Just found out about two separate carp pools near to me that hold roach over 2lb, which gives me something to aim for seeing as the pike fishing as been pretty dire. Think I'm gonna go with the hemp and caster approach to begin with. Question is, do I put a bed of hemp down to start with or do I keep trickling it in ? Or, alternatively should I be going about it another way ? Thoughts please gents.
Stillwater (pond ) Roach
- Thread starter naxian62
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Float fishing caster feeding hemp and caster would IMO be a good starting point. I would not put a big bed of hemp down this time of year as fish metabolism is low. An alternative approach would be to fish two rods one with a small maggot feeder and single maggot on a say an 18 hook. On the other rod you could try a small boillie with a small mesh bag of broken boillies keep back on the feed as you may attract the unwanted attentions of Carp.
The bad one
Well-known member
Feed caster little and often over a float. Letting the float drag through the swim slowly. There's something special about smallish ponds that are known to contain big roach. They have no names, rarely caught and every bite is like being a excited kid again.
no-one in particular
Well-known member
I have often found sweetcorn sorts out the bigger roach even though some think of it as only a summer bait. I fish them over hemp and/or mashed bread but it is a do or die bait anytime. A 14 hook pushed through a largish bit of crust and anchored just off the bottom about 2ins is also one of my favorites for big roach. Also try fishing just off the main feed area now and then, sometimes the bigger roach are hanging back and not joining the melee.
markcw
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Try hemp with liquidized bread and fish bread punch, vary size of punch until you get bites,also scale line size down, I would fish 2lbs main line and 1.8lbs hooklength and hook size to suit punch, a size 18 is a good starting point.
As well as the bait advice above I would say enjoy the water and get in quick before the carp wake up. Before they wake up you can go to finer bottoms and probably illicit more bites.
As a point, yesterday I caught silvers with some good roach amongst them in a small water. I used a hi tech fine hooklink until the last half hour when I got in a tangle. I retied the hook direct to the mainline, being lazy and cold, for the last few casts. I never had another roach.
As a point, yesterday I caught silvers with some good roach amongst them in a small water. I used a hi tech fine hooklink until the last half hour when I got in a tangle. I retied the hook direct to the mainline, being lazy and cold, for the last few casts. I never had another roach.
Thorogoodone
Member
Last year I was fishing one of my clubs small ponds and my mate and I were using mussels as hook bait for carp with no luck, so I scaled down to the pole and light tackle cut the mussels up In to small pieces and fished for roach guess what fish a chuck and quality fish but have not tried it in winter
Interesting post, I have never thought of using small pieces of mussels on scaled down tackle.
What size hooks were you using and what did you use as feed ?