The Roach Factory!

 This last week's been very busy all round with a few days spent in Milton Keynes at our VW Training centre, where I had some team building and personal experiences. The whole trip was very entertaining and enjoyable, getting the chance to meet some fantastic lads and lasses from our Audi Family all round the UK. We were given a few tasks to do as teams and some personal training aspects to complete as well. 

Lot's learned and then a fantastic afternoon long driving experience where we got the chance to drive many vehicles from the range. There were 3 standout vehicles for me which were the RS6, eTron GT and the stunning A8L. All three cars being utterly fantastic to drive! The RS6 is just a savage beast and gives serious smiles per mile! I've included a short video of the insane sound etc.....

Anyway, back to the fishing and this week saw me take a few days holiday down South in Hampshire chasing those ever elusive Roach. I arrived at 6.10am Sunday morning after setting off at 2.30am! 

Despite being exhausted I got there and set up in a fairly good peg. The day was tough going and despite putting everything into it I struggled to make much of a dent in the fish stocks other than some nice sized Dace. 

Day 2 was a lot better as I slept in the van outside the fishery and got first choice of swims for the day.....I jumped into a well known hot peg that I've done well in before and got straight onto the float. I set up a 15ft Acolyte with a 12x4 stepped balsa float, 16 hook to 3lb 8oz hooklink and 2 reds. The first few trots saw me miss a bite before the next chuck threw up a good 1'6 roach. I started to introduce a handful of maggots every chuck and kept the line as best as I could through the swim. 

Just below is an overhanging tree which is usually good for a bite but the weather had left its branches hanging a bit low and there were a few bits of line hanging from it making a trot under very tricky! I continued the same line through and each time it was almost a bite a trot! Every fish was almost a pound and things were going well. 

By lunch I had taken 30 plus roach from the swim but I felt a better one was surely on the cards soon. I had a couple of visitors pop in to say hello and after they'd left I restarted the trot through confident it would keep fishing. Around 1.15pm I had a bite 3/4 of the way down the trot and I hit into a very solid lump! This fish felt like nothing else I'd hooked that morning. It clung to the bottom and just nodded its head in typical roach manner. 

I held my cool playing it gently and after 5 minutes I started to make some headway with it. I saw the fish flash and it was a huge roach! Easily a PB! I got the net ready and pushed it into position ready to pull the fish over the lip. As she came to the surface, she rolled over and out came the 16 hook! I was utterly sickened! I felt like I had been punched in the guts. I retrained my thoughts and put fresh bait on, trying not to think about the one I had just lost! 

Next few trots were fishless then finally a nice 1'10 showed up to the party. A few minutes later I had a visit from friend and Club Carp Sec Ian Stone. We chatted for a bit and I continued to work the swim. As he was about to leave I had a bite and the tip sat solid! A good fish was on! We both stood silently as I held on to the fish which sat deep down in the water column. It took a good few minutes to get her up and Ian readied himself with the net for me. Eventually he sunk it under what looked a belting good roach! In very dark bronze colouration a stunning roach of 2'1 bettered the days catch rate! 

What a result, target achieved. The fishing continued to be excellent all day and by close of play I'd caught around 65 roach and about a dozen dace including 2 of 14oz! Day 3 was a similar early start and setting up in the dark in the same swim as day 2. On arrival I was met by my good friend Ruppert who introduced me to the legendary Alan Storey....

Now Alan is as far as I'm aware, the only human alive to have caught a 4lb plus river roach and a 4lb plus still water roach too! What a fantastic bit of angling to catch them both! He has the river Frome record and has numerous other big 3lbers to his name as well. The bloke is literally roach angling royalty! What a lovely fella too, very nice to have met him and chatted for a while. He's a wealth of knowledge and I feel very privileged to have met him and listened to his great stories of big roach captures I can only dream of emulating! 

