Monday Top 5 - Specimen Roach Tips

This entry was posted on 24th September, 2018

With autumn well on its way, if not here already, we look at an awesome target for a winter campaign; a specimen roach over the magical 2lb mark. Anyone hoping to land a specimen redfin here’s a few choice tips to help you in your quest:

Choice Of Water It’s a no brainer; you can't catch them if they aren’t in there. Head to venues which have either had previous captures of large roach or places which they reside and are left relatively undisturbed due to other species in the lake taking precedence. An example of a prime water for big roach would be Linear Fishery's St Johns; with all the masses of bait it sees from carp anglers there are roach packing on size and often falling foul of carp tactics at specimen sizes. More venues of a similar type are the Bluebell Lakes complex, Horseshoe Lake, as well as selected natural venues such as the Wensum, Trent, Test, Seven and Avon. Keep you ear to the ground and think outside the box.



Approach The most successful tactic I find for targeting specimen roach is to fish with a feeder in a stepped down carp fishing style behind alarms. Bait an area of the lake that is clear, and where you can see evidence of small fish activity, and then use a maggot feeder or groundbait feeder to keep baiting little and often. You’ll find bites from smaller roach don’t register and this helps you to push through the smaller fish, which may be concentrated higher up in the water column, and selectively target larger specimens that give a more positive bite.



Bait A great bait for specimen roach in my book consists of a choice from the following selection; bread flake, worms, maggots, mini boilies (8mm). These baits can help you be selective due to the size of them in relation to the small mouths of small roach and silver fish, however there is that chance of landing specimens from other species on these baits so ensure your tackle isn’t too light, so you still have a chance of landing them.



Prebaiting There are a number of edges which can help put the odds in your favour. Firstly, prebaiting an area can help specimens visit your fishing area in readiness to feed over the autumn and winter period, resulting in quicker capturess. This can be done as often as you feel, but a good dose of bait (2kg of mixed hemp, maggots, groundbait, pellet and boilie) once a week is more then enough on one area.

Additives There are a number of additives which can really help you in your quest for a specimen roach. Try turmeric as a flavouring for maggots and groundbait mixes, as well as esterberry which is a proven roach pulling flavour. The use of these additives are only limited by your imagination in terms of application. Another great edge is colour; try red and bronze as winning colours for that specimen redfin.



I hope these tips allow you to land that fishing milestone of a lifetime this coming autumn/winter. Good luck, and send in your specimen roach pictures to catch@anglingdirect.co.uk if you are successful.