Rivers in red-hot form for big roach

With a touch of extra water and colour, the country’s rivers are now in superb form for Britain’s best loved species – roach. Judging from this week’s catch reports, NOW is the time to go and bag a redfin pb.

Tomasz Plowiec – 2lb 12oz

This superb fish measured 42cm and was a new pb for Tomasz Plowiec.

The 37-year-old from Redhill was fishing a stretch of the Thames when big roach started feeding over his daphnia, maggot and meat groundbait mix.

He caught the two-pounder on maggot feeder with a size 12 Pallatrax Gripz wide gape hook.

Darren Clarke – 2lb 2oz

After catching specimen roach while barbel fishing on the River Trent, Darren Clarke decided to scale down his tactics to specifically target them.

This worked a treat when, during a session on the tidal river, he took this cracking 2lb 2oz redfin.

He used either 12mm Dynamite Baits boilies or Dynamite 8mm pellets on the hook with a PVA bag of matching freebies attached, and recast every 30 minutes.

Tommy Goodman – 2lb 6oz

Most anglers wait a lifetime to catch a 2lb-plus roach but Tommy Goodman, at just seven years of age has already cracked that target with this beautiful 2lb 6oz specimen.

Fishing the River Medway in Kent, Tommy caught the immaculate fish on legered sweetcorn fished over a bed of micro pellets.

This wasn’t the only big fish Tommy caught either, because a switch to worms and maggots brought him a bonus perch of 2lb-plus.