport but its not what you asked for.

You asked about catching the better fish and to do that I'd be prebaiting two areas. One with 6 and 8 mm low oil pellets, hemp, corn, wheat and a sprinkling of 8 and 10mm boilies. This is the area I'd be planning to fish.
The other area I'd bait with 2mm pellets, bread mash and anything else that the smaller fish will find appealing.
I'd be fishing small feeders on mini helicopter rigs. one rod baited with small boilies and the other with pellet or corn.
Its not exactly traditional roach fishing tactics, but it is bloody effective.

[andrew_nagel]

I have the opposite problem... I'm trying to get through the 2lbers to get small fish for baits. Corn on #10 fished the last 2 hours of daylight does me proud throughout the warmer months. When they are feeding hard the feeder/bomb doesn't hit bottom before they're on. In winter I use flake and liquid bread in a small feeder, mainly fishing the warmest few hours of normal daylight.

[dannytaylor]

I have the opposite problem... I'm trying to get through the 2lbers to get small fish for baits. Corn on #10 fished the last 2 hours of daylight does me proud throughout the warmer months. When they are feeding hard the feeder/bomb doesn't hit bottom before they're on. In winter I use flake and liquid bread in a small feeder, mainly fishing the warmest few hours of normal daylight.

Jealous!

[andrew_nagel]

I have the opposite problem... I'm trying to get through the 2lbers to get small fish for baits. Corn on #10 fished the last 2 hours of daylight does me proud throughout the warmer months. When they are feeding hard the feeder/bomb doesn't hit bottom before they're on. In winter I use flake and liquid bread in a small feeder, mainly fishing the warmest few hours of normal daylight.

Jealous!

As I am of your catches too - in the friendliest of manners.
I can assure you there's no special talent involved - you'd soon get bored reeling them in. DK is brimming with bream, tench, roach and rudd potential - nobody bothers with them.

[dannytaylor]

I have the opposite problem... I'm trying to get through the 2lbers to get small fish for baits. Corn on #10 fished the last 2 hours of daylight does me proud throughout the warmer months. When they are feeding hard the feeder/bomb doesn't hit bottom before they're on. In winter I use flake and liquid bread in a small feeder, mainly fishing the warmest few hours of normal daylight.

Jealous!

As I am of your catches too - in the friendliest of manners.
I can assure you there's no special talent involved - you'd soon get bored reeling them in. DK is brimming with bream, tench, roach and rudd potential - nobody bothers with them.

It sounds like heaven

[andrew_nagel]

For a general coarse fisherman I think it comes pretty close. Predators get targeted by legal netters which reduces the potential.

[davelumb]

Going by last night's barbel session three 8mm Pellet-Os on a hair to a size 6 might do the trick.

Didn't weigh it, not even sure it's a pure roach. But it reminded me I've had a couple of others when tench fishing on the crab Pellet-Os.

DSCN5084.jpg

[suffolk si]

Looks roachy to me Dave,tbh both two's I had this season were caught whilst targeting tench,perhaps the best way to catch big roach is to target other species!

[dannytaylor]

That tends to go for all species

(I'll give you that one Dave, seen some trying to claim choach out of that river as proper redfin's)

[davelumb]

It looks more roachy in the photo than it did in the light from my head torch.

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

Looks like a roach to me Dave!

Thanks for the replies chaps
Paul, great reply, thanks although I dont and will probably never own a pole so for me it will be waggler or tip, I may even fish two rods on bobbins.
There are load of smaller roach here and more than just a handful of bream so it will be difficult to filter out the bigger roach but with some of all your baiting tips, Ill stand a better chance now I think

Cheers ALan

[mark mclennan]

forget mini boilies, more big roach are being caught on 15mm baits these days than any other. you dont want a 10 oz roach taking the bait when a 2lb'r could be close by which would only get spooked. try them around dawn and dusk or through the night if you can and whittle them down to around 13mm can help especially if the inside is softer. dont feed too much cos it will only attract the bream and carp, ground bait feeder with crushed boilie one cast per fish is about right. if you must feed more then cast your baits to the edge of the baited area or just beyond. good luck!