TALKING POINT Return of the roach – how the UK’s favourite species is making a comeback
The capture of the season’s biggest roach highlights the huge success of Avon Roach Project, but can the scheme be repeated on other rivers?
“The fish was colossal. I’ve never seen anything like it”
THE BIGGEST roach of the season has been taken from a stretch of the Hampshire Avon, a river which is enjoying an explosion of the species following a successful restoration project to rejuvenate stocks.
Simon Daley got his hands on what many consider to be the Holy Grail of angling when he landed the stunning 3lb 8oz specimen during a recent session in high-water conditions. He timed his trip perfectly, as a flurry of 2lb specimens had already graced his net before the fish of his dreams pulled his float under.
“After a tense fight, I drew it over the net and was gobsmacked at its size,” he told us. “The fish was colossal. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
But Simon isn’t the only angler enjoying the Hampshire Avon’s roach boom, and the recent surge in redfin sport on the iconic river can largely be accredited to the work of the Avon Roach Project (ARP). Co-founder Trevor Harrop explained how the river has been transformed since the project started.
“We love seeing roach catches like this on the Avon again, and it may even be one of our original stocked fish,” he said.
“A 3lb roach would usually be around 15 years-old, but you get some that seem to shoot ahead of the rest, and the clean nature of this fish suggests that it could be a bit younger because usually when they get old, they start to lift scales.”
“These large fish have always been in the Avon, but before we started our work they would usually be mixed in with shoals of chub or other species. Now that the river is brimming with roach of all sizes again, they are shoaling together.”
But how was this success achieved? Trevor revealed how the ARP has almost rewritten science when it comes to river restoration and stocking.
“We wanted to maintain the genetic purity of roach stocks within the river, which is why by using manmade spawning boards we collect our stock from the already resident fish. While at the start we were only finding small numbers of fish spawning, there would always be some bigger specimens there. It’s the genes of these fish that we have reared on.”
The incredible findings from the river’s rejuvenation are detailed in a new Avon Roach Project book, and among the most fascinating of these was the revelation that in 9 out of 11 years the roach spawned across the whole river on exactly the same date April 24! Trevor is hoping that the book will inspire others to follow their lead in restoring river roach stocks. One man keen to replicate the success on his local water is Dr Mark Everard, who has already placed spawning boards in the Bristol Avon.
“The heroic acts of the ARP are going to be hard to repeat but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can’t all do to help,” he said.
“It starts with habitat management, because a lot of our rivers are badly damaged. Historic engineering has destroyed parts of the habitat on the Bristol Avon and this vandalism has made it harder
for fish stocks to be self-sustaining. They need adequate food, safety from predators and somewhere to spawn, but I’ve seen rivers stripped bare of vegetation. They are often treated more like drains than rivers.”
Efforts are also underway to return Norfolk’s River Wensum to its former glory. The Wensum Working Group’s Tim Ellis said: “Historically, the Wensum produced very large roach, and a lot of them too. But anglers’ records clearly show that they have badly declined in numbers and size. The Group, and others, have been trying to find the reasons for this, and to address them. Wensum anglers have been trialling fry refuges, as well as restoring existing or derelict ditch mouths and taking other measures to help the survival of young roach populations, such as planting riparian trees to provide cover.
“Overall, the chances of us replicating everything the ARP have done is small but hopefully we can achieve something by taking measures to nurture the river environment. This will include limiting barriers to fish movement, improving water quality and pushing for management of predators.”