It was also great to see my old pal Ruppert who isn't shy of catching a few big roach either! The blokes a roach fishing machine! Almost certainly the best roach angler I personally know and a bloody great fella too. Ruppert has been great in helping to push my roach fishing skills further each time we speak. He's like Alan, a wealth of knowledge, skills and has brilliantly developed his own feeder techniques that I have posted on here some time ago to capture more big roach than I can conceivably believe! Both him and Alan are legends in their own right! 

The fishing was a little tougher than day 2 but plenty of pound plus fish found the net once again up to 1'12 and included an epic battle with a 6'8 sea trout that took a liking to my double red maggot hookbait! I finished the day with a total of 129 roach for the 3 days including 17 over a pound, a 2'1, a sea trout and 3x 14oz dace!

Day 4 I decided to change venue and headed over to my beloved Stour at Throop in search of a 6lb plus chub to finish off my week down south. I knew it would be a tough call but set out to try and bag one on the float. I set up initially in a spot I've done well in in the past and after around 8-10 trots through, I finally got a small chub of 3lbs. 

I continued to keep the maggots going in and had another 5 chub to 3lb 14oz. I then lost a small sea trout and the swim then died on its feet. I couldn't buy a bite! I moved up river to a corner swim with less flow and started on the feeder to no avail. I then switched over to the float and started regular trots down battling a very awkward face on wind that pushed the line into the nearside marginal reeds. Despite feeling like I was making no headway towards getting a bite, 20 minutes in I finally had a good bite that I hooked. 

This fish felt much bigger and just hugged the bottom of the river. I kept the pressure on and just gently played her to the waiting net. On the scales she went 6lb 1oz! Another target achieved for the trip. I couldn't believe my luck....a 2;1 roach and the a 6'1 chub! Fantastic! After that the swim died and I left for the journey home. 

Change of plan!

I got up at 7am and ventured out to the van to find about 12 foot of ice attached to it! ARGH it was a bloody cold night that was for sure! -5C apparently and it felt every bit of that! I drove down to a local commercial 30 minutes from home to find it had a 3" thick lid on it! 

That was any ideas of Perching out the window. I sat for a few minutes debating whether to head home or somewhere else? I opted to head up to my club stretch of the Wye after a quick check on the river levels. 

I dropped into AD to grab a pint of whites and then drove the further half hour up to the river. On arrival it was clear to see that they had had a really cold night up there! 

The trees were literally blast frozen and it was bitter! I donned the essential 50 layers of clothing and opted to travel light with out a chair. I chose to fish a swim that I had caught a fair few chub from in the past and set up a lightweight 20 gram black cap feeder, heli-style with a double red maggot presentation to size 18 hook and 3lb hook link. 

I made a couple of casts into the swim to get a bit of bait in and then sat on my unhooking mat drinking a cuppa. I had a guy turn up behind me who wanted the same swim and we had a nice chat for over an hour. While he stood with me I had a great bite on the quiver rod and the tip went over in true Chub style. 

The fight was pretty sketchy as the fish ploughed all around the swim in strong current and the lightweight tackle did little to tame the fish. A good 10 minutes later I slipped the net under a proper lovely winter Wye chub of 4lb 13oz. Well worth the effort! The chap left me and I sat for another hour bite less so I felt a move was in order. 

I moved about 150 yards up stream to a new spot that I had caught in well before. It took about half an hour before the first bit of action and with the same tactics employed as before I found myself attached to another nice chub. The action continued for the next 3 hours with 11 chub finding the net. It was great sport for the weather conditions and albeit they were all pretty much a similar 2lb in weight, it was great to put a bend in the rod in such hardcore conditions! 

As the light started to fade I kept the bait going in steadily and a quick tap tap bite was struck into and a very different feeling fish fought it's was back to the net. On inspection it was a nice little Grayling that sat in the net and I got some quick snaps before slipping her back and packing up for the hour long drive home. I took a few picks on the way back to the van as the scenery was utterly stunning! I have a few days booked off in a fortnights time so I'm hoping to head down south to the Avon for a bit of seasonal bliss featuring the ever favourite big Roach! Fingers crossed the rivers in decent shape and they're on the feed!!!

