SEPTEMBER’S THE TOP TIME FOR ROACH...
...and you can win with them! Thames expert Carl Eland shows how
WITH 30lb winning weights of roach from the Thames around Medley, Abingdon and Culham, the river is proving to be a big draw with match anglers.
Oxford matchman John Beesley predicted in last week’s Angling Times that there was 10lb of roach in every peg on the river from Oxford to Benson, so we had to venture down to see what all the fuss was about.
Drennan Oxford’s Carl Eland agreed to show us the river’s roach form, picking the Culham section near Abingdon...
DECIDING TACTICS
“In a match, speed is key so that means the pole for presentation and accuracy. I use the pole to hand for speed fishing or go for short lining at 11m or 13m, slower but better if the wind is wrong.
“You need the wind off your back or hardly blowing at all to fish to hand properly.”
POSITIVE FEEDING
“You need to bombard the swim with feed at the start, creating an area to run the rig over, then top it up when bites fade away. I’ll throw in 14 balls of groundbait then top up once or twice with a couple more during the session.”
THE GROUNDBAIT MIX
“To keep costs down and add weight to the mix I use molehill soil from behind my peg.
“I’ll collect a couple of pints of soil to go with a kilo each of brown crumb, Sensas Black Lake and Sensas Roach. I also add a touch of red Sensas Pastoncino, a powdered biscuit that Thames roach love.”
AN EYE ON SKIMMERS
“I like to feed and fish to give me a chance of bream and skimmers too. So, of the 14 balls I feed, 10 will be a 50/50 mix of soil and groundbait and I will then cup in four more ‘rich’ balls (above) – 75 per cent groundbait to 25 per cent soil. To this I add chopped worm, caster, dead maggots, hemp and dead pinkies that are also fed with those opening balls. Cupping these in creates a tight target area where I’d expect the skimmers to be.”
BIG RIGS
“I use 2g and 3g Drennan AS7 patterns on the long pole with an olivette and a few No8 droppers spaced below. Lines are 0.12mm Supplex main to a hooklink of 0.10mm Supplex Fluorocarbon with a No6 solid elastic.
“I’ll use a 2g rig fished 1ins overdepth, and a 3g float for skimmers, with 6ins of line on the deck. For roach I fish a size 18 Drennan Wide Gape Match hook (above), a 16 or 14 for skimmers so I can fish worms. Hookbait for the roach is single or double caster, for the skimmers it’s a worm with the end nipped off. ”