Roach return to Avon thanks to DIY breeders

PRIZED roach have made an overwhelming return to one of the UK’S premier fishing rivers thanks to two anglers’ homemade breeding plans.

Numbers of the coarse fish in the River Avon dwindled more than 20 years ago due to a combination of factors – from a change in farming practices to effective predators like cormorants.

Fishermen Trevor Harrop and Adam Price took matters into their own hands 10 years ago with a breeding programme, fixing keep nets to 1m-long wooden boards to replicate the walls of water moss that are the natural spawning grounds for roach.

The planks were suspended on the banks of the Avon and lifted out after the eggs had been laid before being driven to Mr Harrop’s Ringwood, Hants, home and placed in tanks along with a squirt of tomato feed. They hatched a fortnight later.

After 11 months the fry are placed in private ponds for three years before being put into the Avon, with tens of thousands released.

Mr Harrop, said: “People are catching roach up and down the river. One man caught 49 in one afternoon and that hasn’t been heard of in decades.”