November Update: Roach and Grayling

Stunning Little Redfin

One particular trip which was thoroughly enjoyable from these past couple of months was an afternoon spent with fellow river enthusiast, Harry Redsull, on the banks of an intimate Southern Chalkstream. Having briefly chatted the day before, I decided to take a feeder rod as my attack for some of the elusive roach we had talked about, whilst Harry opted for some trotting gear. Within minutes, we had located a few shoals and armed with some fluffy white bread, I crumpled up some crusts and watched their reaction... They were up for a feed! It was great to spend an afternoon with someone who had the same level of enthusiasm for this quarry and it was a bonus to land some lovely fish between us to just over the pound mark. I look forward to catching up for another trip soon!

A pretty roach which enjoyed a 'pinch' of bread in the clear water!

It took me weeks after this to get out again, but after receiving a kind invite from Duncan Charman to fish another scenic Southern Chalkstream, I decided to have a rest from my essays. The target this time was the lady of the stream. Although this day was tough, we managed quite a few fish between us, with Duncan's 2lb grayling and 8lb 2oz trout being the best fish of the day. It was nice to be able to dust off the centrepin and the float rod for the first time in a while and land a few hard fighting grayling to top off the idyllic surroundings.

Tight Lines,

Tom

8lb 2oz Trout and 2lb 3oz Grayling!

2016 - Not too bad a Start!

Loads of small grayling about when we were trotting for the roach!

Mark Lindsay and I pencilled in another trip after some roach and given the current conditions, we opted to fish my local river. What was on our minds from the beginning was going after the big, skitty roach that live on a slow moving section on my local river and opting to target them first of all on the feeder. Mark brought a couple of feeder rods and I brought the one, using a mix of maggots, caster, hemp and good old faithful bread. After balling up some liquidised bread and throwing it in the swim prior to fishing, Mark opted to fish maggots and casters, whilst I gave it a good go on the bread. Mark was getting instant responses on his maggots and casters managing some grayling and trout almost instantly, a roach angler's nightmare. This is the problem with chalk streams as they contain quite a head of greedy game fish! I managed just the one bite, which was a savage take and somehow managed to crack off which I assumed to be a trout charging off. We gave it quite a few hours, but the only fish to show for our efforts were gamefish, therefore we headed elsewhere and let the bait we chucked in settle in the swim.

I think the key is to feed these off to draw in the roach!

We tried a few different swims, but all we could tempt was some more gate-crashing trout. We decided between us, as we felt enough time had passed, to fish the swim we had fished to have rested up a little. We both set up some float tackle and were soon picking up some grayling on our trotted maggot offering. I opted to fish a Avon style float with a nice size 18 spade end hook for a nice presentation when using single maggot. After some feeding near a crease, I was soon getting bites, one of which absolutely slammed my rod round - the culprit being a big old trout. A few trots later, I watched as the float edged through the swim with the centrepin spinning beautifully as I kept in tow with the float. Just as the float started to sway slightly in the current, it buried. I struck and felt a decent weight on the end. This fish was really hugging the bottom and I couldn't help but think it was a trout putting up some resistance before topping. This fish though was plodding along, even gyrating at times, which gave me a second thought that it could be a half decent grayling. As my float carried on digging away under the surface I kept the rod low and took the fish very steady. As the fish started to come up, I slowly teased the float up and saw the tell-tale sail fin as the fish dived back down in its bid for freedom. A few nerve-racking head shakes, to my terror on a size 18, and it was ready for Mark to nervously scoop her up. It was a short, but chunky fish with beautiful dark colouration and turquoisey tints to its flank. We put her on the scales, noticing she was slightly empty, and she tipped the scales to an honest 1lb 15oz, not quite a 2, but an absolute stunner nevertheless.

Although pictures do not do them justice, a fine example of the species!

After getting a few picture done, I revived the fish in the net and she was soon ready to go after taking a second to orientate itself.

Just getting orientated before she goes!

