The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

You are right Kevin - all the 1.5lb plus roach I've had this year (and there haven't been that many!) came on lobs or bits of lobs

""Baits and groundbaits"" - by Faddist

OR

""The book of the Roach"" - by Greville Fennell

Thank you Olly. I do have a very tatty copy of Roach Fishing by Faddist, but I haven't come across either of the publications you mention.

I know I could probably get more super books online but one of my passions is finding them at the bottom of the pile in some second hand bookshop somewhere. I found a great little book on Bream by Peter Stone on Sunday at Hay on Wye. I think it is part of the Osprey collection which includes Dave Steuart on Roach.

I might post a photo of the list of 100 plus books I have found in second hand book shops over the years on TFF. It might interest some people......

Faddist copies in paperback less than £10! Greville Fennel Roach hardbacks = £100+!! I am still to get a Faddist Roach book but have Mark Everards & John Searls as well.

Dave was my mentor many many moons ago - about 1960ish! And I also learnt from Bill Penney who was in the same club as me.

Troydog wrote: ↑Sun Feb 04, 2018 4:58 pm Mind you I had three for just under five pounds yesterday.....any advice please?

I miss-read that at first. My brain left out the word "for". My word they would have been BIG roach!!!

J. Greville Fennell's book is available online, free, being long out of copyright, but I haven't used my kindle for so long that I've forgotten how!
Hopefully someone more tech-savvy than I will come up with a pointer (Cue new thread?).

Back to the main topic, I've seen geranium oil mentioned as a roach puller, but been too fixated on other things (a: barbel, b: not freezing my fingers off) to make the experiment.

Groundbait for roach.......Fatty uses liquidised bread mostly.

However if he's got some spare cash Gros Gardons mixed 50/50 with liquidised bread, sometimes Molehill soil to give the mix weight if the river is up........these mixes work so why look for secret formulas

Over the long years of Mole existence so many silly faddy baits and cod science have been oft quoted. None of them really make any difference, they really don't.

The real trick to catching big roach in the numbers some claim, can only be achieved if one is lucky enough to live next to a good river, so can take advantage of conditions and follow the winter shoals. Failing that utilise friends who can keep you up to date with how the river is fishing and then steal or borrow a day off when conditions suit.

Fatty prefers to roach fish with either a waggler or stick, as that is the way he was taught but has to admit most really big roach seem to fall to feeder or ledger tactics......and quite crude methods seemingly work best.

Really there are no secrets to roach fishing, just consistency of technique, learnt the hard way usually, and fish a river with big roach therein.....it's that simple!




As ever,.............

Moley

I caught my best roach quite by accident when fishing for barbel, it took a 12mm halibut pellet !

I and several others have been trying to catch a big still water roach with normal tactics - after information of a catch of 4 or 5 roach over 3lb. So far roach to just over 1lb have been caught on "roach" tactics. The big fish were however caught by accident on small boilies whilst carping. I am yet to reluctantly go down that route!

The last 2 I had was on size 6 hook + 3 grains of corn - whilst river carping!

I was going to post a reply on this subject but I just noticed I only have 95% battery power on my phone.