Roach Galore

[Banana Steve]

I had to take my Dad to local surgery on Friday and I was expecting him to be there for most of the day, but luck would have it that I was back home by 14:30 and with only an hour left to return to work, I opted to go fishing instead. It was a quick grab of tackle mainly my light carp gear, some Sweetcorn and a few pop ups.

I arrived at the lake at 15:30 to find Ben Lee fishing peg one and the rest of the lake free. I opted for peg 7 which has always been very kind to me over the years and today was no exception (find out later what peg 7 did for me.)
View of Peg 7

Anyway I decided that I would fish my Barbel rod on the adjustable Zig Rig with a 14mm pop-up, and fish the float on my Drennan Specialist rod. I started on the corn with the float started to get bites straight away. The few fish were small skimmers but they kept me busy for the first hour or so.
One of my Skimmers

As the afternoon progressed the Zig Rig didn’t move, I tried different lengths and baits but nothing.
Diagram of the adjustable Zig Rig

I remained optimistic and left the Zig Rig out and carried on with the float, and carried on catching the Skimmers and I started to get some half decent Roach. And was rewarded with a Male Tench of around 2 ½ pounds.

One of the things I like about Crockerton is the wild life especially the birds, you will often see Buzzards, Herons and you even get personal visits.





It was around 17:00 when peg 7 was yet again kind to me when my float shot under and to start with the float didn’t move and I then felt the familiar pull of a good fish, I knew it wasn’t a massive fish but it felt like a medium sized Tench or a 4lb Bream but when the fish showed its head well all I could do was shout out for Ben to bring his scales. What I saw was a possible PB Roach, the fish looked as if would top 2lb. On getting the Roach in I noticed even its size reflected a 2lb+ roach it didn’t feel that weight. Ben brought over his scales and once we had zeroed them in, we weighed the Roach, the final total was 1lb and 7oz’s. It was not a PB but it was a new club record and my second ever biggest Roach.

1lb 7ozs Roach


I stayed on for another hour and had a few more Roach and Skimmers but by 18:45 I had enough and decided to call it a day. The day never produced a fish on the Zig Rig but it did produce a take but when I struck there was nothing.
I had arranged to meet Ben and his Father “Dave” out at Crockerton at 8:00am on the Saturday for the 1st of the Carp matches being held this year. Ian had also said that he was fishing Crockerton on the Saturday so I thought I would give it ago as well. Before I left Ben had been doing quite well and managed to bank a 19lb Mirror, a fish that his Brother caught earlier in the year.


Well the following day arrived and I was down by the Lake at 7:30 waiting for the carp Anglers to arrive for the Match. With the top two going through to the final I was hoping that a few would turn up for which had booked in late and I didn’t know about. However, I was being a bit hopeful, Ben and Dave turned up and by 8:00 we had the Draw, even though they automatically qualify they still needed to fish. Simon N turned up with Cindy and they said they were going to fish a normal day. I then popped home to do a few things and got my kit ready. Ian popped round to my place to pick up his membership book and I also gave him some chopped meat for the day. I told him that I will meet him out there later as I needed to pop in to town to get my bait.

I arrived at the lake at 11:00ish and I saw Ian on the far bank on peg 14, which I had recommended to him there was always a good chance of a Tench and good Bream, which I knew he wanted for the species hunt. I noticed that Dave Harle was in the peg next to him in No13, so I wondered around to see them and decided that I would give Peg 12 ago. A peg I haven’t fish in years.

View from Peg 12


With peg 12 being in the shallow end of the lake, I wasn’t holding out with too much enthusiasm as I thought I might struggle. With the average depth of the lake of 9ft peg 12 has a depth of 2 and ½ft. However it wasn’t long before I had my first bite on Sweetcorn a Skimmer of around 12ozs came to the net. I mainly fed corn and it worked out for the best as I started to produce the Skimmers and good quality Roach.

Dave next to me was enjoying the sun, and was very relaxed, he did miss a screaming run and lost a Bream at the net just as I was about to go over and take a photo.

Dave enjoying his day


Ian in peg 14 was bagging, he caught his Target species and was out enjoy the day.


We fished to about 16:00 and at the end of the day I had done quite well with about 15lb in weight and I even managed some nice Roach as well, the weekend was defiantly a weekend for the Roach.

Two of the best Roach


My Final Catch


Ian had a bit more than me with around 20lb. But overall it was a cracking weekends fishing and I even got an invite to BBQ at Ian’s.

[fishypaul]

nice weekends sport steve,well done mate,
super roach mate

[Simon N]

Well Done Steve, Great To See The Fishing At Crockerton Picking Up. Fantastic News On The New PB And Club Record.

[headless]

Well done Steve

A good day at a lovely looking place

Darrell

[Lman]

cracking roach steve well done
top report as ever

[pingu]

busy afternoon there mate well done on the roach i know how much you love them

dave

[blackwater]

Brilliant roach there steve, i agree with you it does look over 2lbs! anyway well done on the venue record and a great report aswell...

BW

[BaggieRich]

Well done Steve. That's a cracking fish there mate!

[Gilbo]

Nice one and thanks for the photos - looked a great session.

[ben lee]

was a great roach and witnessed for a new club record keep it up and it wont be long before a 2lb roach will come from crockerton great report steve and pics.

the 19lb 10oz has been out 3 times already lol brother caught it end of feb at a few oz over 20lb and also andy curtis and now me lol.