Autumn is often a time when specimen anglers around the country turn their attention to roach, and for good reason. Not only is it a glorious time to be out on the bank, it is a perfect time to catch big roach as they begin to feed with confidence before the winter sets in.
Particularly on big carp waters, where big roach are becoming more prolific, it gives anglers a chance to visit fisheries that are often far too busy during the warmer months with carp anglers. Not only this, but the carp that have been pressured all year usually start to reduce their feeding activity from November onwards, giving the roach chance to feed without being bullied out of the swim.
Noticing a change in the weather recently, with slightly milder temperatures than we had been experiencing, Andy Zegzdryn decided to try and capitalise on it by targeting roach on the famous Brasenose 1 Lake at Linear Fisheries. This lake produced a record-equalling roach for Dai Gribble in 2024 and it can get busy with roach anglers, but Andy managed to get ahead of the pack, banking this truly giant 3lb 14oz specimen.
THE BEST SPECIMEN RODS ARE DIEAL FOR CATCHING LARGE ROACH ON FEEDER TACTICS...
"After arriving at the lake, I had a good walk around and chose a swim on the NW side of the lake as the wind was going to swing SE for the evening and I really fancied the roach to follow," Andy explained.
"I got some groundbait and hemp out into the swim, followed by two maggots feeders over the top baited with 4 maggots and settled in for the session ahead," he added.
"Things were quiet to begin with, but as the light started to fade, a shoal of fish came on the feed. For about three hours, it was frantic and I could hardly keep two rods in the water. I landed plenty of good roach with most averaging around the 1lb 8oz mark."
As expected, after the initial period of activity, bites began to tail off as Andy caught a few fish from the shoal. However he kept casting with the same regularity to keep some bait going into the swim which saw some fish return to the area to feed.
"I started to get some really finicky indications, but I remained patient hoping to hook another fish or two that were clearly in the swim. After dancing around, the bobbin pulled up and stayed there, so I picked the rod up, this time feeling much more resistance on the end.," he recalled.
"The unmistakable headshakes that were transmitted down the rod signalled I had hooked another roach, so I began cautiously reeling it in as it felt a good fish. However big I thought it was couldn't have prepared me for when I actually saw it, I couldn’t believe how big it looked, it was massive!"
"The scales went 3lb 14oz and I was shaking. A big roach is such a rare thing these days, especially one approaching this size."
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