Lay in lighter rigs to target big Irish roach
Without doubt one of my favourite weeks of the year is the World Pairs in Ireland – not only is the scenery amazing but the fishing is pretty special too!
This year I found myself doing more pole fishing than has been the case in the past events, and what became very apparent when catching both roach and hybrids was that they weren’t feeding on the bottom!
Every bite, even when fishing an on-the-deck rig, would come as the rig was falling through the upper layers of the water.
On some venues you’d often struggle for a bite on a deck rig, and yet put a rig out set at half-depth and you’d get a bite every cast!
Taking this into account, it quickly became apparent that heavy rigs were not the ones to use and I found myself fishing floats as light as 4x12 on some venues to get bites.
With the water being so clear the roach can see everything, hence a slow falling, natural-looking hookbait becomes essential.
How you laid your rig in also made a huge difference to your catches. Lowering it straight down, as I’d normally do on a commercial, was totally ineffective.
It was far better to flick the rig out to the side of the pole then hold tight on the float so everything fell in an arc. Bites then came either on the fall or just before the float settled.