This had completely changed the tone of the day, as it was quite a frustrating morning, not being able to get away from gate-crashing trout and catching grayling on the feeder, which I, personally, do not see as cricket. Mark and I continued to have a few trots and managed a few more smaller grayling, as well as this nice looking trout Mark hooked which unfortunately trashed the swim.

At this point, we had a few options open, but the one which tempted us the most was to try one of my banker swims where we were pretty much guaranteed some roach sport. We arrived to discover it was carrying a nice tinge of colour, and after putting a ball or so of liquidised bread in, Mark was soon trotting his stick float down. Its was not long until his float bobbed, a tell-tale sign of roach about, before slowly dipping under the surface. A positive strike and Mark was into the first roach of the day, not anything massive but absolutely lovely, as all the roach are in this section. We continued, fishing in alternation, and it was not long until Mark and I were catching some lovely roach between us, all of a nice stamp.

Nice little roach, lot of them like peas in a pod

Mark's face continued to light up as we continued to bag roach, getting a bite a chuck at many points. With a steady feed of liquidised bread and hemp, we were continuing to draw the fish up from downstream and we managed plenty more roach and the odd little grayling before running out of liquidised bread!

Couple of nice redefins on the stick float

Overall, a great day out, despite the bigger roach being far from forthcoming! Big thanks goes to Mark for coming down to join me. For more updates and pictures, check out our Instagram profiles:

@hampshireanglingtv
@chapsout

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Tom

A day out for the Grayling with James Denison

James and I arranged to meet down my way to see if we could get him onto one of the elusive larger grayling which are present on my local river. The current cycle isn't how it has been on some of the prolific years I've had, but the other day I did prick some better fish - James and I agreed that we had to be in it to win it.

We started on a idyllic little stretch where I have seen some very large grayling and perch in the past and we parked ourselves in a nice run with some depth and a nice crease on the far bank. James opted to fish a mix of maggots and caster and I on the other hand, chose some good old faithful sweetcorn to trot down the near bank of the swim. It was not long until James was landing some nice grayling gradually getting larger and I was starting to get onto a few myself. What I have found in cases is that on maggots you will get more bites, but in swims with smaller grayling this can be less selective.

Lovely looking grayling

I managed to get bites at a quicker pace after introducing grains of corn little and often and fishing midstream and on the near bank, which resulted in some lovely looking grayling and a few nuisance trout (which threw themselves readily at both our baits). We also managed to bounce a few better grayling, James bumping one certainly round the 2lb mark which was a shame. Not feeling disheartened by this we wandered off downstream and I hoped some other swims I knew would hopefully throw up something better for James.

Feisty little grayling!

There was a nice pool swim I have found to be prolific over the years and absolutely screams grayling of all sizes. James trotted through the swim a few times and managed a few bites bumping a couple of grayling, one of which was again of very good stamp, really hanging in the current. After a few more trots rotating baits, James had a well earned grayling of a pound or so. The next spot I showed James was where I bumped a good a good grayling on the Friday. After a few trots down James was managing some nice grayling including this beauty at 1-8.

James's best of the day...

All in all, it was a great day meeting James and tackling my local stretches, and at dusk we even managed to sneak in some trotting for roach. It was nice to see the shoals were still about with James managing some stunners to just over a pound at 1-3. Overall a very nice day and look forward to having you down again mate...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Nice way to finish the session...

Urban River Mission with Mark Lindsay

My friend Mark Lindsay, has been extremely proactive this river season with some absolute quality chub, bream and perch from this tiny little urban river hidden in the suburbs.

Mark has founded a little angling group which is expanding rapidly called Team MAG (Metropolis Angling Group), and clearly conveys, whether it is through Instagram or Facebook, the hidden beauty with fishing urban venues - what he refers to as 'urban gems'. I have this mutual interest with Mark, being intrigued by what can be found in what is assumed to be neglected, forgotten waterways. Although it isn't always for the faint-hearted due to possibly feeling less relaxed and self conscious in these more public areas, it has proven to have rewarded both of us and other anglers who dare to venture.

