Roach Reflections

[Mark99]

Good series this. Ref weighing.

Chub

I landed a huge chub off the Thames when fishing bread for Roach (Shepperton) in winter. I weighed it with my Fox digitals and it went 4.2 oz. I changed the scales battery as it was clearly much bigger but it still went 4.2. Luckily, there was a competent angler fishing 50 yards away who wandered over and offered to get his Avons. On the Avons, it went 7.4 oz. This guy then took a few photo's for me. Moral of the story - don't use digitals - they WILL let you down and if it was not for the chap nearby, I would have been haunted by just how much did the chub weigh. I only take Avons with me.



Roach

I had a good venue that was producing big roach for me one winter. I recall getting a brace of 2lb roach on Xmas eve.

On one of the days, my mate next swim saw me weigh a roach - bang on 2lb weighed on those lightweight Weighmaster scales. He said casually it did not look 2lb and that stuck in my head. Later on same day a carp angler landed a big roach accidently and he weighed it at 2.4 and I though it would be 2.8. I got home and tested very carefully with kitchen weights the Weighmaster scales...... yup - between 1.5 and 3lb, they were weighing 4 oz too heavy.

I went back to fishing log/diary and reduced down all the big roach by 4 oz which dropped my > 2lb tally by nine for that winter. Including the 2lb brace at xmas eve which became 1.12 and 1.14. Still a great catch.

One that did make > 2lb even with 4 oz knocked off.

[Troydog]

Hello Mark,
Many thanks for your prompt and informative reply. I’ll be out this afternoon to try - taking just bread - no corn, no hemp, no maggots, no casters, no worms, in fact no nothing except bread.....

[DaceAce]

Hello Mark,
Many thanks for your prompt and informative reply. I’ll be out this afternoon to try - taking just bread - no corn, no hemp, no maggots, no casters, no worms, in fact no nothing except bread.....

I'm going out later, too. Bread and groundbait for me as well. The river has settled and cleared since last week so hoping the roach will feed late.

[Troydog]

Yes, fished from 14 to 17 ; I didn’t actually expect a bite; and I didn’t get one. The beautiful sunshine and lovely blue sky pissses my bigger roach off generally, but very occasionally they don’t mind. River now low and clear so I needed to fish from1600 to 1900. That will be tomorrow.... I hope that you had a great session Mark. What a superb fish that 1:12 was!!

[Troydog]

Great story Mark99. I don’t know why I’ve persevered with these Reuben Heaton scales for so many years. A few years ago I caught a 7lb 6oz chub on the Wye. When I got home I did the usual business of seeing what amount of brass kitchen weights would pull the scales down to 7lb 6oz. The answer was 6lb 15ozs!!!!
They always weigh heavy. I used to have some Avons that weighed to thirty something which was good for piking, but these days any scales that weigh to ten pounds would do me. As you may have read I got some new korum electronic scales a week ago, but fellow anglers are not impressed. The overwhelming view is that I should stick to mechanical. But what is there out there?
I’m not being anal about this. I just want to know what the decent fish I sometimes catch, weigh. It’s that simple.....

[DaceAce]

After a stuttering start - I had small dace and the odd roach straightaway - it was a while before the roach fed in earnest not helped by an awkward facing NE breeze but once the breeze died away and the roach got their heads down it was a roach bonanza. I finished with 42 roach to a pound, losing another good one, most of the fish came between 4:45 and 5:45.

[Mark99]

The best days roach angling I had was 35 over 1lb to 1.10. All over 1lb were weighed, no guessing. If it looked a pound plus it was weighed. I never used a keepnet and I had them 3 foot deep in a 12 foot pit, got them in a complete all day frenzy with 6 pints maggots used and a few pints hemp. I have no idea of the total bag of fish but it was prob well over 100lb roach. This was a carp lake with the roach ignored by the carpers. And in winter too. Just to add, the way I tallied the fish over 1lb was I dropped a loose bb shot into a cup and at the end of the day, counted up the bb shots in the cup.

I do recall the bigger roach came in "pulses" during the day. I would get perhaps three over 1 lb in three casts (once had 6 in 6 casts) then the next period, back to fish from goers to 12 oz.

I was using droppers of no 8, 10 and 11 "stots" trying to optimise the free fall.... 1.7 bottom and size 18. Not sure any optimisation was needed. They were just on the feed like crazy in great condition normally enjoying a rich diet of the carp anglers pellets and carp poo.

This venue fished very well just after a freeze. They were hungry.

An average day there was 8-12 over 1lb. I never got any near 2lb but they were in there.

[Mark99]

The biggest roach I have seen were in a private marina on the river Stort in Herts/Essex border. IIRC the Stort is a Chalkstream. I was observing the fish life in this place whilst a guest. There were some very large Bream and Carp. But the roach in one shoal were of a size that was staggering. They lived in this place a charmed life. Rich, deep, clear, weedy water and no cormarants. There was an otter but he was at the entrance mainly.

[Mark99]

Eta Little Hallingbury Marina.

[DaceAce]

I found a spare 20 minutes before getting out fishing today; here's the result: