Roach- a new British Record?

[Beresford]

There are definitely record roach in some of the trout reservoirs. You would not believe the huge numbers and sizes of the roach and bream shoals in these waters.

[CWK]

The reservoirs around the Staines / Wraysbury / Heathrow were reputed to contain large shoals of specimine roach in the 60's and 70's . Tragically the avian luftwaffe that are numerous in the area have taken up residence and I fear the consequences.....

I'm not sure if coarse fishing is still allowed on these waters ... Can anyone clarify please ?.

[Olly]

Peter Butler of the London Specimen Group I think it was - had a roach rod named after him. Roach over 3 came from those waters - before 1964/5 when the winter froze the lot! That group of waters were drained within the last 20 years I believe.

A Reservoir on the Hanworth/Hampton border did a 4+ to one of the Fright Bros. Local to that was the 'Red House' reservoir where Bill Penny caught innumerable 2lb+ fish.

Over the river was the Walton Group where the record came from though.

[Phil Arnott]

Below are some fish which fool most anglers I meet.

I was expecting someone to have a guess at identity of the fish in this picture. Apart from the perch and roach the two hybrid looking fish are in fact silver bream. They are surprisingly quite widespread but not always recognised and usually just referred to as hybrids or skimmers.

I mentioned to Kev Clifford that I suspected I was catching silver bream as all the fish looked identical and hybrids generally vary a bit. We checked one out and the scale and ray count was spot on. Once I had confidence in what they looked like I identified them in many waters but also found that most anglers were unaware of what they were.