A two pound roach is one of the genuinely hard targets in British coarse fishing, and the anglers who catch them consistently do it between October and March rather than in summer. Autumn is where that starts. If big roach are on your list, this is the point in the year to take it seriously.
Why the size goes up
Roach shoal by size, and in summer the small fish are everywhere and get to the bait first. As the water cools the small fish become less active more quickly than the bigger ones, and the shoals separate out more cleanly. Feed a swim in October and there is a far better chance that what arrives is a shoal of decent fish rather than a hundred tiddlers.
The other factor is that roach put on condition through autumn, so a fish that was a pound and ten ounces in July might genuinely be over the two in November.
Where they hold once it cools
On rivers, roach move out of the streamy water and into the steadier, deeper glides. Look for a slow, even flow over a clean bottom, ideally with a bit of depth. Long straight stretches that look boring are often exactly right.
On stillwaters they drop off the shallows and hold in open water at mid depth, which makes them harder to locate. Marginal shelves in the last hour of light are the exception and worth fishing hard.
Canals are the underrated option. Autumn boat traffic drops off, the water clears, and canal roach become far more catchable than they are in summer.
Feed small, feed often, feed accurately
This is where roach fishing is won. Little and often, every cast or every put-in, in the same spot. A dozen maggots or a small nugget of groundbait, repeated, builds confidence in a way that a big initial bed of bait never does.
Roach are cautious and they spook off a heavy splash. Accuracy matters more than volume. If you cannot feed accurately by hand at range, use a catapult or fish closer.
Baits worth carrying
Maggots and casters are the backbone and I would not go without them. Casters in particular sort out a better stamp of fish and I feed them heavily in autumn.
Bread is the specialist big roach bait, either punch or a small piece of flake. On rivers a bread-and-liquidised-bread approach fished on a stick float has produced more two pound roach than any other method in this country.
Hemp is a feed rather than a hookbait but it holds a shoal beautifully. Tares over hemp is an old approach that still works and picks out better fish.
Fine but not stupid
Roach are line shy and hook shy, so scale down. Hooklengths of two to three pounds, hooks in the 18 to 16 range, and a light float pattern that registers a shy bite.
Where I differ from some is that I do not go as fine as I possibly can. A two pound roach in autumn river flow will test very light tackle, and losing that fish because you went to one pound line is a bad trade. Fine enough to get bites and strong enough to land what bites.
Bites get harder to read
Cold water roach bites are subtle. A lift, a slight dip, a float that sits differently. The classic advice of striking at anything that is not what the float was doing a second ago is right.
If you are getting bites and missing them, the usual causes are too big a hook, too much bait on it, or a float that is too heavily shotted to register properly.
The last hour
Big roach feed at the edges of the day and particularly in the last hour of light and the first part of dusk. On a lot of waters the fishing genuinely transforms in the final forty minutes. Plan your session so you are still fishing then rather than packing up.
What I would do
Pick a steady glide on a river you know. Feed maggot and caster little and often from the moment you arrive, and fish a stick float or a waggler through the same line every cast. Do not chase bites elsewhere. Build the swim for two hours and expect the better fish to show up late. That patience is the whole method.
Dan Whitfield started fishing aged seven on the canal at the end of his road and never really stopped. He spent his twenties and thirties on the match circuit – club level rather than national – before deciding he’d rather catch one decent fish than a net of small ones.
These days he mostly fishes the River Trent for barbel (personal best 14lb 2oz), the Oxford Canal for roach and skimmers in winter, and the occasional gravel pit when tench are spawning and the surface fishing is too good to miss. He’s a former club secretary and still helps with junior coaching at his local angling club in Nottingham.
At The River Bend, Dan writes the coarse species guides, river fishing technique articles, and the match and pole content.
Covers: Barbel, bream, roach, tench, carp (coarse context), river fishing, canal fishing, feeder, float, match/pole