Fishing for roach

[pole maniac]

Hello, has anyone got any realy good tactics for roach fishing. I.e Baits,tactics and rigs and presentation.

I was thining of trying to fish to hand for the smaller fish of an oz. Any advise on this would be greatful I.E, how deep to fish for them bait to feed to bring them up in water for faster catch rate etcetc.

Thanks

James

[stevelockett]

However you do it, maggot to hand will be fine, be aware that you will need to keep tweaking things to keep them coming. Try going deeper or shallower by an inch or two at a time and bites will kick off again.
Also, hook the maggot normally and then hook it again lower down so the bait stays on for several fish. Swing a hooked fish into your hand but have your hand upside down, you can then just slide your hand down to the hook, twist your hand over and most fish will drop off a barbless hook and you can flick the rig straight back out again. If you can get the hang of that it will really speed up your catch rate.

[Jon W]

Like most fish, roach are easiest to catch on or near the bottow, try and catch them shallow you will find yourself chasing them up and down the water column. 2 tactics I'd suggest are pinkie/maggot over groundbait and hemp. The former would suit oz fish preferctly with hemp more suitabe to larger roach.

For roach i like a mix 50:50 VDE supercup & Super match. mixed on the wet side, well riddled and laced with a pinkies. A couple of balls at the start should be enough to kick start the swim. Some crushed hemp will help make the mix active and break up quickly on the bottom.

I'd suggest starting one inch off bottom. with a bulk at 2/3 depth and 2 nr 10 droppers. if your fishing to hand a barbless hook is best, I like the mustad wide gape seed hooks, 22 for a pinkie or a 20 for a maggot of hemp.

I would simply loose feed pinkies over the top, taking care not to bring the fish off the bottom.

If there are lots of fish, bulk your shot 8-12 inches from the hook, this will get the bait down PDQ & also magnify bites.

A colmic Jolly is a great float for this tactic IMO. The carbon stem helps avoid tangles and the fine tip is ideal for small fish. Make sure the float size is suitable for the depth and conditions. 4x16 - 1.0g is a good starting point.

Good luck

Jon