Two's Company.....

 With the really cold stuff coming in soon I felt I had to get out before it really gets a grip on the river systems and try to catch some winter Roach. Today I only had a small window of opportunity to get out and do some fishing as I had work as well, so cramming in a nice 3 hour session in search of a chunky red-fin was my plan, after around an hour commute to my destination I had arrived at the river of my choice, I quickly got ready as I didn't have a lot of time available and I had a positive tug on my float on the first cast, which I missed but second time around I did connect with it and ended up being a 3lbs 9oz Chub, which was quickly followed by a smaller Chub around the 2lb mark, but after the 2 fish I spent about another 45 minutes trotting through with only a couple of touches on the float.

 The bites had dried up so I moved upstream to a slightly shallower stretch where I hoped some Roach were laying up and again quiet quickly the Chub showed their eagerness for a bit of bread, with 3 Chub coming to net in quick succession all around the 3lb mark, so I decided to fish an inch over-depth and almost immediately had a take but it was a very delicate pull and the Chub normally nail it, so I played the fish with caution and I'm glad I did when a lump of Roach was powering against the current heading upstream I started to worry as I was only using a size 16 barbless hook, with a little tension I managed to guide it straight into my net, I'd done it, more luck than judgement though I think, but the size of the Roach had me stumped and I wanted to know how big she was and the scales revealed 2lbs 7ozs my biggest of the season so far.

Erm.... it's been around awhile.

 I had caught my first Roach of the session so I set my keepnet up and then crushed up some bread to get them feeding, hopefully bagging a couple more as the light was failing and within 5 minutes of slipping that one in the net my float slid away again and another quality sized Roach was on the end and for the next 10 minutes the fishing was absolutely brilliant with another 4 Roach coming to the net which weighed, (9ozs, 14oz, 1lb 4oz and 1lb 13oz), some exceptional fishing in what was a usually slow start was really fast becoming one of those sessions you will never forget, plus it was only getting better when my next trot ended up banking a 2lbs 3ozs red-fin, I couldn't believe it and not 10 minutes later I had another 2lb Roach on the bank, that on the scales went to tune of 2lbs 2ozs, I was to say the least ecstatic with the capture that I had made. Not to be greedy though, after landing the 3rd of my 2lb + Roach I packed up and got my pictures done and let them all swim back to their watery home. It made a very cold day feel a lot warmer with the capture of some brilliant fish, on my trip down to the Royalty in September I spoke to a fellow angler who was a member of a well-known Roach fishing club and he was the only member of the club that had never had a 2lb plus Roach so I know these aren't easy to catch I guess I'm just very lucky.

Myself with the other two 2 pound Roach ( 2.3 and 2.2 ).

The Roach triplets, what a bag! Three's definitely not a crowd.

 Tackle used today: Shakespeare 10ft match rod, Shimano Exage 3000 reel, 4lb Rovex ultra thin diameter line, a 7 no8 Avon spigot trotting float with a barbless size16 Drennan super specialist hook and my bait was white bread flake and crushed crusts.