Work party 2

Chris picked me up from work on the Friday lunch time and we drove down to Portsmouth for the overnight ferry to St Malo. The crossing was a little choppy but fortunately it was my turn for the lower bunk so it wasn't as awkward as our last trip over in March that saw me either weightless or stuck to the ceiling of the cabin as we peaked and troughed over 20 foot waves! 

I awoke at 5.30am to the sound of piped music through the cabin speakers. 

It's about the worst kind of music you can imagine....really cuts through you like a hot knife going through butter! 

Still, it wasn't as bad as Chris's start to the day! He decided to get up and use the shower in the cabin for a freshen up....it went well...he switched on the shower only to have the shower head fall off the connector and then having it fly around the room like a caged wild bird! It was flipping hilarious. God knows what the cleaners thought had gone on in that cabin after we vacated it??? 

Anyway, on the road down to the lake and we arrived half hour ahead of owner Nick and got about the business of a walk round and make a few decisions on what works needed to be done around the lake before we closed up for the season. There had been some very strong winds since the last party had left in early October and at least 4 or 5 trees had come down around the complex. These would require some heavy works to remove. 

With the daylight slipping away quickly and forecasters predicting some very heavy rain overnight, we decided to get the shelters up and get rods out before dark. 

Chris and I had already decided on swims and stuck to our usual spots. We both had 2goals for the week which to be honest were exactly the same! To catch Orange Spot at over 40lbs and Louisa at over 40lbs too! A tall ask in a 5 acre venue with around 150 carp in it during November! 

I cooked us all up some food and the 3 of us sat back with a beer and the boys had a smoke. It was amazing to be back out in France at one of our favourite places to be! The darkness fell quickly and before we knew it we were heading off to our bivvies with full bellies ready for a good nights sleep. 

As Chris had driven and due to the incoming storm, he decided not to fish the first night but I couldn't wait to get a rod out! I put four rods out in usual spots and baited lightly with crumbed RH Nutty bait and some particle over each rod. 

This turned out to be a mistake as I got plagued by Bream over the particle! I made a very quick change over just before the rain started to fall at 9pm and went onto larger hook baits. The only rod I kept different was the right hand inside margin rod which had a pair of tigers and a plastic corn topper on it. This was placed around 30 yards down the margin to my right. I climbed into my bag to warm up and settled in to watch a bit of telly on my iphone. 

I started to feel sleepy around 11pm so turned off to get some sleep to the sound of torrential rainfall on the bivvy. Around 3am I had a couple of bleeps on the right hand rod. I rolled over to look at the rod tip and under torch light I could see it was just gently plucking away. I thought it was almost certainly another Bream so slowly put my wet weather gear on and boots before suddenly the tip flew round and line started to peel from the spool! 

'That's not a Bream!' The fish hung deep down the right hand margin not really doing much other than just plucking away and taking the odd few yards of line...a typical big fish I felt. A good ten minutes passed by of tussle between us both before finally I sunk the net under a thick set mirror. I had this very strange feeling that this fish looked familiar???? I rolled the net to the side and on it's flank was the unmistakable Orange spots! I couldn't flipping believe it! First carp of the trip and it was the Spot! 

I rang Chris immediately. 'Hi bro, I've got one in the net and it's big....' 'What fish is it?' 'You won't believe me...' 'You haven't?' 'I have....lol' 

We agreed to leave her in the sling till the rain slowed up enough for a few shots. I was gutted though as I wanted a daylight shot really. 

We waited about an hour for the rain to slow up and got a few shots. I had a further common of 12'8 and a mirror of 18'14 before sun rise and then we started on the lake works. I was on chainsaw duty and Chris and Nick on clearance. 

