The float is unbeatable for river roach, but only in the right conditions. The rapid pace of the water after a deluge of rain often rules this out. The beauty of the float is its sensitivity for shy-biting species like roach. A feeder is a little too clumsy for my tastes.
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The old link ledger
The answer lies in the old-fashioned link-leger, the resistance of which the fish will struggle to detect when picking the bait up.
I clip several SSG shot on to a length of line that is tied to the mainline, using just enough shot to hold bottom. The link itself is around 6ins long. This means that when a fish picks up the bait the shot will remain on the deck and the first bit of resistance it will feel is the rod tip. By that point I’ll have seen the bite, struck and hooked the fish.
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Use your loaf
The bait bill for big roach in coloured rivers is extremely cheap. In fact, for less than a fiver you can sort yourself out with both hookbait and loosefeed.
Bread is my number one bait.I liquidise two loaves – crusts included – before I get to the bank and use a third for hookbaits.
I want to give the fish the best chance possible of seeing it in the murky water so I use a hookbait the size of a 20p coin.
That may seem too big to some anglers but I want to pick out the better stamp roach and this helps do just that.
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Serve up some bait
I feed a table tennis ball-sized ball of liquidised bread every 10-15 minutes, dropping it directly in front of me. The bait is then washed downstream to where the hookbait is sat.
The only other bait is half a bag of Dynamite Baits Pure Crushed Hempseed that is added to the liquidised loaves. Roach adore the stuff and the extra weight helps to keep the loosefeed in the swim for longer.
A combination of this rig and baiting approach will catch big roach from rivers all over the UK. The bites can be shy, but get it right and the real fish of a lifetime could be on the cards.