July Thames Roach Campaign Summary

[Silverfisher]

Well today brings an end to my month of targeting Thames roach from 3 new swims on the sandford old channel (my club only had the other bank previously) on hemp and it’s been thoroughly enjoyable. I decided at the start of July that given I had the time to do it properly due to being furloughed that I was going to commit the whole month to relearning how to trot for roach on hemp as I hadn’t fished that way in a few years. Home early from todays session due to the heat so thought I’d sum up the sessions roach numbers wise from the rough amount of time spent on hemp. The hemp has picked up anything from couple to a dozen other species a session as well like Dace, Silver Bream, chub etc but I haven’t committed those numbers to memory lol. Dates, Roach numbers and rough times as follows:

1st - 18 from 3 hours
3rd - 26 from 5 hours
6th - 56 from 6 hours
7th - 15 from 4 hours
10th - 31 from 6 hours
12th - 12 from 3 hours
15th - 58 from 6 hours
17th - 42 from 6 hours
20th - 48 from 6 hours
22nd - 23 from 4 hours
24th - 24 from 4 hours
29th - 48 from 6 hours
31st - 13 from 2 hours

So basically more good sessions than bad with a couple really good ones and none truly awful. Not had any big uns unfortunately but a few maybe 3/4 pounders have come out with the average size being about 1/4 pounders. Going to try mix up my fishing next month (want to get to sea or at least another river!) but I suspect a fair bit of time will still be committed to roaching as I’m pretty addicted!

Few of the nicer examples below, if you live within reach of this neck of the woods and like roach get out and have a go at them

 

[Silver fan 82]

Well today brings an end to my month of targeting Thames roach from 3 new swims on the sandford old channel (my club only had the other bank previously) on hemp and it’s been thoroughly enjoyable. I decided at the start of July that given I had the time to do it properly due to being furloughed that I was going to commit the whole month to relearning how to trot for roach on hemp as I hadn’t fished that way in a few years. Home early from todays session due to the heat so thought I’d sum up the sessions roach numbers wise from the rough amount of time spent on hemp. The hemp has picked up anything from couple to a dozen other species a session as well like Dace, Silver Bream, chub etc but I haven’t committed those numbers to memory lol. Dates, Roach numbers and rough times as follows:

1st - 18 from 3 hours
3rd - 26 from 5 hours
6th - 56 from 6 hours
7th - 15 from 4 hours
10th - 31 from 6 hours
12th - 12 from 3 hours
15th - 58 from 6 hours
17th - 42 from 6 hours
20th - 48 from 6 hours
22nd - 23 from 4 hours
24th - 24 from 4 hours
29th - 48 from 6 hours
31st - 13 from 2 hours

So basically more good sessions than bad with a couple really good ones and none truly awful. Not had any big uns unfortunately but a few maybe 3/4 pounders have come out with the average size being about 1/4 pounders. Going to try mix up my fishing next month (want to get to sea or at least another river!) but I suspect a fair bit of time will still be committed to roaching as I’m pretty addicted!

Few of the nicer examples below, if you live within reach of this neck of the woods and like roach get out and have a go at them

Good angling mate, it's a skill to get trotting right IMO. Some lovely looking roach too.

 

[Silverfisher]

Thanks mate. I think I’ve fished pretty well most days given I’d not done it for a while. Was only really one day when I knew I was all out of sync but can’t get it right every time lol. And yeah there’s been some lovely fish, not many really small ones at all which is one of the benefits of hemp.

 

[Cobweb]

Well done sir. Great results and some fine roach in the photos

 

[Godber]

Great post, lovely fish mate, a really nice read. ?

 

[Silverfisher]

Thanks both ??not much beats trotting for roach does it ?

 

[Silver fan 82]

Thanks mate. I think I’ve fished pretty well most days given I’d not done it for a while. Was only really one day when I knew I was all out of sync but can’t get it right every time lol. And yeah there’s been some lovely fish, not many really small ones at all which is one of the benefits of hemp.

Yeah I'm really going to need to use more hemp in my fishing.

 

[Silverfisher]

It definitely is the best bait for river roach in my experience, at least from July through to October if it stays warm. Basically it’s a necessity on the Thames until October as the bleak just ruin maggot fishing whilst it’s warm lol

 

[Silver fan 82]

It definitely is the best bait for river roach in my experience, at least from July through to October if it stays warm. Basically it’s a necessity on the Thames until October as the bleak just ruin maggot fishing whilst it’s warm lol

Do you think that hemp picks out the bigger fish in the shoal?

 

[Silverfisher]

I’m not sure it necessarily picks out the bigger fish at the top end of the size range as I’m sure they’d be just as happy with say a maggot but you certainly don’t get as many small ones as on maggot which I guess gives the bigger ones more chance to get to the bait. So as a result it definitely ups the average size.

 

[Zerkalo]

I think even the worst days you've had would make a good day for me on the Severn!

 

[Silverfisher]

Well it is a very roachy river and I havent gone in completely blind so dont be so hard on yourself you’ve only been doing it for a month haha

I might not have done that much hemp fishing before this season but I have been fishing the Thames one way or another for I think 13-14 years now so have had a bit of a head start on you

 

[PJ Rothwell]

Looks like a month to remember, some lovely roach there and a great way to fish for them

 

[Zerkalo]

Well it is a very roachy river and I havent gone in completely blind so dont be so hard on yourself you’ve only been doing it for a month haha

I might not have done that much hemp fishing before this season but I have been fishing the Thames one way or another for I think 13-14 years now so have had a bit of a head start on you

I've noticed you only fish for a few hours at a time too! I was there all day when I had a 5lb bag and just for the evening but still 6 hours on the other days.

 

[Silverfisher]

Well I aim for a 6 hour ish session when I have a full day free. Well 6 to 7 hours but I always do half an hour or so on maggot whilst I get some hemp in to kick the swim off so I haven’t included that in the times above as really without hemp on the hook you aren’t properly fishing at this time of year. Generally the best of the fishing is in the morning so that makes up most of the session (accounts for about 2/3 of the session and usually brings about 3/4 of the fish) then I just fish on until pushing mid afternoon to fill the day then be in the car for 3 to beat the traffic. Of the apparently shorter sessions some are genuinely shorter sessions when I’ve got something else on in the afternoon so have to head off early but for others that’s just the time I fish hemp. I don’t necessarily pack up after that time but if it’s a bit quiet on the hemp front I might stick a feeder out or something for the rest of the session just to see what’s going on. Which hasn’t been much on that front this season so is a good job the hemp fishing has been good more often than not!

 

[Davethefish]

They look in good condition as well SF, bodes well for the future ( I hope ! )

 

[Blanks]

Nice fish, hemp is a brilliant bait on rivers.

 

[Silverfisher]

Yeah they have been generally in fairly good nick save for the odd one that appeared to have had the odd brush with pike! And yeah wouldn’t be without hemp on the Thames that’s for sure.

Those in the OP were some of the better examples so in the interest of balance these are the sort of stamp size so still pretty good and tend to be in even better nick at that size. Can never have too many roach pics can you