One of many quality chub Mark has caught from this venue

I woke up early and travelled up a couple of hours to meet Mark. After this long journey due to roadworks and traffic, we got the gear in Mark's car and headed for the river. We were both buzzing with excitement and filled with uncertainty as to what the river was looking like after receiving a fair bit of rain. After weaving through more traffic of the busy city, we parked up and headed for the river. We strolled over to a more tranquil part of the suburb, and greeted by a river which was still clear carrying a nice little tinge of colour. In the first swim Mark informed me there were some big bream living there and he kindly let me try for them. After catapulting maggots in, on Mark's advice, I free-lined maggots with a single shot and within seconds, I had a couple of subtle, but definite taps. I struck and there was a nice swirl on the surface and a broad flank emerged as clear as day. After a good fight on my feeder rod and 6lb line in the flow, the bream was in the net. I looked into the net and it had easily smashed my personal best on a river. At 5lb 8oz, it was a lovely fish and the colours were absolutely stunning. At just an ounce under my PB, I couldn't believe how good a start to the session this was. Mark took some great photos and it was nice to watch the fish swim away in the clear water.

Fine coloured river bream and a lovely way to have caught it!

After losing a couple more bream to hook pulls afterwards, we could see them, but they were clearly more cautious than before. This meant we moved on downstream, continuing to fish maggots free-lined and trundled about to various snags and likely looking areas. Despite seeing some chub skulking about and being tight in the snags, we were unable to tempt them, so we decided to return to this particular section later in the day and explore upstream. After having a good walk about past a busy road, we arrived at a nice section which was predominantly shallow but gravelly, and consisted of some very nice looking deeper holes. After spotting one big bream that spooked, Mark beckoned me over to join him and informed me that in this particular swim, he had seen and caught some nice roach and chub. With the polaroids on I spotted a couple of chub, and keeping a good trickle of maggots going in, they were soon moving about. Mark did manage to prick one but not properly connect with it but after this, the chub did certainly seem to be on guard. After walking a few more yards, we arrived at the end of a bridge where there was a pool formed by the steady current from underneath. Mark informed me that this was a good chub and roach holding area with him having chub to over 4lbs, and spotting some rather large roach. With that in mind, we both tried to start with, free-lining maggots like we had been. Simultaneously, we both were trickling in maggots upstream to endeavour to entice some chub or roach into feeding. After no luck in the earlier parts of the pool, I tried the tail end and started to receive taps. After having a couple of taps, I reeled in and had a sucked maggot - this had roach written all over it. With my hand close to the rod, I waited for some delicate taps and after a minute or so, I had a couple of decisive taps and struck into a lovely little roach.

Lovely little redfin

After releasing this fish just downstream, Mark flicked in his freelined maggot rig and received a good bite instantly. He struck and felt a good weight on the end but unfortunately the hooklink parted. Mark was fearing it was a big roach, but I personally thought it could have easily been a chub by the way it went straight for the cover. I decided at this point to change to a maggot feeder to ensure some more concentrated feed. Attaching a hooklink, I flicked the feeder in pretty much the same spot to where I had the roach. It was not much more than a minute until the tip bounced aggressively and I lifted into a good fish. The flash of silver and the distinctive red fins and the flank of this fish got me and Mark's excitement levels through the roof as we knew this was a half decent roach. After taking it steady on my feeder rod I thankfully managed to guide the fish into the net. It was a very nice, solid river roach, and as we prepared the scales, we were both so excited as it was a fantastic bonus fish and easily one of my best from a river. At 1lb 10oz, it was level with last season's biggest roach and 3oz off my personal best! What a great result for a lovely tiny river in the suburbs!

What a bonus, my roach of the season so far!

