Keith Arthur’s views on the news
Use scaled-down barbel tactics if you want a monster
PERCH have been the marquee fish of the English angling world for some time, with specimens over 4lb regularly caught.
But are they really the only superstars in terms of large average weight of specimens? I think roach are on the verge of stealing their crown, judging by recent captures.
And how about bream? In our natural rivers, lakes and canals, there are unprecedented numbers of big bream. Over the past few years, ‘slabs’ of 7lb-plus have become pretty common.
As far as my local River Thames is concerned, I often quote the old Francis Francis club records from the tidal Thames. It’s not that many years ago they had never weighed in a bream over 4lb. Their biggest now exceeds 10lb and several of our largest rivers have bream in that range... in good numbers.
Not many anglers try to catch them, though, and they are often a by-product of carp or barbel fishing.
As I said, though, I believe the real stars, the genuine successors to Prince Perch, are roach. They are not easy to be selective with. They won’t often be caught on conventional roach baits such as maggots, hemp or caster – at least the real big ones won’t be. The main reason is that there are way too many smaller roach, plus dace, the ubiquitous perch and those flipping bream.
I have absolutely no doubt that anyone wanting to launch a campaign for big, natural, river roach needs to use scaled-down barbel tactics, especially on the many rivers where they are heavily fished for.
There is already no doubt that the Severn and Thames are producing roach of a size rarely, if ever, previously seen. My suspicion is that the Trent and Warks Avon in particular would do the same.