EVEN when the mercury plummets to below freezing, there are still fish to be caught by those willing to brave the conditions and wet a line, as Roger Mellon proved with this 3lb 2oz roach.
Fishing a tributary of the River Thames, he tempted the fish on stick float tactics, using a single red maggot hookbait on a size 18 hook and a 2lb 2oz hooklink.
Roger’s day started with a run of bleak, but eventually he began to pick up some decent roach by steadily feeding maggots and liquidised bread. But it wasn’t until he made one of his final casts of the day that he connected with the huge redfin, which he said bent his 11ft Daiwa Tournament Pro rod almost in half.
And, after it pulled the needle on his scales past the 3lb mark, Roger soon forgot the seven hours he had spent fishing in sub-zero temperatures!
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