After this I gave Mark a go on my feeder setup as I was convinced there was a chance of another bite and we were both hoping it more roach would turn up. Here's what happened next in Mark's words:

"Gleefully, I jumped at the chance of a cast or two on Tom's feeder set up and quickly cast back into the same spot I had lost a nice fish earlier on. With a few small taps on the tup over the next few casts that I missed, I felt a third cast could be the lucky one, so I gave my full concentration. A small wobble on the tip was enough indication for me and I lifted into a fish. It zoomed straight towards the main snag in the swim, an old shopping trolley. Monster roach though were quashed quite quickly as it was clear that it was a chub, burrowing hard for every snag in the swim. Tom did the honours with the net and a short yet chunky looking fish was on the bank. A quick removal of the hook revealed another hook and short section of line in his top lip. Tom remarked, "that's the fish you lost earlier on, was pretty sure that wasn't a roach." On inspection of the style of hook of course he was right. The swim then typically died, as the chub had no doubt spooked every other fish from this tiny little area. We moved back to a swim that had beaten us earlier with Tom deciding to put another test to his maggot feeder setup..."

What a fight on the light hooklink!

After this breakthrough with a nice chub finally falling to one of our methods, I thought this tactical switch could easily buy a bite elsewhere. The swim now appeared to have died, most likely due to the disturbance from the feisty chub! As this was the last swim of the section, we headed back downstream and the idea being, gradually working back to the car. We decided to stop back at the spot where Mark and I had fed the cautious chub which were seriously on guard earlier. I casted the feeder and the tip was knocking instantly due to all the autumn rubbish coming downstream. I was deceived as the tip suddenly started to come to life and pull round aggressively. Instinctively I struck and I was into a chub. The fight was incredible on the lighter hooklink and it was unbelievable how many times the chub tried to get me buried under the bank! The fish topped and was absolutely pristine, and I was very happy when we managed to net it as it was yet another chub from a new river - this was my main objective for the day. As we unhooked it, it was unbelievable how many maggots it was spewing out! Mark took a lovely photo and we watched the chub swim back into the water that was getting clearer by the hour.

Fin and scale perfect, lovely young chub!

We now realised time was getting on and we returned to the first section we targeted for both bream and chub and it was coherent that Mark certainly had a good chub in mind. I started off in the swim where I had the bream with no luck, therefore I moved downstream to where Mark had found some big chub and he was trying to gain their confidence by spraying maggots. We go back to Mark for the last part of the session:

"I fancied a sneaky little swim downstream of Tom and started to regularly feed a small handful of maggots into a dark tree-covered area. In my experience, I see it as pointless making a cast in this swim until the chub give themselves away by creeping from the shadows to intercept the grubs midwater. It took a while but finally three good sized chub were willing to feed. I carried on feeding for a further 10 minutes and by this time the chub were competing for the bait, zooming in front of each other. On the first cast the fish didn't appear, I thought possibly that I had moved into the view of the fish. Another feed without my hoo bait did the trick and I nervously flicked my double maggot over the top of the free offerings. Again, the fish had disappeared but just as the maggots moved into the shadow water, I saw a shadow moving over my bait, just as I saw a white mouth chomping my white grubs... A swift strike of carbon and the rod hooped over with the chub powerfully ripping line off of my spool. Four strong runs for the snags were successfully thwarted and as he wallowed in the fast flow, Tom hurriedly grabbed the net and ran over. Once in the net, Tom instantly remarked: "that's a decent size mate, could be close to a PB". A great end to the day and as the light faded further, we weighed a snapped a few pictures of this wonderful chub which was in absolutely lovely condition."

A lovely girthy specimen!

"Sadly he wasn't quite the PB beast, but a solid 5lb 4oz, so I could not be happier. It had been a great day for the both of us and a lovely introduction for Tom on this amazing little river, I'm sure he can't wait to be back again soon."

With this fine specimen of a chub landed at the end of the day, I felt we had pretty much the 'full set' that the river was capable of, bar a couple of predatory species. I was very happy how the day went and really appreciated Mark inviting me to one of his 'urban gems.'

