Boats, dogs and swimmers couldn't scare my PB roach - Matt Fernandez
“Fishing clear, low and weedy summer rivers is difficult enough at times, but add swimmers and boaters – plus their dogs – into the mix, and it can get all a bit chaotic.
You’d think that no fish in its right mind would hang around all this commotion, but on a recent trip to my local river I learned just how incredibly tolerant they can be.
“The stretch is a public water close to my home in Southampton that contains some huge roach.
I’d popped down at the start of the season and found a group of good fish, some looking close to 3lb.
I had just got them feeding when a load of kids jumped into the river. I was sure this would kill the swim, so I packed up and went on my way.
Returning a few days later, though, I realised that this may have been a mistake.
“The roach live in small clear areas amid the heavy weed, so in preparation for my session I prebaited a few of these with hemp and maggots.
Arriving the next day, I noticed a group of good roach feeding well over one of the spots… but then it all started to kick off!
“Dogs began jumping in, and swimmers were ploughing right through the swim, so I decided to pack up again. But then I noticed something beneath the surface… big roach! Incredibly, they were still in situ after all that commotion!
“I ran the float back over the spot and straight away it darted under. My rod hooped over under the strain of what was clearly a decent fish, but at that moment a group of kids came cruising past in a dinghy!
“I shouted for them to watch out, as I carried on playing the fish, at which point a big pike grabbed the roach!
By some miracle it soon let go, but then, just as the fish came within reach, I saw that my net was drifting downstream!
I wasn’t going to give up after all that, so I jumped in and grabbed it before finally slipping it under the fish. It weighed 2lb 12oz and is a new PB.
“I learned a lot from the catch, namely not to be too put off by disturbances on rivers where the fish are used to seeing them.
It doesn’t impact the fish as much as we might think. One thing for sure – I won’t be throwing in the towel next time a swimmer crashes through my peg!”
Matt Fernandez and his new PB roach, caught amongst many bankside disturbances!
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.
A bolt rig with a Krill boilie
“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!”
Dream roach session with five fish for 14lb 11oz
A ROACH of 3lb is considered by many to be the Holy Grail of angling, but Paul Scowen managed to land two of them as part of a sensational haul totalling 14lb 11oz.
Between 2pm and 6pm during his stay at a southern syndicate lake, the 48-year-old from Oxfordshire slipped his net under specimens of 2lb 5oz, 2lb 11oz, 3lb, 3lb 2oz and 3lb 9oz. Paul fished maggots and groundbait to a deep, clear spot at 55 yards and admits that at one stage he couldn’t keep the rod in the water.
“Before I could even set up my second rod I’d already caught two roach, and within an hour I’d caught four,” he told us.
“The biggest roach came around 6pm and I thought it could’ve been a perch by the way it was fighting. I was blown away by how quickly these big fish kept coming.”
Paul Scowen with a once in a lifetime haul of big roach
"There were so many roach you could have used them as a bridge to cross the river" - Keith Arthur
When Pete Burrell amassed 259lb-plus of roach during a match on the famous Sillees River, the weight beggared belief. In a five-hour match on this small river, part of the enormous Erne system, Pete caught 942 roach – yes, he counted them – at one stage catching 12 fish a minute!
Pete fished line-to-hand in a performance that took not only great strength and concentration but also wonderful technique. Every fish has to be caught and unhooked efficiently, rebaiting only when essential as even a couple of dead skins would be seized by ravenous redfins.
The Sillees is one of the waters flowing into the Erne that attracts spawning aggregations of roach and back in those days there were a lot of them! I was taken there one evening by the late Pete Ottewill, who knew as much about fishing the border counties between Ireland and Northern Ireland as anyone.
He took me to meet Oliver, a farmer, who explained that when the main run of roach swam to the stone weir by his farm, their numbers were sufficient to raise the water level enough to swim over the weir!
I fished for an hour that evening and had 42lb of roach. Bizarrely, the swim Burrell famously fished was occupied by a pike angler, livebaiting with a roach! Sadly, on the match the following day, three years after the Burrell catch, I drew too far downstream, away from the fish. I had 50lb in my net after 90 minutes before the bites dried up as the shoal swam through and I weighed in 72lb and won the section.
How ironic then that the Sillees was cursed by the medieval St Faber, making it “poor for fishing, good for drowning”. If Pete had fallen in on the saint’s day, I’m pretty sure he could have walked out on the backs of the roach.
Pete Burrell 259lb roach catch
“Their numbers were sufficient to raise the water level enough to swim over the weir!”
For more fishing history, pick up Angling Times every Tuesday and turn to Arthur’s Archive…
Roach just 4oz off the record caught by mistake...
A roach weighing 2lb is the stuff of dreams for every angler, while a 3lb fish seems effectively beyond our reach – except, perhaps, in our wildest fantasies.
