Mark Pollard is your guide to catching big nets of roach.
Timely Winter League Final advice that will work in all matches here...
THE roach fishing on the drains and rivers of Eastern England has never been better!
The fish-packed Old River Nene, Factory Bank and the Twenty Foot Drain in Cambridgeshire will all be used for the Angling Trust Winter League Final at the end of the month, and many of those taking part will be on swims where a 20lb netful is a real possibility.
But how do you win the undoubted ‘fish race’ that will be required? Even in the best swims there is a right and a wrong way to approach a match.
Roach of all sizes are here so you can either get stuck in and play the numbers game or be bolder and fish for the better stamp of fish.
Both approaches work, but according to Matrix and Hinder’s-backed match legend Mark Pollard, playing safe and going for quantity rather than quality is the way to go.
“It makes sense to go for speed and catch one-a-chuck,” Mark said. “A fish a minute equates to 300 in the net at the end of the match, which is 20lb at the scales wherever you are fishing. It’s a busy way to fish, and requires concentration. Making the right decisions is key.”
The 20ft Drain on the outskirts of the town of March is arguably the stand-out fishery of the three being used for the final. You’ll want to draw swims around the footbridge and road bridge.
Mark was only too pleased to turn up on a mild, windless winter day to demonstrate the approach and the speed you need to fish at to be in with a shout of a good section score.
GET ON THE WHIP
“To catch numbers of fish you have to get them at close range. The good news on the 20ft is that there’s a great depth around 4m or 5m out, which means whip range,” Mark explained.
“You can fish the pole with elastic but this slows you down. A whip to hand with a flick tip is miles quicker. I’ve timed myself here before and caught 29 small roach in 10 minutes. You can’t match that pace by fishing longer, where you have to break
down a few sections of pole. When plumbing up I try to find a spot just over the marginal shelf in the full depth of the drain.”
POSITIVE RIG
“There’s absolutely no place for light floats when you’re on a shedful of fish – you want to get the bait down to the roach in seconds. That means a big float that will also offer good presentation if the wind is a bit tricky,” Mark revealed.
“With around 7ft of water to go at I’ll use a 3g Mark Pollard Roach pattern, with a nice visible bristle and a classic pear-shaped body.
“This can be swung out easily, even in a headwind. Shotting is just an olivette and three No10 Stotz droppers spaced 2.5ins apart above the short 6ins hooklink. This gives the bait a slower fall in the final bit of the swim where the fish are.
“Lines are robust, to deal with swinging in a lot of fish and to minimise tangles, which will slow you down. Mainline is 0.14mm Power Micron to a hooklink of 0.10mm and a size 16 Kamasan B511 hook.
“When there are so many fish in the peg, they’re not at all fussy about how big the hook is!”
THE SESSION
Without feeding a thing, Mark ran his rig through the peg and caught a roach immediately!
After feeding he settled into a robot-like routine of ‘catch and feed’ with a roach, sometimes two, coming to hand every minute. He even caught one and lassoed another roach in the line above the hook, showing just how many fish were there!
“This place is absolutely solid and the only danger I can see is trying to chase the bigger fish with other baits, or changing your presentation,” Mark said.
“Don’t! Come back with a roach every chuck and you should have done enough for a big weight.”
In among the small roach was the odd 8oz fish and chunky perch – handy little bonuses – and by the end of five hours he’d caught getting on for 40lb of roach. The amazing thing was that none of them showed signs of having been caught before!