Winter roach

[Santiago]

Parker recommends fishing for roach when the rise in water temperature coincides with the easing of the rivers stream after a flood, when the silt drops. And in winter he recommends legering for them with bread because they're more likely to be feeding on the bottom and hungry since they may well not have eaten for weeks when conditions were bad.

[Stuart Whiting]

Or put another way, when his quota is reached he shoots only to scare them...


...but can be a poor shot if distracted...

Stuart

[Stuart Whiting]

Hi Ian,

I live much further down south then our southern english fellows. Northern Bavaria, to be exact. The water temperature drops to about 3 degrees in winter. I apart from the odd pike or perch on lures, I usually can't catch a single fish in winter. I've given up fishing in winter for that reason and built floats instead.

I've made the experience that fish around here seriously start feeding when the water temperature is rising to 7 degrees and higher.

Greetings from Bamberg

Martin

That seems quite interesting Martin

Normally when temperatures reach about 3 degrees a lot of fish start to go dormant,

Do you have any dace and grayling in any of the rivers where you are as it's often possible to catch these in very cold conditions

Stuart

Stuart

[Stuart Whiting]

Parker recommends fishing for roach when the rise in water temperature coincides with the easing of the rivers stream after a flood, when the silt drops. And in winter he recommends legering for them with bread because they're more likely to be feeding on the bottom and hungry since they may well not have eaten for weeks when conditions were bad.

Fully agree with that Trev but remember that when using the stick it can be slowed right down so the bait is just literally tripping bottom, could also try laying on or even stret pegging, all these old school tactics still definitely work and wouldn't think twice about using em if the conditions dictated to do so

Also the use of the wet bread plays a big part to this type of fishing, I tend to rove amongst different swims of choice and lightly bait each swim with a little mashed bread, you can add a little hemp to the bread but wouldn't over do it as they can become to occupied in the hemp and then ignor anything else offered ( more so in summer) I also like to add a little bit of vandenide brasem to give it a sweet flavour but this obviously isn't essential as plain mash is still good on its own,

This when the rivers have eased and are finning back down to normal conditions but still have a nice tinge to the water can be good times especially as you say with the rise in temperature

I'm looking forward to when the rivers open back up, can't wait, as I've already got a few Thames trips lined up for me roach fishing

All the best

Stuart

[Duebel]

Hi Ian,

I live much further down south then our southern english fellows. Northern Bavaria, to be exact. The water temperature drops to about 3 degrees in winter. I apart from the odd pike or perch on lures, I usually can't catch a single fish in winter. I've given up fishing in winter for that reason and built floats instead.

I've made the experience that fish around here seriously start feeding when the water temperature is rising to 7 degrees and higher.

Greetings from Bamberg

Martin

That seems quite interesting Martin

Normally when temperatures reach about 3 degrees a lot of fish start to go dormant,

Do you have any dace and grayling in any of the rivers where you are as it's often possible to catch these in very cold conditions

Stuart

Stuart

There are some small streams holding grayling quite close to Bamberg but they're mostly "fly only" and the price for a day ticket is sky high. No winter trotting for grayling for me unfortunately.
There are dace in my river and I catch them regularly in summer. But in winter I would have to search for them for hours only to persuade one of them to take a frozen bait presented by a frozen hook on frozen line under a frozen float on a frozen rod with frozen rings held by a frozen traditional fisherman ...
The only fish I'd really like to catch one day is burbot. They're known to be caught in the ugliest conditions you could imagine - snowfall, night, below zero - and I've tried it once. One bite - no fish - nearly frozen to death - will try it again next winter.

Greetings from Bamberg

Martin

[Ian]

Great info martin.sounds like we have the same problem.i agree,it might be time for me to give up on them in winter.I must be casting among them and they must just sit there wondering who the silly fisherman is.until other people like yourself and Stuart confirm these thing its always a worry that I might be doing something wrong.good to talk to you guys,it really is.

[Ian]

I keep forgetting you'd have a close season on rivers.we don't have that here.the fish still spawn though ha.i like to give them a break.some folk moan that they cant catch in may or its really hard going,of course,they are spawning you idiots.the spawning has been well into June the past couple of years though.

[Ian]

Really enjoying sharing this info,a great way to learn new things and hopefully offer some of my knowledge.I fished a place down in newcastle last year.i used mashed bread and a few fruit shortie biscuits added to make it a bit stodgier.the bream,tench,crucians and especially the roach loved it.i was told by the old guy down there that raisins are a good bait,though he was so old he may have been a ghost.

[Olly]

In the south our chalk-streams are almost a constant temperature the winter. The attached shows the relevance of air to water difference.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00034676

Roach prefer to feed in a water temperature above 40F/4.5C - preferably around 42F minimum. A flood in some rivers brings warmer murky water rather than cold & clear winter conditions. Roach feed in the former after the river starts to clear.

Salt & melting snow is not conducive to roach feeding although after one cold spell I remember it started to snow and the roach went berserk, I caught about a dozen fish around the pound in almost consecutive casts. Never repeated!

[Ian]

That's a purple patch.i will have a look at the link you put up.i will need to get a thermometer fo next winter.funny though,I've caught perch when there's been ice on the water.