But a 4lb roach? Well, that’s nothing short of ridiculous! But Norfolk-based specimen hunter Phil Spinks recently discovered that these incredibly rare fish do exist, when he slipped the net under a specimen weighing exactly 4lb on a recent trip to Homersfield Lake in Suffolk – a venue made famous by the late angling legend John Wilson.
The fish is just 4oz shy of Keith Berry’s 4lb 4oz British record, caught in Northern Ireland back in 2006.
“I feel privileged to have seen such an enormous roach on the bank,” Phil tells Angling Times,
“and to be honest it was a very lucky capture.
“In early spring I use small, high-attract 10mm pop-ups for carp, and it was one of these that caught this colossal roach.
“It’s not unusual to pick up good-sized roach by accident on these tactics, and usually I put them straight back without weighing or photographing them, but this fish was clearly very big.”
The reason Phil usually puts these big roach back is that they’re not caught by design, and so to a hardened specimen hunter like Phil they don’t strictly count. That’s why he was initially reluctant to publicise the specimen.
“I’ve got mixed feelings about the merit of the capture,” he admits.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to land more than forty 3lb roach by design, so I know just how rare a four-pounder is, even if it was caught on a carp rod!”
Huge Linear roach landed before lockdown
OXFORDSHIRE’S Linear Fisheries proved its potential as a superb roach venue, when Phil Smith slipped his net under a 3lb 9oz cracker, prior to the UK lockdown.
To help draw the roach into his swim, the Coventry-based angler reckoned flavouring his maggot hookbaits would do the trick and fished them at distance via a Drennan feeder bomb.
“I’m so chuffed with this roach as it’s my second largest behind my PB of 3lb 13oz 8dr.” He says.
“Linear is also the fourth water where I’ve managed to exceed the magical 3lb mark for roach!”
Brace of 2lb redfins best yet - Gavin Barrett
“My roach fishing on the Hampshire Avon has been phenomenal this winter but my latest session has probably been the best yet.
I fed an area of slack water on my nearside bank then trotted either a single maggot or flake over the top.
In hardly any time at all I was slipping specimen roach into my keepnet – including fish of 1lb 12oz, 1lb 14oz and 1lb 15oz alongside a fine brace of two pounders.
The Avon has been running crystal clear so you get to see your prize long before it’s in the landing net. They were heart-stopping moments.”
Huge roach falls in low pressure spell
Roach don’t get much bigger than this colossal specimen reported to us by James Hunt this week.
Commenting on what he described as ‘the fish of a lifetime’, James said:
“I’ve only been specimen fishing for a couple of years after getting into it through a good friend, and I’ve slowly been working on upping my PBs for various species.
One of the targets I set myself for the winter was to catch a big roach.
I’d previously caught them to around 2lb but that was back when I was almost exclusively fly fishing, but the syndicate on the reservoir I was fishing allowed members to coarse fish through the winter.
After doing a few sessions on local pits rumoured to contain big roach with not much success, I decided to take a trip to a southern gravel pit with form of producing some massive fish.
I kept a keen eye on weather conditions and noticed a fairly mild low-pressure system coming, so took the day off work with a friend and headed south.
Well what a decision that turned out to be, after a quiet morning fishing closer in, I decided to cast the feeders a bit further out where I’d actually seen a cormorant come up with a roach.
The conditions got better and better and as the light levels started to drop, and around 3pm, I had a take on my right-hand rod and nervously played what felt like a good roach.
Safely played, netted and weighed at 2lb 5oz – target achieved!
I sat back absolutely made up but the best was yet to come.
Probably 45-50 minutes later I received another take and bent into a fish that felt heavy, although it wasn’t until it popped up near the net that I really started shaking.
It was a lot bigger than the first fish and my mate did the honours with the net.
I couldn’t believe the size of it and was absolutely speechless!
We got the weighing gear ready and put it on the scales and at 3lb 4oz this fish was beyond my wildest dreams.
A true fish of a lifetime that completely blew me away.
Both fish fell to maggot feeder tactics fished helicopter style, 8lb mainline, short fluorocarbon hook links, size 16 Drennan wide gapes and red maggot hookbaits.”
Avon roach beyond anglers wildest dreams!
It has been a very special season for anglers fishing the historic Hampshire Avon for the country’s favourite species, the roach.
This week, like so many before it, has seen the capture of some fantastic river redfins. Here are the best reported to us…
Charlie Dawkins 2lb 1oz and 2lb 6oz roach
“I’d set myself the target of catching big roach and I knew there were specimens to be had in my local stretch of the Hampshire Avon.
I trotted double red maggot and with probably around 30 minutes of light left my float finally sunk. After some encouraging it was soon in the net – a 2lb 6oz beauty.
On the next cast I hooked into another fish of 2lb 1oz! My knees were trembling – my first brace of 2lb-plus roach felt amazing!
