Keiths way on a River

Let's visit a fictional swim where I am going to fish for Roach, I am on the River Lea,

I have maggot, hemp and caster but no bread. (A crime at this time of year but I've been a muppet and left it at home)!

I arrive and the first thing I do is sit and have a cup of tea and watch the water. It is a nice mild day with no frost but it is breezy. the water has good colour and the pace is a bit more than is normal. Depth is also up a bit and there is no waterline showing on the reeds on the far bank. The birds are very active and as I sit down, Mr Robin pays me a visit and tells me it's breakfast time. If this water is fished alot and he looks fat and chirpy, I take no notice but if this is less well visited water, I watch him for a moment. Is he a bit thin? Is he a bit bolder than normal? If so, is this because the fly life has been a bit slow of late? This may make me reconsider how much bait I use later on so it's worth casual consideration. Is there any fly hatching, if so what is it? If there is evidence of fly life waking up and it is a species that is plentiful, this will also make me consider how much bait i use. Sometimes the observation period takes 10 minutes, sometimes 20 but while I sit there I visualise what the bottom will look like from the way the current behaves. The prescence of a hump or dip in the bottom is given away by the boils and whirls as they come to the surface. These are often not there all of the time and sitting and watching will reveal these features. Once identified (or not), I then decide where I am going to catch my fish. This may be a place where they will be by their choice.(A feature or some cover) or it may be a place that I decide I want to draw them into. Whichever it is, once I have identified my main killing zone (MKZ), I then decide how much and what bait I am going to supply to that zone and how I am going to get it there.

Once I have decided what bait and where I want it to go I then decide how I am going to get it there and I will deal with that in a moment.

Once I have analysed all of this information I then look to see what other food may be occurring naturally (Nymphs or water fleas or anything that shows itself) and at the same time re-visit all of my previous thought processes because getting it wrong from the start is the easiest way of messing up a perfectly good swim.

Once I have considered the swim I then consider which bait I am going to use, I prefer Caster as it will usually produce the bigger fish and avoid the smaller fish but I need to make a choice based upon colour of the water flow and what I already know of the venue or river that I am fishing, if there is a lot of colour then I would go straight on to Maggot, if it is very clear I might go for Hemp as a feed with the odd Caster mixed with it but as it is a bit coloured I will kick off on Caster.

Once I have decided on bait, I then need to consider how much weight I will need to present my bait properly in the MKZ. I must also consider the need for holding my float tackle back hard and I will need more weight for that.I also decide am I going to start with my shot bulked up or am I going to spread it "shirt button" style or indeed a mixture of both,(shot bulked halfway between the float and the hook with "shirt button" shotting from the bulk down to the hook)?

I have decided that this swim would normally need a 8 x No4 stick float but as it is a bit breezy I need a bit more stability so I go for a 10 x No4 Lignum stick (Lignum is a heavier than water wood so it does not add to the floats buoyancy but does help to stabilise it) so float chosen I set up the float, tie a hook length and grab a light plummet.

As I am going for Roach my main line on my Centre pin is 0.12 (3.3lb BS), the rod is a 12ft Drennan Canal Crystal with a light through action and my hook length is 0.10 (2.6lb), later on I might go down in hook length but I always start heavy. I now plumb the swim, I will plumb across the river and down to the MKZ but not in it, I might also plumb a few feet down stream of the MKZ (if I can) to give me an idea of the differing depths. A note on plumbing the swim if it is clear I will not use a plummet but I would put some bulk shot on at the estimated depth and run through with no hook length on as this would cause less disturbance.

Ok, it is about 4ft deep but it seems there is a slightly deeper trough around where the MKZ is. I now add my shot, my float is a 10 x No4 stick and I am going for "shirt button" shotting so starting at the loop (that the hook length attaches to) in the main line I add a single NO 10 shot, I then add two No 8's 2.5 ins up and 2ins apart. I then add 18 No8's in pairs, 1.5ins apart up toward the float. I use no8's as the can still be brought legally in the UK. If I were in Holland and I was fishing for less sophisticated fish than big roach or dace, I might use lead No 4's but I'm in Engalnd and my target is roach so it's no8 all the way.

