Common Roach - Fishing

Fishing

Fishing for roach in Britain is relatively easy because the species is found in most rivers, lakes and ponds throughout the country. Larger specimens tend to be elusive, but smaller individuals are easy to catch on relatively light line and with a bait such as maggot or worm. They also take particle baits such as sweetcorn and can be caught on a variety of baits. The only limit is the size of the bait, because the mouth of the roach is relatively small and the pharyngeal teeth are not particularly strong. A popular bait particularly in France and Belgium is germinated, cooked hemp seed.

Essential for good catches is regular feeding to keep the shoal active and feeding around the bait. Mostly fixed rods and floats are used for a controlled presentation of the bait, and for larger distances and specimens, match rods and swim feeders are used. The line doesn't need to be thicker than 0.12 mm and the hook not more than a size 12. Thinner lines and smaller hooks produce more fish especially when the roach are of small size. The best catches with fixed float fishing are often made when the bait is presented just a few centimeters above the bottom.

Boilies and luncheon meat are generally avoided by roach because they are too large for roaches to swallow. Because it is a schooling species, it is not unusual for an individual to be caught many times during a single session. Sometimes a larger specimen could be waiting outside the shoal. Roach are infamous for their ability to throw the hook during retrieval, which perpetuates the idea that larger roach are notoriously difficult to bank. The maximum recorded weight for the species in Britain is 4 pounds (1.8 kg). Any fish over a pound is regarded as a specimen individual.

It is possible to make large catches in harbours where large shoals concentrate in the winter season. Flyfishing in such places with sinking artificial flies with a gold colored bead for a head on long leaders can produce good catches.