Catching roach on punched bread and feeder tactics (river Trent)

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Tackle

Rod

Leeda carp match 12ft feeder rod with a 1oz tip.
An old rod but excellent for the job. It has a lovely soft action and ideal for casting small feeders when the river is low and not got a lot of pace in it.

Reel

Garbolino challenger feeder reel.
The distance aspect wouldn't be needed for today's session but a lovely big reel with plenty of cranking power making it very easy to fish with and gives me the opportunity to fish longer if needed.

Line

6lb Maxima.
This might seem a bit over gunned to some but with constant casting I always prefer to go a bit heavier due to the durability of a thicker diameter line.

Hooklengh

4lb flurocarbon
Again this may seem on the heavy side but again it's more durable than lighter flurocarbons that can be prone to line twist with repeated casting.
I used a hooklengh of around 2ft on this session I would usually use 3 foot but with the river having very little flow on it I wanted to keep my hookbait close the my feed.

Feeder

Small 30g cage feeder.
When fishing for bigger species on rivers I usually use a plastic open ended feeder to make sure the bait releases on the bottom but on this session I want the bait to start to explode out of the feeder in the last couple of foot of the drop to create a cloud of bait in which my slow sinking bread hookbait will be falling through.

Hook

Kamasan b911 eyed size 14.
I like a nice big wide gape hook when feeder fishing for silvers with any bait because the more hook point exposed the more hooking power you have.


Bait

Groundbait

Plain old brown crumb is my go to river ground bait for most of my fishing. Natural fish aren't usually too picky and as long as it does the job I want it to I don't feel there's a need to be breaking to bank on exspensive brands for this type of fishing.

Hookbait

Bread! One of the best baits of all time and my favourite for this style of fishing. My groundbait is there to create a cloud so the fish will be targeting bait up off the bottom and 2 punches of bread gives me a hookbait with a lovely slow fall with most bites coming on the drop.


The session

I chose to fish quite close to my own bank to avoid the many canoes in the area and picked a spot about three rod lengths out. The river here is lovely and deep close in and is a natural holding area for fish of all species including our target fish the roach.
Two quick casts in the space of around five minutes put a decent cloud into the swim hopefully grabbing the attention of the fish downstream and drawing them in to my peg.
The third cast went out and after about 30 seconds the tip rattled away and the first roach of the session was hooked. Fishing so close in it was only about 5 turns of the reel and the fish was safely swung to hand with the size 14 hook positioned perfectly in the top lip.
The next cast saw a repeat of the previous one with another lovely stamp roach being swung in before being quickly unhooked and put back. This kind of feeder fishing is very much like speed fishing with a whip but with a rod and reel. The more you practice the faster you will become and you will soon be capable of building a big net of silvers in a short space of time.
I caught steadily for about half an hour and then the fish seemed to get a bit too scatty. I started to miss a few bites with the bait being stripped before the rod was even on the rest. To combat this I stopped using the rod rest. Instead I was feeling the feeder down and then holding the rod in my hand to constantly keep a tight line to the feeder. This allowed me to hit bites faster. When feeder fishing for smaller species missed bites are always an issue and it's very rare you'll hit every single bite. It's just a case of persevering with hooklenghs and hook sizes until you start connecting with a higher percentage of fish. Being confident that the terminal tackle was right it just came down to putting a bit less bait in so that the fish calmed down and started feeding a bit closer to the river bed allowing me more time to hit those quick bites. There's no point piling the bait in and getting bite after bite if there not resulting in fish caught and it's always worth allowing the swim to rest a bit while the fish clear some of the bait up and then start the process again.
After a steady 2 hour session I managed a good number of good quality roach and what a joy they where to fish for. I haven't had a session specifically targeting roach for a long time but I'll definitely be back as soon as possible for another session targeting these pristine examples of the species.

See below for a few photos from the session.

Feeder fishing for roach on the river Trent embankment bread punch



Feeder fishing river Trent embankment

Feeder fishing river Trent embankment



Feeder fishing river Trent embankment

Feeder fishing river Trent embankment big roach




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