River fishing tips | Bag up on roach with these great tactics
We’re just over 10 weeks into the 2019/20 season and on many of our rivers, you would be forgiven for thinking that there weren’t any roach in many of the stretches.
All that has changed, though, in the past week or two.
Thankfully they’re now feeding on our baits again! Rivers like the Trent are on fire at present so this week we’re looking at how to go about getting the best possible weight of roach from the various swims that you are likely to encounter from now until the autumn is well into its stride.
Favourite Baits
Roach love hemp, so there’s always a can or two of Bait Tech’s Super Seed in my bait bag along with half-a-pint to a pint of tares that I cook myself. If you struggle to do this, try my way.
I measure out a pint of dry tares into each of two large glass casserole dishes. I then fill the dishes to within an inch of the top with warm tap water. Don’t put more in, as they will swell a lot over the next 24 hours. Once they are soaked, add a teaspoon of bicarb and the same of sugar to each bowl and give the tares a stir.
Next, put them in the oven on 180°C for about 40 minutes. From this point, I spoon out a few tares every five minutes or so and do a ‘squash test’. You want a seed that is firm but which compresses rather than splits. Over the next 15 minutes, you will find that the tares are perfect. Now’s the time to carefully take them out of the oven.
Drain the water off, sprinkle two teaspoons of sugar over them and cover with kitchen roll. I put them in my bait fridge to cool down, then bag them up in half-pints and freeze. I just take a bag or two to each session and let them thaw out in the car on the way. Casters, maggots, pinkies and, on some rivers, breadpunch complete the bait line-up...
Loosefeeding
The best way to tempt roach has always been on a ‘little and often’ basis. Keep small amounts of feed going in all the while and you will soon get them interested if they in front of you. Hempseed is a key feed at this time of the year so always use it, regardless of what you are putting on the hook.
Waggler Rigs
My favourite float patterns for this time of the year are Thin Insert and Thick Insert wagglers. These are shotted with most of the weight either side of the float and a No8 shot down the line for every 2ft of depth. An 8ft-deep swim would only require four No8 shot with the bottom one on top of the 30cm hooklength.
Pellet surprise
Most people wouldn’t expect to see this picture in a feature about roach fishing, but over the past few season anglers on many rivers have been catching some very big roach on banded or lassoed 4mm and 6mm halibut pellets.
Use 3mm and 4mm feed in a small feeder and a long tail and your next bite could be from a barbel… or a 2lb-plus roach!
Pole Rigs
DH23 (up to 2g) and DH17 (up to 3g) patterns cover virtually all my roach fishing on the pole at this time of year. The smaller sizes of both up to 1g are shotted with strung-out No8 shot. For the 1.5g size and upwards I use an olivette and three No9 droppers.
Hooks & Hooklengths
Pro Rig hooklengths of 0.08mm, 0.10mm and 0.12mm, depending on how well the fish are feeding. These are tied to fine wire hooks from size 20 to size 16.
Groundbait
On some venues it can pay to ball in several big balls of groundbait at the start and then loosefeed over the top.
My favourite mix for this is a bag of Bait Tech Pro Natural Original and a small amount of molehill soil. Into the mix I add casters, hemp and a few pinkies.
Top & Bottom rigs
There are so many variable float choices for roach fishing. For smooth-flowing water, a stick float with strung-out shots takes some beating, and I use the No3 Heavy Base model in sizes from 3No4 to 8No4. These are shotted with strung-out No8 and No9 shot in the smaller sizes and No6 shot for the three biggest floats in the range.
It’s always worth considering a bulk rig if you’ve got some depth, and for 8ft of water I’d use 2g or 3g No4 or No5 Bolo floats.
These are shotted with an olivette and one or two No8 droppers.
Location
Roach are likely to turn up just about anywhere, but for big weights at this time of year I’ve found the best depths to fish at are between 4ft and 8ft, running over fine gravel with a decent pace to the river.
Deep swims that hardly move are best avoided until the winter months, when there is more water in our rivers.
Reel lines & rig lines
The best way to tempt a shoal of roach into taking your hookbait is to fish fine. I use 3lb (0.14mm) and 4lb (0.16mm) Pro Match reel lines, and for pole rigs I use 0.12mm or 0.14mm Pro Rig.