Roach (rutilus rutilus)

All my roach fishing is carried out in rivers. Mainly because that is where the decent roach fishing is in my area, and I do not find roach interesting enough to warrant a long trip to catch them. I fish for roach with one of two methods. Either feeder fishing with a light bomb rod (Drennan bomb rod) or float fishing with a light waggler rod (Drennan ultralight waggler). When feeder-fishing I use the smallest feeder I can find (and there are some tiny ones out there - I think they are designed for use with "leem" and jokers (ask a match man, they know a lot of things like that).

The tackle I use for 90% of my roach fishing

The ground bait is a mixture of coarse white bread crumbs (up to 1cm in diameter) and slightly less coarse white bread crumb (fancy stuff!). Sometimes I add a squirt of liquid or powder flavour, but I cannot honestly say that it makes much difference. I do not try to build up a swim by introducing maggots or hemp, I use a mobile approach instead - fishing the likely looking spots in the swim, and then moving on if nothing happens or after catching a couple of fish. I have found that the largest roach usually bites first, followed by successively smaller fish. I move on once I have caught maybe 5 roach in a swim (unless they have been big uns of course).

Only bring the essentials - then you are more likely to stay mobile. Photo Henrik

Float fishing is much more sensitive than feeder-fishing, but I find it awkward in deep water - and therefore only use it in shallow water. I bait up a spot with some hemp and a few maggots then I trot a stickfloat past the area. I am not very good at it, so I will not write much about it.

Top 5 baits

1. Flake
2. Crust - if a bait off the bottom is the order of the day then crust is better than flake.
3. Bread - it is that good (at least in my experience)!
4. Maggots - if the going gets tough try a couple of maggots.
5. Sweet corn - works, at times - in the least it is convenient

Use as light hook lengths as you can get away with and a small fine-wire hook - especially when fishing with maggots. Bread lets you get away with coarser tackle - a good choice for large fish. Spraying bread with flavour, there are some dedicated roach-sprays (usually sweet with a smell of aniseed and/or fennel) that are really good, can give you a bit more bites - especially in cold water.

A lovely river roach is released - photo Henrik