Specimen Silvers - Fishing For Big Roach

This entry was posted on 8th April, 2016

As seen in Coarse Fishing Answers Magazine…

Catching roach of specimen proportions can be a difficult task. These fish have grown to the specimen proportions by being clever fish, avoiding predators, and by doing their best to avoid anglers. The sight of a 2lb-plus roach lying on your unhooking mat gives you a great sense of achievement, while a fish bigger than 3lb really puts a smile on your face – the catch of a lifetime for many anglers!

When targeted specifically, using the correct tackle, a big roach can really pull back hard, and the moment that you pick the rod up to feel a heavy thump on the end will get your adrenaline pumping.

Starting Out So where do you start when looking to catch a big roach? Setting yourself a target that you want to hit is the first thing to do. However, if you give yourself a target of 3lb when starting out, there may only be one venue within 100 miles that holds one, and it may only be the one fish! You will probably find many more venues with a more sensible, slightly smaller target of a 2lb-plus roach.

Venue choice is very important; you won’t catch big roach in every venue. Spend a bit of time looking at the internet and flicking through magazines. Look for previous catch reports, pictures and do a bit of research prior to your trip. Carp anglers are all too keen to reveal their tales of nuisance roach picking up boilies and disrupting their fishing. This may just save you a lot of wasted trips and day tickets!

Most big roach seem to come from large gravel pits, but commercial fisheries are also worth looking at. The amount of anglers visiting these venues and putting in lots of bait – and with no pike present – means these fish will be able to grow to large sizes, without getting eaten!

The best time to target a big roach is usually through the winter months into spring, partly because the fish will be at a higher weight, but also due to the methods that you will be using to catch them – you will have a lot less bother from other nuisance species in the cooler months!

Look to arrive at your chosen venue before dawn or in the evening. You may be able to spot the roach dimpling on the surface of the water. Unlike carp, bream or tench, the roach will rarely roll or leap clear of the water.

This dimpling will give you a good indication of where the roach will be. Normally you will be fishing out into open water. If there is weed in the lake, look to target a clear area in between the weed beds. The clear area will allow you to present your rigs well, not getting caught on the weed.



Rigs For Roach The rigs that I use are simple to tie and quick to change! I like to use helicopter rigs for roach as they have great anti-tangle properties, allowing the hooklength to rotate around my main line and not spin up the leader; they also fly through the air extremely well and make great bolt rigs to hook the fish!

I use 5lb Power Max Clear reel line, which is very thin and hard to see under the water – just what you need on a gin-clear gravel pit! On the end of my reel line I will slide on a Korum Ready-Heli kit. This clever little setup simply slides onto the reel line in one go – no need to mess around with a number of different components to create a helicopter rig!



All I need to do then is slide my reel line through a Grub Feeder, tie on a small swivel and pull it into the base of the feeder to secure. Attached to the swivel on the Ready-Heli kit is a short 4in hook link, tied using a size 16 Xpert Specimen hook and 0.13mm Reflo Power. The short hook link helps to improve the hooking ability of the rig.

You need to place the Ready-Heli Kit beads far enough up the reel line so that the hook link sits above the feeder. This will stop it tangling around the feeder, rendering your rig useless! Leave a small gap between the beads for the rig to rotate. If the swivel can’t spin around your line it will tangle. I’ll choose the size and weight of Grub Feeder depending on how far I need to cast, either 30g, 60g or for extreme range, 90g.



I use 1.1lb Xpert rods for all of my roach fishing. These allow me to punch out feeders to long distances should I need, but are very soft in the tip when playing large roach on light lines.

Having cast out to your desired spot and sunk the line between the rod tip and rig I place my rod onto my rod rests. I like to keep a tight line to the rig when roach fishing. A lot of the time the bites can be drop backs, but occasionally, when a big fish picks up the rig it can take line from the spool. When using light hook links I use KMR free-spool reels and always engage the free-spool mechanism. It’s a simple job to flick it off should you get a drop back, and saves the risk of losing the fish of your dreams!



Bait For Big Roach Bait choice is simple – maggots. Maggots are a great bait for specimen roach, they provide the perfect sized wriggling bed of bait for the fish. Speak to any match angler and they will always tell you a caster is the best bait for a big roach, but these delicate shells won’t withstand casting long distances. Maggots are durable, lively and perfect for attracting a specimen roach!

The night before my session I will add Sonubaits Supercrumb Black to the maggots. They are then placed in the fridge to keep them cool. Confidence is key for all fishing and I feel that this flavour adds another dimension to my maggots. It also gives me the edge over other anglers who are just using maggots straight from the tackle shop.



To kick off the swim I will introduce two or three mini Spombs full of maggots – remember that you will also be putting more maggots into the swim each time you cast your Grub Feeder out. My hook bait will be two red maggots.

If the venue I have chosen holds a lot of small roach and I’m having problems with sucked maggots, or catching lots of small fish, I will switch my hook baits to Sonubaits Corn. This will resist the small fish for longer than the maggots. If I have to start using corn as a hook bait a mini Spomb full of corn will also be introduced to the spot!



When the weather is very cold I may only make two casts per day. This will be enough to keep some interest in the swim. These simple tactics have helped me to land many specimen-sized roach.

As I mentioned earlier, by doing your homework beforehand you will save yourself a lot of time: get to the bank early and look out for signs of roach dimpling – locating the fish before you start fishing will greatly increase your chances of hooking into the roach of a lifetime. Get out there and give it a go!

Tackle Box Korum Xpert Rods Korum KMR Method Runner Reel Korum Ready Heli-Kits Preston Reflo Powerline Korum Grub Feeder Korum Xpert Hooks Mini Spomb