River Fishing Tips | How to stop bumping off roach on the float - Hadrian Whittle

The most common cause of bumping fish on a running line is allowing a bow to form between the rod-tip and the float, so when you strike, you’re not direct enough to the float and the fish aren’t hooked properly. 

Longer rods and silicone line spray on your reel can help solve this.

Another issue could be hook size. Try going up one size, a 16 for double maggot and an 18 for single, for example.

Soft, tip-actioned rods are vital for roach.

Learn the perfect roach stick float rig by clicking here.

Specimen Fishing Tips | The best big roach rig - Ryan Hayden

The most popular and effective type of bolt rig for roach has to be a helicopter set-up. 

It is 99 per cent tangle-free and when used in conjunction with short 2ins or 3ins hooklink, it is a very effective self-hooking rig. 

The helicopter rig - 60g blockend feeder and a short 2-inch hooklink

I like to use a relatively heavy bobbin to ensure that the line between the rod tip and the feeder is kept fairly taut to increase the self-hooking properties of the rig even further. 

Use a heavy bobbin to increase the self-hooking properties of the rig

When fishing like this for big roach, bites will often be proper drop-backs (a fish picking the bait up and swimming towards you), or line will be taken. Either way, ensure that the freespool mechanism on the reel is set loose enough not to pull the hook on the take.

I use 1.25lb test curve Avon-style rods, with small freespool reels loaded with 8lb mainline. Feeders are 40g-60g blockends, fished alongside short 2in-long hooklinks and size 18 hooks.

A 3lb 10oz roach caught on this devastating set-up

River Fishing Tips | 5 tips to catch more roach on hemp

The prime time to catch big river roach on hemp is now! Here are five tips to help you get the most from the seed…

Regulate your feeding

No two days are ever the same when it comes to feeding hemp. A little and often loosefeed approach works on some rivers, while others respond to feeding larger amounts with a pole cup and then fishing over it. The standard approach, though, is to loosefeed with a catapult, around 20 or 30 grains of hemp each time and, using a slow-falling rig, catch fish as the bait settles. If the roach show signs of coming up in the water to get to the loosefeed, break out the pole cup and get them back on the bottom with
a good helping of hemp fed in one go.

Every day is different when it comes to feeding with hemp. Watch how the fish behave.

Stop nuisance ‘shot bites’

A normal pole rig for fishing hemp consists of a light float and small shot strung evenly down the line to give the hookbait a slow fall. Sometimes, though, fish grab those shot, mistaking them for grains of hemp. So switch to cylindrical styl weights instead. The slow fall of the bait is still guaranteed but there’s no longer a danger of the fish grabbing them.

Look out for fish taking the shot instead

Hook it right

MANY anglers have difficulty in getting hemp to stay on the hook. But it’s easy when you know how. There are two ways to hook hemp, but first ensure the grain has a full split in its side but isn’t falling apart. The quickest way is to push the bend of the hook into the split so the sides of the grain grip the hook point and shank. You’ll get a more secure hookhold by punching a hole in the flat end of the grain with a baiting needle and threading the hook point, bend and shank through until the seed hangs off the bend. You can catch several fish on the same grain before it will need replacing.

There’s no need to struggle hooking hemp

Switch hookbaits

Hemp isn’t the only option you have to put on the hook. When the roach are present in numbers, bigger fish can be picked off using tares, and on some rivers even elderberries will catch their share! Tares are a hard particle used as pigeon feed, but when cooked they turn soft, are easy to hook, and have the knack of catching the bigger roach in a shoal. Don’t spend too long fishing them without bites, though, as you’ll either catch quickly on them or not at all. Elderberries are an old-fashioned bait rarely used today, but especially on rivers where elderberry bushes line the banks, the berries are eaten by roach and slipping one on the hook might just mean lift-off for the peg!

There are some great alternative baits to fish alongside hemp feed

Use small floats for a slow fall

To create that slow fall of the bait with the small strung-out shotting pattern, the pole float you use needs to be on the light side. You’re not after stability from the rig when fishing hemp, so even in 10ft of water, a 0.5g slim-bodied float will be ample and, in shallower swims, you can go even lighter.

You want the bait to fall slowly through the water with hemp, so use as light a float as you can get away with

Specimen Fishing Tips | The best Stillwater roach rig - Phil Spinks

Without doubt the helicopter bolt rig is the best stillwater roach set-up.

The helicopter bolt rig is deadly for big roach

The question really is, what bait do you want fish with it – maggots or mini boilies?

Maggots rule in the depths of winter when the fish are far less active, but small roach become almost suicidal on these natural baits once we get to summer.

Mini boilies will select the bigger roach

Switching over to mini boiles and swapping the maggot feeder to a groundbait feeder will be much more selective for the bigger roach.

Phil Spinks knows a bit about catching big roach from stillwaters