I have been using tactics that I hoped would produce the goods for me, avoiding maggots I have stuck with larger hookbaits in the form of Corn and Tares, and using hemp as the feed, the idea being to fill up the smaller fish quickly with the seed and draw in the bigger fish. For precise presentation I have favoured the Pole, cupping in the feed accurately. So far although the stamp of fish I have been getting is certainly better than I would get on maggot, it is still falling woefully short of my target. Why this is I am not quite sure, maybe the water temperature is still a bit too warm to put the smaller fish out of the equasion, maybe I am fishing the wrong swims, or perhaps I have got my whole approach wrong...
Admittedly in the past all my bigger Roach have been caught in much colder temperatures and also on maggot although I have had to suffer many small fish as well alongside. We have experienced some very prolonged warm weather here the last few weeks, and only now has the wind switched to the North and temperatures are beginning to barely break double figures, ( we are yet to have a frost ), it will take the water a week or two to follow suit I would imagine, so maybe then things will change and I will start to get the results.
In the meantime I was reminded how you can land big fish on light, balanced tackle at the weekend, something I have been an advocate of for a while now. Although I am tartgeting Roach I am not using what would be termed 'ultra fine' tackle, sticking with 3.4lb line and a hollow elastic rated 5-8. Most matchmen would use hooklinks down to 1lb and elastics in the 1-3 range, but I am hoping for big Roach and I know that I will inevitably hook other species that are much larger such as Bream, Tench, and Carp, so I am erring on the side of caution and hoping I have the balance between enough finesse in the tackle and still retain the strength to deal with larger rogue specimens. This is exactly what happened in the last couple of sessions, one was a Carp of 9lb 12oz, and another one at around 8lb along with a Tench of 3lb plus. The Carp tested my tackle to the limits, but patience and not panicking ( just!), won through and I was able to play and land these fish on the light tackle despite there being snags nearby. I was very pleased actually, and It doesn't mean I am over gunned for the Roach, I still get a decent fight from fish of 1/2lb up, ok it's not the same tackle testing fight as Carp or Tench and you wouldn't expect it to be, unless the fish I was targeting ran to 3 or 4lb...I wish!
Thats not a Roach!
Thats more like it, but still nowhere near the size I'm aiming for..
