Mole hill soil is suppose to be one of the best to use for roach, it’s free too ~clap

for fishing with bait other than bloodworm and joker, ive always used dynamite silver x roach and brown crumb, it smells of coriander which is a proven roach attractor and is full of hempy goodness that will fizz and all little bits come off it which attract roach all day long. then the brown crumb adds actual food to the mix that roach adore!!! cup 3 balls of this in and loose feed pinkies and it will be roach soup!!!!

danish sit behind ugly harrison he will put you right

nah they love it!!!! aslong as there is a decent head of roach. end of day roach love bread punch and brown crumb is bread so by my reckoning i want something roach love in my bait lol just half a dozen pinkies fed regular and feed to your bites.

terry used to fish top lake with small regular balls of green swimstim and fish maggot and caught roach right from the off but the carp would show and disturb the roach but that was when there was more carp then. But he still swears by it unforTUNATELY YOUR VENUE has more roach in it where maybe caster will replace the maggot through the session and lay money he wiil still do small balls of gb

Its funny, but traditionally, for roach, ground bait was only ever used as a carrier of feed when loosefeeding became too difficult at distance. Generally it was brown crumb, with a bit of white to make it stickier. They key to varying the consistency was how damp you made it.

@baitchef wrote:

Its funny, but traditionally, for roach, ground bait was only ever used as a carrier of feed when loosefeeding became too difficult at distance. Generally it was brown crumb, with a bit of white to make it stickier. They key to varying the consistency was how damp you made it.

or PV1 if you remember that

Try 50/50 sensas match blend and roach noire or on lighter botomed venues replace the roach noire with dynamite baits natural roach.

If there are skimmers you can also add up to 1/3rd of a fishmeal based groundbait as the roach will still have it.

Quite often, especially in winter you will find that the roach don’t respond to the groundbait or that they avoid the groundbaited area therefore it is best to fish two or three lines such as 4-6m loose feed, 11-13m groundbait, and then 13-14m loose feed.

If they are having it you’ll catch at 4-6m but if it’s clear, more often than not you’ll either have to fish over your groundbait or just past it.

Even if you’re not catching over your groundbait it’s always worth trickling caster over the top and trying it occasionally to see if the fish settle on it.

On many commercials you’d be looking for a mixed bag of roach and skimmers but sometimes the roach won’t come close in especially is it’s cold and clear so in essence the 4-6m line is a throw away line, but very occasionally it will come good.

Your main lines 11-13 and 13-14.5 should be fished at 11 and 1-o-clock to keep the line seperate.

On good days you’ll catch over the groundbait and on other days they’l back off and stay just off the groundbait line, drifting in and out.

If you’ve fed two line you then have the option of fishing the other line, (normally the loose fed line), if the groundbait doesn’t work.

You don’t need to feed a great deal on many venues and sometimes the fish won’t take the groundbait at all but every venue is different.

If I was purely roach fishing and I wanted to fish one line I’d go for loose feed every time, however if skimmers are on the cards you have to cover your options and that generally means groundbait in addition to a loose fed line.

danish….on the match lake i would suggest to do what ptb told you green ss with caster maggot approach as the roach responded to fish meal gb and do the skimmers,small tench and crucians,i don’t think the carp will give you to much hassle unless you start fishing with corn ect

Dave knows his way around Stafford Moor a bit and some of his advice might be based on his experiences there. Have a look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0nffS0rX6Y&feature=related if you havnt already. Not exactly roach fishing, but some of the principles are similar and it might help you out a bit with regards to rigs and feeding. It could also come in handy if ever your on skimmers.

I just thought this may add this to the ‘mix’….sorry.I don’t fish many commercial waters but both my clubs feature both roach packed carp lakes. My choice is for the waggler would be roach noire and dynamite black 50/50. I don’t worry about the fishmeal content anymore as most lakes see alot of pellet. The groundbait is mixed hard and sticky and in summer over night to kill any action, I believe hot water will do the same thing.In many top anglers opinions (and mine)! dark groundbaits are better than light unless the roach see alot of bread, normally this is where the ducks are fed.The lighter colour may show up the shapes of small fish over the top and attract predator’s even if there are none in your water the roach still have their natural instincts and will feed quickly and move on rather than graze if they feel vulnerable.If you are worried about over feeding groundbait then run your mix through a fine sieve to get the feed content down. This time of year squat is a great additive and brilliant holding bait as are casters but dead red maggots can be just as affective. During the summer i will just add cooked hemp, not grilled as the roach on my lakes come up in the water and become a pain to hook. A small amount of corn won’t hurt.If you want a bit of action in the mix blitz up some cooked hemp to release the oils.If start getting carp trouble then cut back on your feed if loose feeding over the groundbait. If the roach come up and the carp aren’t a pain then you can feed more or check that your mix hasn’t dried out. Remember to split your mix one with caster etc, one without and only add the feed as needed to the feeding mix this stops any floaters and will help stop balls from braking up in mid air.As for floats a straight waggler 3aaa ish if its windy under shot slightly and put a row of 6/8s on the deck, as the float moves the anchoring shots slow the movement down. it’s a balancing act but you can get away with quite alot of lead on the deck and still get bites (because of the superior presentation) from roach but skimmers and bream are real suckers for it when using BIG wagglers 6gms-16gms + and lots of heavy groundbait.Remember there are no ‘magic’ mixes it’s just confidence in a bag. Although molehill/bread punch and plain brown crumb has helped to catch more than most!

When i fished the canals around doncaster a popular mix was supercup,supermatch and brown crumb.With this 3 part mix you could vary each amount depending on time of year or how hard the fishing was so that in effect when you got into deepest darkest winter you could be using 6 parts supermatch,2 parts supercup and 1 part brown crumb giving an active low feed groundbait.Alternativly in summer 3 parts supercup,2 brown crumb,and 1 part supermatch(to darken it)would give a higher food content.Not an idea of mine but a recipe given to me by Kev Jones of Barnby Dun angling(vonks)as told to him by some of the Barnsley blacks.

Baitchef my approach has nothing to do with SM as it is a unique venue where you can still get big weights in the winter.

I’d approach any stillwater including some canals with a similar approach. If it was a roach only venue I probably wouldn’t use groundbait at all especially at this time of year.

Rig wise I’d have 3 rigs a bulk with 2 droppers, shirt button style and one for shallow, but I’d start with the bulk rig.

Feeding would be hemp/caster with maggot over the top and on the hook.

I’d start with double maggot on the hook keep on trying caster as the session progressed.

Unlike some I’m not adverse to feeding both maggot and caster on the same line as caster will hold the bigger fish and maggot keeps the small fish happy.

On the short line I’d just drip feed with caster as it can pay off later in the session.