Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am at my happiest when fishing for 'redfins' along one of our wonderful rivers during the winter months. I am lucky enough to have great rivers like the Dorset Stour, the Hampshire Avon, the river Frome and the River Nadder all on my doorstep. All of these rivers are noted as some of the best in England for roach fishing and all regularly produce specimen roach.
The roach is still one of our best loved coarse species, although they do not grow particularly large. The roach record stands at 4lb 4oz,.caught from an Ulster lake by Keith Berry in 2006. It beat by an ounce the 1990 record, taken by Ray Clarke from the Dorset Stour, which I believe is still officially the largest roach caught from a river in the UK.
The roach is noticeable by its slim silver body, greenish blue back and distinctive red fins, they are one of the UK's most abundant and popular species and a familiar sight to most fishermen. Roach thrive in a wide range of environments, from canals and ponds, to huge reservoirs, and of course the nations many rivers, This makes them readily available to fishermen and a firm favourite with most anglers..
You can catch roach on a number of baits, the best of which are probably maggots, worms and my favourite bread. Roach absolutely love bread! It doesn't matter if its punch, paste, crust or flake as long as it is presented well. Specimen roach (over 2lb) can take up to 15 years to grow to that size and become very wary and a formidable target for any angler. To catch them you must present your bait just right or no matter which bait you use you will only ever tempt the smaller fish in a shoal.
Without doubt my favourite method for fishing for roach on the river is by 'trotting'. This is a method of float fishing where the angler uses a stickfloat and lets it run through the swim, occasionally holding it back so that the bait rises and falls giving it a very natural appearance.
There are two main ways of shotting a stickfloat such as in the image above from Lets-go-fishing.org which is the 'Shirt Button' style, named because the weights are spread out like shirt buttons. This is a good way of presenting a small bait such as maggots, but on the rivers that I fish and for fishing with bread flake, which is my normal bait for big roach, I prefer to baulk shot my weight like in the image below from Fishingmagic.com which shows how you bulk the majority of the weight together, about 18 inches above the hook, although I rarely use the dropper shot, preferring the natural weight of the bread to act as the dropper.
'Trotting' is a great way to fish for roach and a very enjoyable way to pass a day, but, if you are going to target specimen roach then you may be better to use a simple feeder rig. Simply use an open or cage feeder filled with mashed bread, and for bait a lump of flake on a size 12 hook to 3lb line. This is used in conjunction with a light feeder rod or a Avon type ledger rod. You can simply use a running feeder setup, although my favourite is the paternoster feeder rig like the one in this image Nisafeeders.co.uk which works equally as well on lakes and rivers and is very effective for specimen roach.
Feeder fishing is probably the method that catches the most specimen roach and is the specimen hunters first choice. If indeed you are planning to target the bigger roach, it is advisable to do a bit of homework. Although roach are in most rivers and lakes they do not always grow to specimen size. Roach have many predators and need a good environment if they are to reach their maximum size. I am lucky in that I live in an area that is full of fantastic rivers that hold roach, but still not every stretch will hold 'big' roach and I only target them in areas where they are known to exist to specimen size.
It is a well known fact that roach feed best in low light conditions so it is best to go after them on a cloudy day or toward the 'Golden Hour' that is the hour leading up to dusk. It is debatable if it is worth fishing for roach at night, I personally only fish for an hour into darkness, as I have found that it has rarely produced results to fish on after that time. Another good tip that i agree with is to look out for a fair south westerly wind, I don't know why it is but this during the winter can certainly put specimen roach into a feeding frenzy.
Roach may not grow to a huge weight, but for most anglers the satisfaction of catching a beautiful specimen on a cold winters day is equal to any other feat in fishing. Now is the time to go in pursuit of a big 'redfin' give it a go on a water near you.
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