The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

With the continued mild weather, I've taken my foot off the gas and not targeted any chub, instead I've been occupying myself at searching for some river roach on the Gt Ouse.

Yesterday on a different stretch I found some more red fins, it want easy and it took me three swims to locate them. Once they started to feed they didn't stop biting and were gobbling up those red maggots like no tomorrow.

I started on a size 18 hook, single maggot and found I was bumping or loosing some good sized roach. I changed to a size 16 with double maggot, which did the trick. The float was my own homemade jobby using Sakanda Reed.

A really enjoyable mornings fishing was had, I even had a large old dog fox sit on the opposite bank watching me. A net of 18lb 7oz , not including the 2lb plus perch. Sorry for the poor quality photo of the perch!

Great sport, stunning perch

It’s wonderful fishing by the looks and great to see so many silvers in the river. One thing though, and I know there is always someone who says this (sorry!) but you’ve a lot of missing scales there, and I can see them in the net.

I’d just implore you to think about leaving the keepnet at home. Hopefully you’ll get one of those at two pounds in a few years and I’m sure you’ll want it to be pristine with all its scales and fins intact.

Tengisgol wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:11 pm It’s wonderful fishing by the looks and great to see so many silvers in the river. One thing though, and I know there is always someone who says this (sorry!) but you’ve a lot of missing scales there, and I can see them in the net.

I’d just implore you to think about leaving the keepnet at home. Hopefully you’ll get one of those at two pounds in a few years and I’m sure you’ll want it to be pristine with all its scales and fins intact.

Well said and I totally agree - leaving the net at home will not detract from your enjoyment or the memories but will preserve the Roach especially going into a winters season.

Nice sport Vito (I second Tim's thoughts on keepnets but understand it's a personal thing )

Love the perch! Are there still the monsters in the river of the years before? I only perch fished it once and my friend had one closer to four pounds than three and the biggest perch I’d ever seen by a mile.

Thanks all, no need to say sorry, you are free to have an opinion. The keepnet is only used on new areas where I find the roach, 95% of the time when I float fish theres no keepnet tagging along. Once I know where they are and I know the yields I stop using one, and yes it's a personal choice and it's not about trophy photos. I live record my roach sessions on a camera for memories and release the roach straight after being unhooked.

I have no issues with people that use them or that are against them. It's always going to be a long debate, one I do not wish to get into too deeply, I feel awful offending people.

When I fish for roach my sessions are very short 3 hours at the most, so any fish caught (and not all roach enter the net) are not in there all day. Also where I catch the roach there is no match fishing, and it's not prolifically fished, so the roach are not fished hard and crammed into nets day in and day out. I value your concerns, like I value those that use them all the time.

Yes, Tengisgol the perch in the right areas are of good weights on the Gt Ouse. I do not hunt for them myself but I have many friends that do and catch very big perch.

Please do keep your river reports coming! Nothing is liked more here than stories of river roach.

Tight lines CC.

Lovely catch of Roach and the Perch is gorgeous.Keepnets are a very personal thing.I have sometimes found that releasing Roach straight back into the swim can sometimes spook the others.Therefore I occasionally use one if releasing the Roach in another area is not an option.