UK Specimen Roach Fishing - The Insiders Guide

About roach fishing in the UK:

The roach (Rutilus rutilus), is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia.

How to identify a roach:

• A moderately deep bodied fish with silvery white sides

• Red/orange eyes

• Big silvery scales and red lower fins, earning their nickname of 'Redfin'

Where can you catch roach?

Roach are plentiful and can be fished for at most day-ticket waters, as well as the rivers and natural lakes the UK has to offer.

Specimen roach thrive on neglect. If you find a stretch that barely gets any attention at all then there is a good chance it will be home to quality redfins.

Roach are a species that doesn’t respond well to pressure once they grow to a large size, so any side streams, feeder waters or areas that haven’t got a good reputation could be ideal. If your local river is fairly clear and narrow, spend time walking up and down with a pair of polarised sunglasses.

Another tell-tale sign of roach is when they roll at dawn and dusk, large roach are highly identifiable when rolling, the glint of their silver scales catch the light.



What fishing tackle do I need for roach?

Once you have figured out the location for your specimen roach campaign, you need to get kitted out with all the necessary tackle. The UK roach record is set at 4lb 5oz, a record that has been uphelp for just shy of 15 years! With the fish’s size in mind, you do not need to tackle-up too heavily:

Fishing Rod: A soft-ish Avon rod with a test curve ranging 0.75-1.25lb

Fishing Reel: Match the Avon rod with a 3000 - 4000 sized reel

Line: Load the reel with around 4-6lb monofilament feeder line






Best fishing rig to catch roach

The Korum Ready Heli Kit allows you to easily create a helicopter rig that is perfect for roach. It won’t tangle and create a bolt-effect to help hook the fish. Onto this I simply attach a short 3ins hooklink of Korum Dropshot Fluorocarbon in 6lb. Fished on 6lb Korum Feeder Line this makes a very balanced set up that will fool any specimen roach. I’ve even landed carp to over 40lb on the same setup!



What is the Best Bait for roach?

During the colder months, I’ve nearly always used maggots; nothing fancy, just white maggots combined with the Korum Heli Rig Kits and 40 gram maggot feeders. But, come March, the lake becomes much more active – meaning that as soon as my maggot hookbaits are cast out, a small roach has taken them. So the maggot feeders are swapped for groundbait feeders and the hook bait is a hair rigged 12mm Code Red boilie. Another noticeable difference is the amount of bait I feed during the spring. A winter roach day session would consist of 3-4 pints of maggots and maybe a pint of casters. A day in the spring would be 3-4kg of SonuBaits explosive feeder groundbait, 1kg of sweetcorn, 1kg 12mm Code Red boilies, 3-4 pints of maggots, 2 pints of caster, and possibly 1kg of pellets.

The ground bait feeders are regularly recast to keep the swim topped up and I will feed a mix of boilies, corn, maggots, pellets, and casters via a spod over the feeders. There are huge shoals of roach and bream in the lake and they will soon clear the bait out if you don’t keep topping the swim up. Even though it’s applied little and often throughout the day, it’s surprising how much bait I can get through during a day.