While most big roach from the River Trent are caught by barbel anglers these days, Martin Abonyi has been targeting the species with scaled-down feeder tactics this season, using small pellets on the hook – and with great success, too.
Over the past three weeks he’s landed a hat-trick of two-pounders, the biggest being this 2lb 10oz specimen he took on a recent session. The other two redfins scaled 2lb 5oz and 2lb 4oz. Targeting the river’s tidal reaches, Martin has been fishing with a cage feeder packed with Dynamite Baits Halibut and Hemp groundbait plus a few pellets, with an 8mm pellet hookbait on a size 14 Super Specialist hook.
IF YOU WANT TO CATCH A BIG RIVER ROACH, THESE STRETCHES OF RIVER OFFER YOU A GREAT CHANCE!
How he did it
"The Trent is a big river, so when I started my quest to catch a 2lb roach by design from there five years ago, I knew that it could be a bit of a needle in a haystack job. To begin with I had some success on the middle river, catching them to 1lb 9oz, but I felt I needed to be in an area that had produced two-pounders before," Martin told us.
"So, after a bit of research, I settled on a tidal section. Because there are so few people targeting them, I had to keep an eye on accidental roach captures made by barbel anglers. Most big roach are caught by them these days, so I knew the big ones weren't tackle-shy," he explained.
"But, I certainly didn’t want to catch them on barbel gear, so I fused a match-style approach with pointers from the specimen fishing world. I dusted off my Daiwa 11ft-13ft Amorphous Harrier Match quivertip rod, designed for the Trent in the 1980s, and paired this with a Shimano Baitrunner, as barbel are always a possibility."
"I used 10lb mainline to an 8lb fluoro hooklength, which may seem crazy to any self-respecting roach angler, but the Trent roach care little for subtlety! By fishing a 2oz feeder with a bow in the line and casting slightly upstream, the rig held bottom nicely."
"My groundbait was Dynamite Baits’ Halibut and hemp, with a few pellets, and I used the mix dry, as I wanted it to explode out of the feeder when it hit bottom, releasing its payload down the swim. My hookbait was an 8mm Trigga pellet, banded to a size 14 Super Specialist."
"This summer I targeted a swim where the flow crosses towards the far bank after a near-bank bend. This created an inviting crease which the roach were flitting in and out of to feed. On nearly every session I landed big roach up to 1lb 14oz – not loads, but the quality was astonishing."
"One of the highlights, though, has to be the cracking 2lb 5oz specimen I caught recently just as dusk was setting in! I’ve found that casting regularly keeps the barbel at bay. They turn up eventually, but by then I’m usually gone, as my sessions only last three to four hours."
THE BEST FISHING CHAIRS WILL HELP YOU STAY COMFORTABLE WHILE WAITING FOR BITES.
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