ROLL THE DICE FOR BIG SPRING ROACH
Two lakes, one huge, one not so large ...but which would deliver the goods?
RELATIVELY few fish spend the majority of their time on the bottom – this is just an assumption we make because this is the easiest place for us to target them.
The higher the air pressure and the calmer the day, the harder it will be to get many species to drop through the water column and feed where you’d like them to be. Carp anglers, never slow on the uptake, have used zigs under such conditions for years but I rarely hear of specimenhunters exploiting the tactic.
This is surprising, because often their target fish – like big roach – will be out of float range.
A waggler allows you to fish on the drop and catch at any depth, but its Achilles heel is distance. So on my latest quest for redfins I had to fish outside the box!
There are days in spring that are as bleak in catching terms as the chilliest of winters. A china blue sky, a cold night, the barometer through the roof and not a breath of wind weren’t what I wanted to see in the forecast for the two days
I had free to fish. There was gardening to do, and even a spot of painting, but perhaps these could be put back to a day that might never come!
I would, however, be sensible by avoiding early mornings and staying in bed when the temperature was at its lowest. Instead I’d focus my attention on the afternoon and into dusk, when I reckoned I’d have the best chance of success.
As roach were my target and I needed to fish locally I was torn between an inland sea with a tiny population of these fish and a more manageable five-acre gravel pit with healthy numbers of roach, but of a smaller size.
After a bit of thought I decided to hedge my bets and visit the long shot first, and if I saw any promising signs I’d return to it later. If there was nothing I’d give myself a much better chance on the little pit and get a few bites in bad conditions – well, that was the plan.
The first afternoon I looked out over a vast expanse of water. Picking the right swim would be a long shot, but the glassy surface might just bless me with the sight of a rolling fish.
With bites likely to be at a premium I opted for selfhooking rigs. I teamed my 1.25lb test curve rods with reels loaded with 8lb Drennan Feeder & Method mono. Repeat casting at range takes its toll, and the last thing I wanted was an unforeseen breakage.
The first rod carried a classic short 5lb Supplex fluorocarbon hooklength rigged helicopterstyle, and a size 18 wide gape Specialist hook. A 30g feeder bomb finished things off, enough to cast the distance but not so heavy that it would bump the hook out of a roach’s mouth.
My second arrangement was a what I’d term a mini zig, enabling me to fish off the bottom at range. A 1.25oz lead sat on a clip system to which 3ft of standard 6lb Supplex was attached. At the opposite end to the lead I tied on a size 14 wide gape, creating a very short hair with a tiny piece of red foam threaded on to it. Instead of trapping it in place with a stop, I took a length of bait floss and threaded on three maggots using a fine needle. This floss was passed through the hair and fixed in place with a series of overhand knots.
The plan was to fish both rigs to the same spot and Spomb bait over the top of them on a little and often basis. It seemed like a good plan, but nothing works when your location is wrong. Despite watching the water like a hawk I spotted no fish activity and my alarms stayed silent.
As an angling writer I need to avoid blanks, so while the big-fish angler in me desperately
“The sky was so brittle it seemed as if it could shatter”
wanted to carry on, in all probability I wouldn’t get my job done – namely, catching fish. A change of venue I felt sure would help, and a 2lb roach was still on the cards.
The second afternoon saw a re-run of the weather, with a sky so brittle it seemed as if it could shatter. The mirror-calm lake’s surface looked equally fragile.
When my feeders landed on it I wondered if cracks, not ripples, would appear – this was a spring day to enjoy, but certainly not one for catching fish.
That, however, was my mission. With the natural food larder depleted by winter a bite, if I fished correctly, would be possible. The big difference between the two venues was that on this one I knew
I was close to roach. The rigs remained unchanged, but I altered the free offerings a little, with two medium Spombfuls of maggots and hemp kicking off proceedings. The feeders would then supply further food items, and I clipped on a spod to carry out a cloudy mix of Sticky Manilla Active powder, made very sloppy with water, hemp oil and cloudy Manilla liquid.
By using a spod I could create a greater spread and fill the water column with plenty of attraction to draw the roach in.
For a couple of hours the bowstring-taut lines refused to budge, but as the sun fell and the lake began to reflect a warm amber glow my quarry couldn’t ignore me any longer.
With the air pressure still high, the first bites came off the bottom and good roach hung themselves on the zig, leading to unmissable bites and big drop-backs. The shoal moved in unison with the sun and the horizon mimicked the lakebed – once the golden orb touched it, bites were transferred to the helicopter rig as the roach at last became willing to poke their noses into the gravel.
The tide had turned on a set of challenging conditions and I was kept busy with the landing net, scooping up a succession of lovely fish. The evening weather was great and now the fishing was, too.
Whatever the conditions this weekend, I can assure you a fishing trip is always better than DIY. Just think outside the box and bites will come.