'Roach-The Gentle Giants' by John Bailey was first published by The Crowood press in 1987 and some twenty years later it is still 'The' book for any Roach enthusiast.
The book covers many of the techniques used by today's Roach specialists and although it is true that Fishing tackle has moved on tremendously in the years since the book was written the methods it describes are sound and proven and when encompassed with modern tackle can only improve your results.
John Bailey is without doubt one of the countries best Anglers and a well known Angling author. John is now commonly seen on our TV screens presenting his many fascinating Fishing programmes such as the 'On The fly' series. 'Roach-The Gentle Giants' was Johns first really successful book and is on the topic for which he probably knows best. John Bailey has been famed as a true Roach specialist since the early seventies when he caught a huge amount of gigantic Roach from the once legendary River Wensum. The Wensum was without doubt the best river in England for Specimen Roach from the late sixties to the mid-eighties and it helped launch both John Bailey and John Wilson's angling careers as they featured week in, week out in the national angling press with Staggering catches of specimen Roach from that River.
Bailey wrote this book just as that golden age of Roach angling was coming to an end and he talks about the decline of Roach fishing on the Wensum and across England and tries to surmise what caused it. It is still fair to say that even to date there has not been a river that could even come close to producing the same number of specimen Roach as the Wensum in the seventies.
'Roach-The Gentle Giants' gives an overview of the countries top Roach venues as it looks chapter by chapter at the different areas of the country and encompasses every major Roach venue. Most of the chapters are written by Bailey himself but there are also entries from some of the leading Roach specialists of the time, many of which are now high profile angling specialists such as John Wilson, Tony Miles and Martin James as well as past legends like Archie Braddock, Owen Wentworth and John Cadd. Although there have been huge advancements in fishing tackle, the Roach is one fish that it has little effect on. Specimen Roach are without doubt one of the hardest coarse fish to target and an understanding of the fish and its habits is equally, if not more important than your approach. Bailey explains many of the best techniques from ledgering bread flake to simple trotting patterns that put with a good knowledge of the fishes behaviour will certainly help you catch more Specimen Roach.
The book features many shots of John holding those prized specimens from the seventies including fish over 3lbs! In the book there are also many quality line drawings which show and explain the different rigs.
'Roach-The Gentle Giants' may now be more than twenty years old but the methods it describes are timeless and I feel that it is still the best book available for anyone who is serious about pursuing Specimen Roach. 9/10
If you would like to order a copy of 'Roach-The Gentle Giants' simply click this link to order now
No comments:
Post a Comment