Thank you Mark and look forward to meeting up again soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Testing my new Ultralight: Two Trotting Trips

After not fishing on the previous weekend due to workload for college, I thought the best call for getting out was to try for some of the larger roach on my local river, the Itchen. With various walks after college on the way home past the river, I found a few areas holding some good roach and even spotted a few skimmer bream amongst them!

With my birthday money, I picked up a Drennan 14ft Matchpro Ultralight float rod and was absolutely dying to test it out, along with the Clearwater floats I have been kindly given. I started on a deeper, slower stretch where I had spotted several roach to what I personally reckon are over 2lbs. Unfortunately though, there was still a lot of weed and presenting a bait was not particularly straight forward so I decided to move on downstream.

Lovely rod and my favourite Clearwater Float!

After a few minutes walking I arrived and spotted a good shoal of roach. I fed some mashed bread upstream, and watched as I saw some nice roach taking bits as they crumpled off. After missing one bite, it wasn't long until I was into a fish. The rod was absolutely beautiful with a nice action in it and was feeling in very good contact with the fish. With the right tackle I've come to realise that roach are actually decent fighting fish. This was a lovely fish to christen the rod at around a pound or so in weight I would expect, what I would see as a quality roach. After a few more runs through, as the roach had backed off from this spot, I long trotted the breadflake and picked up a nice grayling coming onto a pound and a half. I moved swim and connected with a very nice roach shortly after feeding another nice pocket of fish. It gave another lovely scrap, flashing its beautiful silver bar as I gently guided it towards my waiting net. After putting this pretty roach on the scales it went 1lb 6oz, which is my second biggest of the river season and a nice result. After this, it was time to go, so I packed up and headed for home.

Can never knock a River Roach!

A couple of days later after a kind invite from a good friend, Simon Daley, we headed to the Dorset Stour with a decent chub or two on our mind. After sorting out tickets etcetera, we headed to one of Simon's favourite chub swims with some cracking features for chub to dart and skulk around. After feeding for a good few minutes, catapulting maggots, Simon ran through and at the bottom of the run, he was into a chub straight away. After a few seconds the hook pulled out, but we were both not feeling disheartened as this was so early on in the day. After sorting out an appropriate float rig for the job for the shallow water on this particular swim, I ran through a few times before the float buried and was into a nice chub. The ultralight had a lovely forgiving action and despite the chub digging away on the end of the line, I managed to slow its run and slowly guide it to the waiting net. This was a nice solid fish of 4lbs or so which was a lovely result and was nice as the first chub on the new rod.

Nice way to put the new rod to some test!

Simon and I continued to feed, and as I was watching Simon's float moving beautifully through the swim, I knew it his float was going to bury at any second and sure enough it did. After what seemed like a very enjoyable battle as I catapulted another dozen or so maggots, another quality chub was in the net. This fish was at least an upper 4 pounder, so another great result.

Another for Simon's impressive album!

After one more hook pull and a few missed bites, the swim was suddenly dominated by minnows as the morning mist cleared. It was rather frustrating though as despite the chub were still coming in and out of the over-hanging tree, it was impossible to wade through the minnows. We decided therefore to venture downstream and try and find some 'virgin' fish.

It wasn't long until Simon spotted a lovely group of fish in the shallows downstream and in no time we had them going on our offerings of maggots. After patience of watching this nail-biting scenario of 5lb plus chub feeding on our maggots and eating a few snacks to try and make time go faster, I had my first run through. Continuing with the feeding pattern, on my third or so run through my float buried. I struck and felt another good chub digging on the end. "Get downstream of it mush" Simon urged, as I ran up the bank trying to keep in good contact. Unfortunately there must have been a weakness in my hook link and therefore it unfortunately parted. Much as I will beat myself up about it sitting on my desk now, it is easily done at the time. After giving the swim a few minutes to rest I fired some more maggots in and it was Simon's turn to run through. After a bit of steady feed and a few runs through, Simon's float buried followed by a firm strike. Not hesitating like me, Simon hurriedly ran down the bank and managed to guide the feisty chub out of the thick weed and after what seemed to be an enjoyable battle of the chub digging away on the end, another nice fish of 4lbs or so was in the net. What I enjoyed about this scenario was it was opportunist fishing and in difficult conditions like what we were met with, it is a very rewarding endeavour.

