Bloody hell.

Can anyone else remember roach-poles?

Now they seem to be some sort of alien life-form.

That’s right.

The days where you learned on a natural venue, no instant ton-ups, and thought things out for yourself, instead of being told the “in-method”.

No more. Read the mag, watch the video.

Progress.

And we’re all the poorer for it.

JonniTimms: What water are you fishing?

There may be people who know the water.

Hemp and tares might be an option to sort out the better fish. Sometimes they will bring you a stamp that you just don’t see on other baits!

In my excperience Jonni, roach fish on the pole can be very frustrating but also very rewarding.

Elastic wise I would recommend a ‘pingy’ 3s through a top 2 (allows fish upto 4oz to be swung) and a 5s in water over 10ft, to help set the hook.

Baits: you wont go far wrong with maggot, caster, worms over ground bait or hemp. Each tactic will require slightly different feeding/presentation.

Rig wise, I like to fish 0.14 mainline as I believe the stiffness of the mono helps reduce tangles. I then match my hooklenght/hook size to the quarry and elastic. I would suggest setting up 3 rigs to start with. One bulked down with a couple of droppers. One with a strund bulk and one shallow (2ft is a good starting point). I have found, particularly on commercials, roach feed quite positively so I don’t use droppers smaller that a 10. In my opinion if id doesn’t register on the float, it’s useless.

On the deck rigs, for worm, fish as close to dead depth as possible and start and inch off on maggot/cater/hemp. Be proactive on altering the shotting and depth though as it can really make a difference to catch rate.

I have yet to find a hook better than Mustad wide gape canal seed barbless (now Mustad AS07b) which suits maggots, caster and hemp. I like drennans silver fish pellet hook for worm but they are just my choices.

Float wise, for deck fishing I love the tubertini delta for grub fishing. And drenns caster or preston PB2 for shallow. If the fish come ultra shallow a blob works well, especially a large one which the fish hook them selves against.

The lake I fish usually involves a few balls of groundbait (VDE supercup & super match 50.50) laced with some grubs to attract the roach into the swim. I would start on the deck with a worm to see if the GB attract and bonus fish whilst pinging 5-10 caster every 20-40 seconds. The key is keeping the feed going in in a quantity that gets the fish competing and keeps them at a sensible catching level.

Often after only a few minutes you will see swirls near the surface of the water so it’s time to go shallow but have a look deep every half hour as wary or bonus fish may sit below the hungry fish picking off what gets through.

For hemp, I would feed a big pot at the start containing ½ hemp and ½ prepared crushed hemp (pour boiling water over the top the night before to cook the particles). I would them feed a decent pounch full every 5-10 minutes to keep them down as much as possible. Rig wise I would again set up 3 as before. Delta for the bulked rig, Styx for the spread bulk rig and a caster type float for up in water. One tip that ha caught me plenty of hemp fish is lowering the rig straight down (like when fishing pellet) over the last few feet of water. This can bring bites when laying the rig in makes you think the swim in devoid of fish!

Keeping it simple is the way.

Forgot to offer an opinion on the actual fishing.

I’ve usually found the best way to keep them on the deck is to put some hemp down at the start and feed casters quite heavily & infrequently. Then fish overdepth to keep the bait still.

Elastic and float size depending on depth of water, at some point though they invariably come up or wander off if they want to feed shallow.

Roach on the Pole.
( Not a Sowerbutts Spanish Reed with whippings )

For roach Colmic’s Jolly Pole floats are good, and as mentioned by Lump the Chianti floats are good too.
Middy High-Viz elastics are bright and effective
for Silvers, Green 3-4 even Purple 4-6 in case you hit something heavier than a lumpy roach.
If the water’s not too coloured on the day try hemp and tares. Casters are the all time favourite I guess. As mentioned get local opinion if you can. Tight line.

A few weeks from now the elderberries will be ripe , free bait, and it catches big roach.