Winning tips from Cameron Hughes
The bigger fish will take casters close in on the drop
IF YOU’VE got a silver fish match coming up in the next few weeks you’d be right to assume that skimmers will play a major part in your approach.
After all, these fish are great weight builders and where you find one, others won’t be too far away. But what about roach?
It may seem that a weight of this species won’t pull the scale dial down enough to win when the weighing-in party comes calling. But like the skimmers, roach in commercial fisheries weigh surprisingly heavy... and unlike skimmers, you can rely on them to feed.
On a harder day, with few skimmers to catch, going for roach can be a winning approach. Even if the bream are having it, several pounds of roach added to your tally can make a big difference.
The good news is that you can catch roach while fishing for skimmers, but it pays to have a dedicated line at closer range reserved for catching them.
Daiwa ace Cameron Hughes knows the value of roach on commercials – they’ve played a big part in his winter campaign on the Garbolino Silverfish League at Meadowlands Fishery.
He’s in with a great shout of winning the series, and looking back on his weights, roach have played just as much of a part as those skimmers.
“On good pegs, skimmers will dominate but of course, you don’t always draw them. That means catching whatever’s in the peg,” Cameron said. “I’ve won my section with 19lb in this league and on that occasion 16lb of that was roach. Fish purely for skimmers and you’d not catch a weight like that.”
Cameron’s roach approach is not too dissimilar to fishing for skimmers, using groundbait on the long pole line but also having a second, shorter, line on the go where a bigger stamp of fish should eventually start to show.
PICKING YOUR LINES
“My main line is at 14.5m into the deepest water. This is where the fish will settle and feed
confidently, and I’d expect to catch skimmers here,” Cameron said. “However, you always need a second line to rest the main one. By putting in a second swim at around 6m I’ve got another option and provided that there’s enough depth I can expect to catch well late on. Around 5ft of water is perfect for this short line, ideally on a flat bottom but even if I was fishing on the marginal slope, this wouldn’t worry me unduly.”
PRESENTING THE BAIT
“Many anglers lay the rig in one way all day and think that’s okay, but varying how you do this will pick off bigger roach,” he said.
“On one drop I might lay the rig in and then, on the next, slowly lower it directly down to the bottom.
“Another good trick is to flick the rig out past the pole-tip on a tight line, holding the pole halfway down the section and then, as the rig settles, push the rest of the section out.
“This keeps a tight line as the rig settles, and can work for bigger roach. I set my rigs to fish 1.5ins overdepth but if I’m missing bites I’ll move to dead depth or even just off bottom.
“Top hookbait is a single caster, although double caster can pick out a few proper roach.”
MOVING SHORT
“It is very tempting to try and catch short early in the match as it’ll be quicker if you can, but experience tells me that even in coloured water, the roach