After going downstream where the next section seemed somewhat even weedier, after getting electrocuted a few times by the electric fence, and sorting out our gear we found a good point to wade in and fish this beautiful run. The sun also came out glistening beautifully on the river, and it certainly was enjoyable to run the float through and we managed a few nice chub between us. After doing some roving around and not finding many more 'trottable' runs, we moved on upstream. It was not long until we saw some big chub, some of which we both reckoned were over 6lbs! After feeding these fish for over 40 minutes they unfortunately disappeared to our sheer disappointment and disapproval as someone waded in on the opposite side right near where they were. We were very disappointed as we refrained from fishing for these fish for a while and it was sabotaged within seconds.

Not feeling disheartened we moved upstream and fished a weirpool where Simon had had some good chub action in the past. We decided, to begin with, to try and catch some perch on minnow livebaits. After catching a few, we let the minnows whirl about on the weir pool and it wasn't long until we started getting takes catching plenty of lovely conditioned little perch.

Pretty Little Perch

Whilst I continued catching a few perch on the live baits, Simon decided to get to work with the maggot feeder. After baiting his swim up effectively, he was starting to get bites instantly from dace and managed many hooking themselves on his feeder rig. After doing lots of chopping and changing with bait variations using imitation and real maggots, his perseverance really showed when he hooked his first chub after battling through MANY dace. After a good fight, although it wasn't the biggest chub in the Stour, it was a very pretty chub, scale and fin perfect. After more dace, Simon's tip walloped round and he was into a much better fish. After getting upstream and guiding it out of the snags downstream, it unfortunately managed to find the concrete of the bridge upstream and cut Simon's hook link off which was certainly wounding for him in the circumstances. We fished into dark on the tip and after missing a couple of bites we decided to head for home as we were both getting tired from the roving about and the early start. Thanks for a great day Simon, look forward to sorting another trip soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Final Roundup of an Enjoyable Summer

What a summer it has been!

Today was my first day back at college and grim as it may sound, I have been able to reflect on a fantastic summer from my usual on the rivers for chub, a bit of barbel fishing on fantastic rivers in the South and of course my trip to the Wye, to targeting mullet in a kayak and having some fantastic trips with Duncan Charman including the fantastic night session for rudd and a day on a lovely crucian water.

Brace of chub from a difficult roving trip in the Summer

My first trip after my great family excursion to the Wye was to cover some ground for some elusive barbel not too far from home. With thanks to a couple of good friends, I saw these barbel, which are seemingly invisible during the day. This was done with the aid of a head torch after dark. After trying several trips before with a pellet and boilie approach with little success apart from sighting the barbel on the way back to the car, the next approach was to try maggots. This certainly was worth a shot as plenty of maggots get thrown into this certain bit of river and the barbel in their lies are inevitably going to hoover them up with ease. I rigged up with a maggot feeder fishing with a reasonably substantial feeder rod coupled with 8lb line. I started this particular evening fishing the feeder tight to a bush I took a liking to seeing it as a pretty likely looking feature. After an hour or so past, with the aid of the torch (which never have seemed to spook the barbel on this particular stretch unless shone directly at them) I spotted a couple of barbel together. I lowered the maggot feeder and a bunch of maggots on a size 10 hook in their path. I had a good feeling if the fish were still there, that a take would be likely. Fifteen or so minutes past and it wasn't long until the tip on the feeder rod bounced and the rod arched over. I excitedly picked up the rod and lifted into what felt like a decent weight. The fish wallowed on the surface in confusion, almost unaware it was hooked and with a bit of steady pressure I started to guide the weight towards me. Then it woke up, by which point I knew it was a barbel! The swim was shallow so all it could do was charge off with its agility, which it did and gave me a real run around. After some immense lunges and surging runs with the rod and drag cushioning the fight with ease I managed to finally guide the turbo charged fish into the net. Although it isn't the biggest barbel you'll ever see it was a fine prize for the waterway I was fishing.