Fred Harris 2lb 2oz roach
“I was already on a high after landing a 2lb 5oz roach, but the session that followed a week later was beyond my wildest dreams. Targeting the Hampshire Avon again, I waded into my swim and sprayed maggots to a far bank slack.
It was exciting to see the occasional ‘dark shape’ drift out from the vegetation to pick off the odd maggot and in six trots I hooked six stunning roach all over 1lb, but the best came just before dark.
The float sunk and I made contact with a much heavier fish that stayed deep. I eventually banked a 2lb 2oz roach that capped off a great day.”
"My mind was blown by the quality of these roach" - Simon Daley
“It’s not every week you say you’ve enjoyed the catch of a lifetime but it finally happened to me during my latest visit to the Hampshire Avon.
“Trotting flake over a bed of liquidised bread and hemp, it wasn’t long before I had my first roach of just over a pound.
“The next cast produced a 2lb 12oz 8dr cracker and throughout the rest of the day the big roach just kept on coming.
“I ended with a new PB of 2lb 14oz alongside others of 2lb 10oz, 2lb 8oz, 2lb 6oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 3oz, 2lb 1oz and two at 1lb 15oz…It was a catch I could only dream about!”
Only one cast needed for 2lb 13oz roach
DAI Gribble wished he’d packed away just 15 minutes into his 48-hour session after his first cast produced the only fish of the trip – a magnificent 2lb 13oz roach!
The two-time Drennan Cup champion pinned his hopes on Oxfordshire’s Linch Hill complex for a big redfin and said he hadn’t cast out his third rig before one of his other rods signalled a twitchy bite.
Dai’s specimen devoured the head of a medium-sized dendrobaena worm nicked on to a size 18 hook.
This was fished in conjunction with a helicopter rig and a groundbait feeder crammed with chopped worm and Sonubaits Black Roach groundbait.
2lb roach during lunch hour
Imagine catching the fish of a lifetime during your lunch break…
Well that’s exactly what Robert Rees did recently when he caught this 2lb 10oz roach from the River Itchen.
The Hampshire River Keeper told Angling Times:
“With the water cloudy I decided to have a go for the roach I had seen on our stretch in the summer months.
“It was my second trot through on bread, and my first bite. Then I went back to work!”
Rob used a Drennan Loafer float, 4lb Supplex mainline and a size 12 Super Specialist Match hook to tackle the river redfins.
Matchman banks roach of a lifetime
MATCH angler Clive Samuell couldn’t stop swearing when he first set eyes on the roach he’d spent his whole life trying to catch.
On the scales the 48-year-old’s new personal best registered 3lb 4oz and was banked when he and a friend decided to have a break from match angling to fish for roach on a southern day ticket gravel pit.
Clive said:
“I think it’s every coarse angler’s dream to catch a 3lb redfin and I just can’t believe It’s finally happened to me.
“Over the years I’ve managed to catch some respectable roach but never in a million years did I think I’d catch a ‘three’ during this trip.”
Knowing that the roach grow very big on carp angler’s baits in gravel pits, Clive used a large cage feeder to deposit multiple pay-loads of fishmeal groundbait, halibut pellets and dead maggots to a spot at 50m.
The second part of his approach involved casting a small Method feeder over the top, complete with a size 16 hook and four dead red maggots squeezed into a pellet band.
“I’d caught a couple of bream and roach to just over a pound so I knew my plan was working,” Clive added.
“All of a sudden the tip pulled confidently round and I struck into a powerful, headshaking fish – which is normally iconic of a big roach.
“When it came up to the surface I think I really did say every expletive under the sun!
“I’m moving to France in a few weeks so this was the best parting gift I could’ve ever asked for.”
Clive’s effort wasn’t the only giant redfin caught recently as Simon Daley revealed with a trio of Hampshire Avon specimens weighing 2lb 4oz apiece.
The big-fish hunter spent the day trotting breadflake into an area of slack water and struck into multiple roach – including back-up fish of 1lb 13oz and 1lb 14oz.
He said:
“It was probably the best day’s roach fishing I’ve ever had – my mind was completely blown by the quality of the fish I caught.”
The river where 30lb of roach is easy!
For most of us a 30lb bag of river roach would be the catch of a lifetime, but on a certain eastern river, local anglers won’t even raise their eyebrows at a catch of this magnitude.
The River Welland running through Spalding is the venue in question, and in recent matches bags over 50lb have been required to claim the top spot, with 40lb nets coming nowhere.
Essex-based Pemb Wrighting had the biggest weight over the last few weeks with a staggering 53lb 8z of quality roach on his very first visit to the venue.
“It was an unbelievable match,” Pemb said
“one of a like I’ve not been part of before and doubt I will again.
“I didn’t know much about the venue so just fished down the middle all day catching quality roach on bread.
