Christmas Eve - Roach on the Pole

DATE : 24/12/2021

WEATHER : Cloudy with prolonged rain

WIND : Westerly

VENUE : Edmondsley Lake

TARGETTED SPECIES : Roach

METHOD : Pole at 8 metres

BAIT : Bread punch, White Breadcrumb, Hempseed

FINAL WEIGHT : APPROXIMATELY 11lb

I arrived at Edmondsley lake at around 9am, the weather was dull and damp but mild with a light - moderate Westerly breeze, but pretty much ideal for Roach fishing.

I fished peg 7 as this is one of the deeper pegs and decided to fish fairly simple by using the pole at 8 metres, with 2 different set ups, one fishing hard on the bottom and the other method, fishing shallow.

I decided to only bring a loaf of White breadcumb, and using bread punch as bait over a bed of hemp soaked in my own additive, which I swear by on here for the Roach.

Both set ups were very light, using Bayer Perlon 2lb mainline / 1lb.12oz hooklength - size 20 hooks.

I began by cupping in 3 small cups of bread crumb and 1 cup of hempseed soaked in my additive and began fishing hard on the bottom whilst loose feeding hempseed little and often.

Almost instantly, I was catching small Gudgeon (I expected) but then began picking up small Roach.

After around an hour of catching small Roach this way, I noticed quite a bit of activity 'up in the water' so I decided to switch to my shallow rig and was almost immediately rewarded with some better sized Roach and the odd F1, this carried on for around an hour and a half, whilst continuing to feed hemp little and often and adding a ball of bread crumb to the swim each hour or so.

Once the bites began to slow down, I switched back onto the bottom and began picking up much better Roach and F1s, with a few Skimmers added to the mix.

The weather became worse at around 3pm, just as I was starting to pack up but I ended up with around 11lb of mainly Roach, with a few F1s, Skimmers and the odd Gudgeon, with a lovely surpise of my little girl showing up to see what Daddy has caught.

A lovely days fishing on Christmas Eve.