The last week or so, I managed to fish a few scattered venues, first being the Dorset Stour. After seeing a barbel in my swim on the zone where the left hand rod was, that suddenly the right hand rod swung round and the bait runner zipped off. The culprit was this gorgeous little Stour chub. I also later managed a lovely coloured river bream which was around 4lbs I would reckon.

I was also lucky enough to be invited to fish the Royalty on the Hampshire Avon, however the barbel did not turn up in the swim I chose and the consolation was another river bream.

Avon bream

The barbel did turn up in the end on one of the venues I knew I had a good chance. With this certain river up and coloured I flicked a crab and cray barrel to a snag and fished on top of a bit of scolded pellet and hemp groundbait. It wasn't long until I had a drop back and had another muscly fighting machine on the end clinging to the bottom with its huge pectorals!

8lb 9oz of pure muscle

Also thanks to Duncan Charman on the last few trips where I managed a new personal best tench and crucian carp.

PB Crucian at 2lb 8oz 8drms

The final trip of the holiday I met up with Mark 'Chapsout' Lindsay and took him to some of my local roach spots with him managing some absolute stunners to a cracking 1lb 6oz.

Mark's well earned prize, a 1lb 6oz beauty

I also sneaked a cast or two in the end and managed this lovely 1lb 5oz redfin. A big thanks to Mark for coming down and was nice to have some good company for the day. Look forward to another trip soon mate!

Hope all who had a summer break or a holiday had a fantastic time and roll on for next year!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Chalkstream Roach and Dace - WRITE UP

This season dace and roach have been species I have felt intrigued to target, as at the best of times both species can be tricky opponents especially in a low and clear river. 

A summer brace

In the summer it is the best time to do some groundwork to locate shoals of roach and dace going up and down an area, taking small flies off the surface or snatching small morsels in midwater or sifting the bottom for them. In the areas I fish for the dace and roach it is difficult to use maggots in the summer and early autumn months as there are plenty of minnows attacking the bait as it hits the water. This doesn't mean trotting is out of the equation, as you can compromise with feeding maggots and fish a caster on the hook, or you can also try liquidised bread and bread punch. There is of course hemp too, which can be brilliant loose feed with tares being a good bait to present on the hook over the top of this. Sweetcorn can also be a good option for both species.

Lovely brace of 'Darts'

In terms of fishing for dace in the summer, it is not something associated with many anglers, as most  target them from late Autumn to Winter when they are starting to fatten up, due to the fish being hollower and weighing considerably less. They can be found in the summer in the deeper holes congregating with chub and roach, as well as swimming up and down shallow gravel bars. In these months, sight fishing can be very enjoyable with a light quiver tip rod with scaled down feeder or link leger tactics. At times in the summer, they can almost be as bad as chub, as I have had a few larger specimens snatch big lumps of cheese on a size 8 hook whilst after chub, pulling the tip round with pure confidence! The beauty of sight fishing is, although it is difficult as the fish spook more easily, if you keep a low profile you can creep up on shoals and have a chance of picking out larger specimens. I have only on a few occasions, gone out of my way to target dace in summer with scaled down tactics and have managed a few fish from the 6 to 10oz range which is a nice stamp of dace indeed, even more so when they are hollow! It is also enjoyable to do a bit of early season trotting for them; I opt to use bread punch or casters to repel the minnows throwing themselves onto my hook. You will catch considerably less fish in the summer, as the fish will spook off quicker due to the clarity and the lower conditions causing greater commotion in the water, but it is enjoyable to watch the dace literally snatch your loose-fed maggots off the surface!

