Roach to hand - My way.

Its something we've almost all done at some point in our angling lives. Its also something I'm willing to bet a lot of people have struggled with, missed bites, poor bite indication etc.

As I always say, simple changes can bring large differences. Lets go over my rigs for up in the water silver fishing.

First of all, float choice is key. Forget everything you know about pole fishing. The way I see it, finesse goes out the window with this method, the most important areas of this type of fishing is Hooking into them, Tangle free approach and speed. Nothing else really matters. Float choice is a simple choice really, I don't want anything to heavy, but I want a slight bolt effect, so a commercial margin float would be ideal.

This is my choice - NG Margin HD.

The float is durable, which is key. It'll also only show a bite when its a proper one! You don't want to be in and out all day long, its stupid. Like I say, its simple.

Line choice for me is the ever popular Middy Fluorocarbon, keep to something that suites the situation size wise, but for me on most naturals or commercials around the 4lb mark will land anything.

Shotting patterns I like to keep simple to0, using a .4g float for most of my work, which takes 7 x no.8s to take down half the orange, I string 4 out and keep a bulk below my float so it cocks straight away, this is important as a lot of bites are on the drop. This may seem a bit heavy handed, but it'll pay using the larger float.

Hook choice, now you may think this is a little odd, but remember finesse has no place here, so I keep it large, I wouldn't hesitate in using single red on a size 16 If they were havin' it properly. Simple B911 or Silverfish pellet is my choice.

 

Putting the right rig onto the right top kit

 

This is almost as important as remembering to put the hook on!

 

First, make sure you make your rig around 7ft deep. I'm going to use my experience as an example here. In general, the most productive areas for roach fishing I've found are in the top third of the body of the water. The lake which I generally fish up in the water is 6-7ft deep on my line so i'm looking at 1-2ft deep. I'd then look to add another 4ft on top of my rig, this is what'll get the fish to your hand, so it wants to end up being around a foot short than your top kit (So it allows for the elastic to come out slightly). Elastic itself isn't overly important as long as its soft, I do prefer to use the low solids though. 4-8 etc.  If you wish to take the excess line from above the float and fish as normal but still get the to hand benefit you can fish a slightly lighter elastic so in theory it'll come out further and thus still getting to hand.

 

In general I start with a double 4 solid elastic. You have to use your own self judgement in order to decide what elastic to use, but double 4 is a good starter, the next move higher would probably be 11h for me.

 

Introducing the rig into the water is easy, I tend to stick to an over head flick (As with a rod)

 

So line is in a perfectly straight line and drops naturally.

 

As you see by my picture, its very shallow in the margin, but after the shelf it drops to 6ft. The benefit of the extra line comes to show in the clear water because your pole isn't visible.

 

Benefits come into play with experimenting with different feeding patterns. I like, all be it a bit of blatant OCD, introducing the same amount of bait as shot on the line. I like to think this makes a difference because when i'd like to hold back on the feed, but keep the fish interested, I can then reintroduce my rig and it sounds similar to me introducing freebees. The key here is to not have patients. Constant change is good. Albeit your still catching but if you get into perch, i'd recommend you need to change something, I'd go shallower. You can always tell perch bites as they are fast and you will mostly likely miss them. But obviously, not all perch are a bad thing. Check this specimen I had out whilst doing this article.

 

 

 

As long as you commit, you'll catch, it couldn't be simpler...

 

You put in,...

You wait for a positive bite.

You swing the quarry in!

 

Its a method I like to describe as fishing as a youngster with a bit more knowledge. If your wondering what baits I tend to use, I stick to absolute basics, so maggots really. May introduce slow sinking pellets but I really just want to keep introducing the same bait into the swim in regular intervals at least 4 times a minute.

As with other methods, there is simple changes you can make to maximise the amount of fish you catch. Another simple tip, is to always feed in the same couple of feet, but fish others.

As below, I'll look to feed in the red circle and fish inside the green circle, beware - silvers will often push out larger fish such as carp, so make sure if you go with the outer circle often, that you have the right set up. You have the best of both worlds using the twin circle though, you have a heavily fed area and a sparse area. (Notice the difference in the surface movement on the water at the bottom of the red circle? That's where it starts to get deeper).

If your struggling to hit the bites, experiment with the strikes, Ive often found that simply pulling the top kit back will often hook the slower bites.

Give it a go, its a good fun day and could win you that hard section or the hard days match!

Nathan @ Fish4thought.