Our greatest-ever roach session - Lewis Bastin

“By thinking outside the box and not following the crowds, my mate Graeme Griffiths and I have just enjoyed our greatest-ever roach session.
“We’re both members of the Highbridge Fisheries syndicate in Norfolk and although it’s primarily a carp water, over the last few years it’s gained a reputation for producing big roach.
“During our penultimate session, we fished maggot feeders but although we caught plenty of fish to a best of 2lb 1oz, most of them were far smaller and it was hard work locating the bigger fish within the shoal.
“The trip ended with us scratching our heads, trying to figure out what we could do differently. We agreed that big boilies, bolt rigs and minimal feeding might deter the smaller fish.
“To put the new approach to the test we headed to Highbridge on a Friday evening for a 48-hour session and began scouting for swims.
“A few roach anglers were already fishing, and after a quick chat we discovered they were catching well on maggot feeders. Graeme and I were a little bit apprehensive at hearing this… considering we’d left the maggots at home!
“We settled into our swims and cast leads around, trying to find fish-holding features. Redbridge is an old irrigation reservoir with depths of 30ft, but just a few rodlengths out I found a 6ft-deep ledge which seemed the perfect feeding spot. Over this I used a 2oz bolt rig, with a 16mm Krill boilie hair-rigged to a size 10 hook. The only loosefeed was a small PVA bag of 8mm pellets nicked on the hook.

“Our traps were set and we watched the water as the evening drew to a close, hoping our new approach would pay off. We soon learned that it was going to be a waiting game, as the Friday night passed biteless, although we could see other anglers were catching well on maggots.
“On Saturday morning the weather had turned much colder and more overcast, but we were happy because these conditions are usually great for roach. Sure enough, it was like a switch being turned on, and we enjoyed multiple hits during the evening and into the following morning.
“At first we thought we were hooking carp because each fish pulled the bobbin up to the alarm and peeled line off the reel, but on the strike we could tell by the lunging that they were good roach. The average stamp was incredible and we ended the trip sharing 10 fish over the 2lb barrier – with my best two at 2lb 9oz and
2lb 7oz, and Graeme’s going 2lb 6oz and 2lb 9oz.

Lewis Bastin with a fine brace of roach 2lb 9oz (top) and 2lb 7oz

“We’d struck gold and ended up catching the biggest roach taken on the lake all weekend. Although the boilies and pellets look like they’re too big for roach to eat, they certainly worked a treat for us!”