Roach in the Summer on my local chalkstream, seem to reveal themselves a lot more in the Summer. This is because the obvious variable, the river is lower and in the case of my local river, crystal, crystal clear and the fish can seen flashing and congregating together. When it is very warm, they can sometimes be seen right on the surface almost basking in the sun. They also give themselves away taking flies off the surface and snatching small morsels, such as nymphs in midwater, with the key give away to their presence, in my eyes, when they can be seen flashing on the bottom as they sift in the silt or gravel. I have, in the close season, whilst targeting trout accidentally encountered roach as they have snatched my nymphs, therefore targeting them on the fly is definitely on my 'to do' list next season. What I tend to do in summer is creep up on shoals and feed liquidised bread upstream of them and introduce a small piece of bread on a size 12 or even sometimes a 14 hook on light line, mimicking the loose feed as effectively as possible and this often gains some nice results, as you can see here.

A lovely summer brace caught on free-lined bread over the top of light loose feed,  it's marvellous watching the fish take!

Roach often give themselves away at dawn or at dusk where they can be seen rolling and you can sometimes catch the odd glimpse of their wonderful red fins. The roach can some days be nigh-on impossible as they are so preoccupied on naturals, that they will not pay any attention to your bait or just completely ignore it. I unfortunately this season, started to take roach fishing seriously a bit late on, but from listening to anglers who really know their stuff and have stricken the magical 2lb or so mark, fishing after dark is when you can catch the roach off guard. My first choice would be to fish with a smaller cage feeder running on the line held by a larger float stop, with liquidised bread onto a size 12 hook with a generous lump of bread flake to hopefully pick up a larger specimen. Other people opt for a triple or double maggot presentation on a short hook link with a maggot feeder up the line containing maggots with a bit of hemp. A float stop up the line whilst fishing maggots can have a 'bolt' effect where the fish can hook itself on the weight of the feeder, therefore effortless striking unlike with bread where you have to strike through it. A small link leger can be effective too during the day with a nice lump of flake.

Fine looking roach on a generous lump of bread

The best time, I find, to get a nice bag of dace, on my favourite dace venue is, when the water has gone up and is starting to drop. After a feed of maggots little and often for 10-20 minutes, before you cast out, with a little alloy stemmed stick float with a shirt button shotting pattern in the shallower runs or a small bulk with shirt-buttoned droppers is usually the better presentations. The bites tend to be pretty decisive but if they are proving to be finicky, putting a couple of smaller shot to dot the float right down is a good call. With patience and careful feeding in the right conditions that is, you can literally empty a swim. Adapting feeder tactics is again effective in winter as you can now get away with using maggots on the hook as the minnows are less active, and fishing this similar to maggot feeder tactics for roach is an ideal method, as you can see with a lovely 11oz Specimen I had this winter (pictured below).

A decent bag of dace, but sadly I didn't time trotting as well as I could have, as the colour had dropped out continuously.

Another pretty bag of dace

A lovely 11oz hollow dace caught last knockings on the maggot feeder

In Winter with my local chalk stream being coloured up from inevitable rain, similar tactics can be adapted to the dace fishing, with a nicely stemmed, I prefer alloy, stick float. The shotting pattern, like the dace, is depending on the type of swim you're fishing, but on my local chalk stream I fish a nice bulk with a couple of droppers, which when the bait is taken give the perfect indication to strike into. It also helps to hold the float back now and again too to ensure the bait is travelling at the same speed as the current therefore behaves more naturally to a shy roach. This is where a longer float rod comes into its own, but not to the extreme that it is too long for the river you are fishing meaning you can't properly manoeuvre in your swim. In terms of feed liquidised bread is perfect as is catapulted or hand-fed maggots and hemp. If for whatever reason fishing a float is challenging or hard to present, fishing a feeder can really come into its own in winter with the same methods mentioned after dark in summer, coming into play during the day as the minnows are less active.

A beautiful brace of roach on the stick float and maggots

Brace on the Maggot Feeder

Biggest of the Season 3oz under my PB, 1lb 10oz

I hope this blog has been of some interest to you,

Good luck if you choose to target either of these species next year,

Tom