Luckily Nick had acquired an electric Quad Bike and trailer over the summer and this made movements a lot easier than our previous work party trip. 

We got to work on cutting down what was left of some of the over hangers from the storms and a couple of leaners that were now very far into the water and posed a hazard to fishing situations. 

A couple of them were pretty big and required us to make up a makeshift winch using ratchet straps from Chris's van. We made short work of it and got the majority of the heavy stuff done by late morning. 

We had some tea and got the rods out for the night. I lost a fish early evening which saw me take to the boat for a battle which ended up with my tackle losing the day. 

Another bream fell foul to a pop up and after that it was a quiet night for me only interrupted by an early morning mirror of 24lbs. At this point I'm going to admit that the week kinda went mental after this point and much of what happened Chris's end is a blur! Other than to say he smashed it is an understatement! My phone was on fire from calls that he had a fish then another and another! The guy was unstoppable! He was on a mission to bag every big fish in the lake! 

I think he started with Mel at 35lbs and then had Scar at 38. I think? The list just went on and on! I quietly progressed with a few more twenties including the Long Common at 26'8, The Italian Football at 26'14 and another of the A-listers 'Willing and able' at 31'12. In amongst the carnage we carried on with bankside works and got the place looking absolutely superb and by late Tuesday most of the heavy work was finished. Chris continued to obliterate his way through the stock with a couple more thirties and a few small commons! I had another mirror of 27'2 and a few mid double commons before a very quiet day on Wednesday which we spent just chilling in our bivvies. 

I had a small common and lost one to a hook pull on the Wednesday. Thursday was much better though and Chris finally got to revisit his Orange Spot capture but not at over 40 unfortunately. She was a couple of ounce up since my capture on the first night and as it was mid afternoon I grabbed the chance to get a few daylight pics with here. Result for both of us! That evening I had 'De vito' at a new top weight of 34'2 and then 'Mel' up to 37lbs!!!!She'd gained 2lbs in 4 nights! We had decided to up our bait introduction early on and it was really playing into our favour! 

The fish were really on it and munching their way through all we gave them. Chris introducing Sticky Krill and I was on the Rod Hutchinson Nutty bait! They were loving both! By Friday we only had about 6 of the really big ones left to catch and Chris had caught 'Mini Fridge at 37lb and 1/2 ounce in the thirties too! The guy was smashing it! We only had one fish left we both wanted though....Louisa! And It was Chris who had her on the last night of the trip! He had previously caught her at 39lb 15oz back in March and was his current PB. 

He called me to say he had a reasonable one in the net. I went round to find a rather large chunk of fish in the net which he hadn't realised! I knew straight away it was Louisa and she looked big! Well, 41lb 12oz big! Chris was ecstatic and to be honest I was absolutely over the moon he'd caught her and set a new PB. A bit gutted I'd not caught her myself but to be honest I've caught plenty of bigger fish in my time and this moment was a very special one for him and I didn't care that my luck wasn't in this time. There'll be plenty of other opportunities I'm sure. 

The Friday night saw me bag the Mini Fridge again for the week and up 8ounces to 37'8 and a nice fat 24'8 mirror in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

We spent the Saturday morning clearing up our own stuff, washing out the cabin and kitchen and shower etc before switching off the water for the winter and our return in late March 2024. Nick bid us farewell at midday and Chris packed the van while I grabbed a cheeky few hours in the snags with a bit of left over bait. 

It was a blustery day and I poled our a few baits to one of the far end snags. It produced a bonus 16'12 common before we had to call it a day and head off to St Malo for the evening ferry. Another absolutely incredible week that saw us totally smash the lake records for many of the fish and for the most caught in a week! We had 40 fish including 5x30's, 5x20's, 11 doubles for myself. 5x30's, a 41'12 and 4x20's for Chris! In total we caught over 1000lbs of carp between us! Unreal! Can't wait for March now when my other pal Simon is hopefully joining the crew for a work party trip!