“You have to spare a thought for the chaps who caught 40lb and didn’t even make the frame!”
The following weekend, Frenzee-backed Tom Edwards also got amongst the fish and had ‘one of the best day’s fishing of his life’, after catching 50lb 11oz of roach with bonus skimmers.
“Its absolutely black with fish at the moment!
“I caught everything on bread and simply alternated between fishing four metres to hand and at nine metres to keep fish coming.”
Approximately 2,255lb of roach were caught across these two matches, and there are several reasons for this staggering form, as England legend and venue regular Joe Roberts explained:
“I’ve fished at Spalding for years and I’ve never seen it as good as it is now.
“The most obvious reason for the big catches is the amount of colour in the river after the weeks of heavy rain before Christmas.
“Secondly, the fish at Spalding spend summer in the main River Welland that is choked with weed.
“I’ve been told that this makes it difficult for cormorants to hunt, so the fish are thriving.”
Joe also told us that due to the mild weather and coloured water the fish are right the way through the stretch, and anglers are catching 50lb from areas that are rarely fished.
He joked:
“Before Christmas we were all praying for the rain to stop, but now I want it to come back! The fishing has been that good.”
Trio of 2lb-plus roach caught in high water
A swollen Bristol Avon didn’t deter roach-fanatic Mark Everard, who banked a trio of 2lb roach in part of a nine fish haul.
The biggest went 2lb 4oz, and the fish came as the light began to fade.
“The river was up and swirling,” Mark explained,
“but I found a nice slack on the near bank in which, though surprisingly shallow, a shoal of big roach had found refuge.”
“Trotting tactics with bread flake tempted the fish and inching my bolo float through the swim over occasional balls of liquidised bread feed brought regular bites.”
Long journey to hit roach jackpot
CONDITIONS are ideal for a giant Stillwater roach according to James Gardner, who slipped his net under this 2lb 8oz example during his latest outing.
The East-Sussex-based rod made the long journey from his home to a Norfolk Stillwater which he knew held a substantial head of big roach and hit the jackpot when he received a take half-way through the session.
It fell to a standard helicopter rig, with 3lb line and two maggots nicked onto a size 16 hook.
James told Angling Times:
“I’m well pleased with the catch but my wife less-so, as when I showed her a picture of it, she told me it looked like a sprat!”
Famous Oxfordshire complex produces dream roach haul
PHIL Smith enjoyed a roach-fishing trip so much he drove the 67-mile distance the very next day and was rewarded with this immaculate 2lb 12oz specimen.
The specimen ace from Coventry pinned his hopes on Oxfordshire’s Linear Fisheries for a monster redfin and managed to slip his net under fish of 2lb 2oz and 2lb 10oz on the Thursday – but by the evening he was itching to get back and have another go…
“I just felt I had to make the long trip back again on the Friday and I’m glad I did, as I was fortunate enough to catch the 2lb 12oz specimen.
“I also dropped another big fish early on in the day!”
All three of Phil’s roach fell to maggot hookbaits fished helicopter style in conjunction with 30g Drennan feeder bombs.
More 2lb-plus roach landed in great spell for UK rivers
A 2lb river roach is considered the fish of a lifetime by many anglers so you can image how delighted these three were when they ticked-off the achievement during recent sessions.
Here are the stories behind each catch…
Rob Taylor 2lb 15oz roach
DEVON-based angler Rob Taylor said ‘he didn’t want the fight to end’ when he struck into this superb 2lb 15oz roach.
The 61-year-old and his mate Ed trotted red maggots on a southern-chalk stream for a big fish and weren’t left disappointed when Rob’s rod arched over half-way through the session.
He said: “I’d already caught small roach and dace when I hooked into what I thought was a chub, but the classic headshakes soon revealed it was a big roach!
“When Ed saw it in the net he was more excited than I was!”
It was a new personal best for Rob who added a 2lb 4oz redfin moments later.
Steve Martin 2lb 10oz roach
MATCH ace Steve Martin only caught three fish during his latest contest but didn’t complain when one of them turned out to be this fin-perfect 2lb 10oz roach!
Fishing a Ringwood & DAA Chub Match on the Dorset Stour at Parley, Bournemouth, Steve hooked into his prize on a 4AAA waggler setup fished into seven feet of water close to a weed bed.
It devoured double red maggots presented on a size 16 Drennan Wide Gape Match hook.
Mark Everard 2lb 1oz roach
MARK Everard proved that you can still catch big fish in horrible conditions when he slipped his net under a 2lb 1oz redfin.
Targeting the Britford Fishery on the coloured and rapidly rising Hampshire Avon, the university professor trotted breadflake into near-bank slacks in hope of a bite.
He said: “I had the big roach within five minutes of starting, followed by four more roach up to about 1lb, three dace and a surprise 1lb 4oz perch on the trotted bread!”
