Another Nice Thames Trotting Roach Bag

[Silverfisher]

After taking the weekend off I was back on the Thames today in the swim on the sandford old channel that produced bags of amongst other things 58 and 42 roach on Wednesday and Friday last week. It was warm and sunny again but unfortunately this time there was an awkward downstream wind. This had me fearing the worst given how annoying such winds can be but I ended up having another good session.

As usual I started fishing about 8 on maggot and had 10 bleak by around 8.30 when I switched to hemp which I fished until packing up at around 2.30 save for a couple brief excursions on caster. In that time I had another 7 bleak plus 48 decent roach, 6 respectable dace, 2 small silver bream and 2 small chublet so a pretty decent result given the conditions. Admittedly the average size of the roach was a bit smaller than those I’ve been getting recently but that was hardly surprising given how awkward presentation was but still reckon I had an around a 13-14lb bag again so I’m pretty happy with the result.

As usual all fish were caught on the 13ft drennan acolyte ultra float rod paired with the drennan 7 series 3000 float reel loaded with 3lb maxima to a 1.5g drennan loaded crystal insert to a drennan silverfish size 18 to 2.5lb hook to nylon. This was set up to trip the bottom in about 5ft of water. 10 of the bleak came on single red maggot with a couple to a single caster as did a dace and chublet with everything else coming to a single grain of hemp and loose feed was just hemp. I caught off the usual two lines at 1/4 and 1/3 of the way across but the shorter line was way more productive today as the longer line was very awkward in the wind most of the time. They were feeding fairly confidently today so had it not been so windy I reckon I could have eclipsed the 58 roach of Wednesday with the better line control less wind would have allowed but it was still a good day.

My grandad was with me again and after eventually doing a good bit of trotting on the last couple sessions he was having none of dealing with the wind again today so spent most of the day on the feeder. That started well for him with a small chub and a decent bream in the first couple casts but nothing followed them. He did eventually switch to trotting for the last couple hours but he’d missed the best of the fishing and conditions by then so only added about 10 fish made up of a pretty even mix of the same species as me.

All in all whilst the wind was frustrating as I’m sure it stopped another comfortably 50 plus roach session I didn’t fall far short of that so I still had another enjoyable session so feeling pretty chuffed now. The roach really have been coming out pretty consistently this month so long may it continue. Will have a day off tomorrow then be back out for another session on Wednesday.

Couple pics of the swim from near the start and near the end of the session plus a handful of roach to show the stamp/size range plus grandad with his bream.

 

[Silverfisher]

Well today’s session was certainly not another 40 or 50 odd roach bag like the last 3 sessions so not really worth it’s own report so I thought I’d tag it onto this one.

Conditions were not that dissimilar to the last couple sessions save for a bit warmer so whether that made a difference or that it was a couple days further on from the last rain as the bailiff suggested I’m not sure. I started about 8 as usual and by midday I’d had 15 bleak, 8 dace, 2 silver bream and 2 chublet which wad pretty standard but I’d only 23 roach which was a good 10 or so down on what I’d normally have by that time of day.

On the previous 3 sessions I’d had probably 3/4 of the roach before midday so it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to get 40 or 50 odd of them today so I decided to spend the last couple hours looking for perch on the feeder. Conventional baits were hammered by bleak so it was onto live baits which produced just a missed bite and one bump off so all in all a difficult day.

I’ll be back out for another go on Friday which looks a more roachy day as its forecast to be slightly cooler and overcast plus the river will have been topped up a little by the rain but that’s forecast tomorrow evening. Hopefully that’s mean I’ll be able to report back with another 40 or 50 odd roach bag again!

Few roach pics as usual.

 

[Silverfisher]

Well another session today that wasn’t really worth it’s own report so tagged onto this one again. Weather wise it was pretty much the same as the last few sessions but yesterday’s rain didn’t materialise and the river was now noticeably lower and clearer than it was at the start of the week. On Wednesday it was only really the roach numbers that were down but it seemed today that everything was put off by the dropping and clearing river.

I started about 8 and by around midday I’d only had 24 roach, a single dace and 10 bleak. Like on Wednesday it was clear that I wasn’t going to get a roach bag like that in the report that started this thread or the couple I had last week so I again decided to spend the last couple hours trying to get a perch on livebaits. That was pretty fruitless as well as had nothing but one small pike of about a pound so packed up at 2.

All in all a tough day on a river that has held its condition and form pretty well most of this month but is certainly in need of some rain now. Looks like we’ll have quite a lot of rain over the next 4 days so hopefully that’ll put it back into good form again for next week. I’d have taken the weekend off anyway but given I’m not a fan of actually fishing in the rain I expect my next session will be mid week when the rains past and I’ll hopefully reap the benefits of that rain and have another good session to report on.

Few roach pics as usual.

 

[endpeg]

Why don't you use a keepnet? A catch shot would be better.

 

[Silverfisher]

I used to quite a lot but have just got out of the habit of taking/using them as lots of places dont allow them or arent suitable for them. Plus its just another thing to carry isnt it and I'm very much a travel light angler. I'd put some to shame in regards to being economical with tackle! Also whilst I dont suppose they do them any harm its probably better for them to just be put back.