(Oooops Dinner is ready so I'll be back in a while! Bangers and Mash Luverly!! )

Ok, so I'm ready to rock and roll. All the gear is made up, landing net and bait water at the ready. I have set all this up away from the swim as I want to cause the least disturbance. i carefully place my box into position, setup the bait water on my box, position my landing net, place the bait boxes on the waiter, get my towel out and positioned, place spare;- shot, hooks and hook length on my waiter with a hook tyer and get a disgorger out and put it behind my left ear. I have already washed my Caster in the river water and added fresh water to the casters. I have selected about a hundred or so casters which I have left out of the water so that they dry off and become floaters, (later this will balance the bait against the weight of the hook) and as such provide a hooked bait with as close to neutral buoyancy as possible. The most likely cause of missed bites and lost fish is the fact that the bait with the hook in it does not "pop" into the fishes mouth as easily as one of the free offerings, you need to make the bait react in a similar way as a "pop up" bait does in Carp fishing. Remember, the hook bait is already restrained by the hook length. Anything that gives you an "edge" is worth doing. Big roach are already THE most difficult fish to catch by far in the UK.

I have set up my tackle at 4ft 3ins deep,this is deeper than the swim in general but as I am fishing "shirt button" and intend to hold back on the pin this should send the float tackle through the swim at about 3ft 10ins deep. Over the course of the day I will constantly change the float depth, going "Overdepth" and holding back hard, to fishing through at mid depth. I will also change my shotting pattern from spread out to "Bulked" up. Big roach can turn up at all depths and in all current speeds, but you have to start somewhere so I nearly always start with "Shirt button" shotting. Don't make the mistake that they only like slack water as Mr Roach can, and will, feed in very fast water!!!

Fishing time!! I then bait the hook and cast out for my first trot through, in fact I have several trots through, just to see if they are already in the zone or if any thing is at home. Assuming that I do not get a 2lb Roach straight away I then consider what bait I am going to put in the swim, given these conditions I would start with 6-10 casters thrown in so that my bait follows immediately behind the free offerings and I would throw them in so that there is a spread of bait, if, when you have put in some bait you could surround all the free offerings within a 1ft diameter circle then they are too bunched up, if they would not fit in a 2ft circle then you have got it about right.

The tricky bit is where? You know where you want to catch fish so to compensate for pace and depth this is what you do, throw in 2 Casters when you are ready to start baiting the swim. Watch them go down if they sink about 6 inches over a foot of pace in the stream then for a swim 4ft deep you need to throw them in 7.5ft above the start of the MKZ, in other words a foot for every 6inch drop in the water, but remember the flow in the bottom 6 inches is slower than at the surface so take off 6 inches for this slow down.

You can never get it dead right, that is why you spread your bait so keep up the flow of bait until something happens. Given the conditions I have described, it should happen pretty quick. If it doesn't, give it half an hour and then up the rate of feed. To do this don't go from 6-10 Casters every cast to 12-20 Casters every cast. Keep the same amount of Casters but do it before you cast out and also when the float is halfway down the swim. The rule here is keep it constant, bore them into feeding, don't stop, be relentless. if you start catching, make sure you look into the mouth of the fish you catch. If there is evidence of a broken Caster in the fish's mouth or throat this is a sure sign that there are not too many fish in the swim. Cut the feed quantity in half but keep up the consistently.

Remember also that the bigger Roach will be hanging back at the bottom end of the swim so make sure you complete every trot through.

I have described a MKZ, this is not where you will catch all of your fish but it is rather a target for your loose feed to gather on the bottom, you will probably get most of your fish from this area but you will get the quality fish from just below this area.

On the Lea there is a lot of Chub and Barbel and these will ruin your swim for Roach so be careful not to over feed or you will find these other species move in and wipe you out.

Chub will not care what depth your loose feed goes through at, but their busyness throughout the swim will put the bigger roach off. A good way to frighten the Chub off is use a bait dropper, but that will scare the pants off the Big Roach so it is a definate NO No. Barbel will not care about a bait dropper, in fact they can often have a go at it as it empties. In this case you don't have to worry about the bait dropper frightening the Roach as the Barbel will have already done that for you. In this situation you can do one of two things. Either step up your gear and arm for Bear, OR, go and nick a cup of tea from some unsuspecting fool and go back an hour later and start again BUT this time cut the loose feed down.

I hope this is of help, I would be easier to show you rather than to try and write it up and there are also a lot of other things that I could mention that you could do to improve your chances, what I have tried to do is give you an idea of the basics as I do them, there are better Roach anglers out there that might do it differently but as a basic guide this does work.

Tight Lines

Back to the top