Hi Guys

Dispite the Forth and Clyde canal having at least a "Gazillion" Roach in it all my pipitiful attempts at trying to bag one on the fly have all ended in humiliation at the hands/Fins of these little Silver fish

Armed with my delightful New 9' 3# Vision Cult and hopefully a box of killer roach patterns i hope to end my Roach famine in 2010 !

To this end im after imput to help me tie up a dedicated "Roach pattern box"

Fly choice:

Im thinking they should have..............

Smallish nymphs 18-14 ?

Flashy rib ?

Bright tag or butt ?

Possible small gold head or hot head ?

Sparse seal dubbed body ? (buggy look)

Ive heard people say Oh small PTN,s Hares ears, diawl bachs !! Well my finicky F & C canal Roach have shown no interest in them ?? Unless its something to do with my presenation ?? But ive been down to 2lb tippet's.

The most interest all season was when the lad sight cast a size 10 orange and white okey dokey at the roach !! I told him it was way to big for them............. they went "nuts" and attacked it like a shoal of Piranha !! Sadly they were too small to hook up ..............

I tied up the same fly in 20,18,16..................... absolutely no interest what so ever Chucked out the size 10 they went mental

I figure "if" i can find the "right" pattern/pattern's and the "right" presentation for these F & C canal Roach i could be in for some cracking sport !

On some nights the canal boils with rising Roach so i guess i should be looking at some surface patterns too ? I have to admit not having much experience with dry flys so all help much appreciated.

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Englander

"Barbless since 2008"

Vision GT Four catapult 9' 6#
Vision GT Four SW 9' 9#
Vision 3 Zone 9' 5#
Vision Cult 9' 3#
Shakespeare Trion 9' 5/6#
Cortland Endurance 9' 6#
Shakespeare Expedition float tube
Vosseler DC3 reel
Okuma Helios 8/9 reel
Greys G series 3/4 reel
Snowbee Geo 3/4 reel

you need to match the "hatch". ask yourself what they are normally feeding on, my guess is maggots,pinkies,bloodworm and breadpunch all from the match anglers. that would be why the size 10 okey would have done the trick. keep at it, it will come off in the end. jon mcmillan.

There was a gent on here Fossil Fish, who only took up the gentle art of fly fishing a couple of yrs ago who went to one of our local trout rivers here in N.Ireland...the six mile to try his hand at catching some wild browns armed with gold bead hares ears and spiders, anyway he came across shouls of roach which he said were spawning, which i may say growing up on the river i had never seen, anyway call it coincidence or what you like as he came from a course fishing backround he did manage to hook one on a gold bead hares ear after a few attempts.....im sure it will hold fond memories for him and quite a fitting thing to have achieved given his course fishing backround. All that said just keep trying and im sure your day will come.

Geordie.

I have done well with hare ears and red tags, for roach and rudd.

Hope this helps.

Dai.

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Any day with a y in it, is a good day to go fishing

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I have gotten roach and dace on two patterns only - small CDC emergers and very small PTNs on 18-20 hooks, tied skinny without beads and dead-drifted. There is virtually no bite indication apart from a small stir of the tip of the fly line.

I've no experience of the F and C Canal but I would imagine red buzzer patters fished static would be a good place to start. As the bed of the canal will be quite silty there should be a lot of bloodworm in the canal.JB

I fish for roach & rudd alot.
Early morning & late evening in the summer.
Late afternoon in the winter, roach still rise on warm afternoons.
I use a 12 oz tippet from drennan.
Fly wise I start with a size 20 black gnat. I have found that I can increase fly size as the light fails and the bigger fish in the shoal become less twitchey.

I don't go bigger than a 14.

Also I use fake maggots which float, I make in slit in them glue in a size 20 hook to nylon( saves messing about). If you want them to sink pop on a split shot above the hook.

Sean

i caught a roach about 1lb 1/4 on a size 10 kate mclaren on lough erne if this helps lol

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http://irelandonthefly.myfreeforum.org/

Hi Guys

Thanks..............Re -Match anglers 99% of anglers here chuck spinners or dead bait for pike ! Very ,very few guys target the roach. Ive caught very small ones on size 18 and paste, ive had a few crackers on double red maggot on a size 16.

I have tied up red and black buzzers down to 18,20 no interest ? Even tried tiny bread patterns ...no interest ?? But as ive said before these Roach are very "finicky" much more so than any Roach i ever fished for in England ?

Hares ear is one of my favorite fly's ive cast size 18,20 into shoals of roach..........no interest as it falls through the shoal ?? Even if i hang it NZ style so stop it sinking..........nothing ?

Anyway figure the more fly patterns ive got the better so ive started on my 2010 Roach box to add to my tiny buzzers etc Tied these on size 16's just to get me used to wee stuff again

__________________
Englander

"Barbless since 2008"

Vision GT Four catapult 9' 6#
Vision GT Four SW 9' 9#
Vision 3 Zone 9' 5#
Vision Cult 9' 3#
Shakespeare Trion 9' 5/6#
Cortland Endurance 9' 6#
Shakespeare Expedition float tube
Vosseler DC3 reel
Okuma Helios 8/9 reel
Greys G series 3/4 reel
Snowbee Geo 3/4 reel

Englander, with luck Skateboard Dave will look in on this thread - he's the real expert. But until he does, here's a link to at least one pic of his roach fly box, taken when he gave a talk down here on the Wandle about 18 months ago...

Fishing London's River Wandle | The Wandle Piscators Blog Archive “Skateboard Dave”: Try it till it works!

Having said that, my own best roach (not on the Wandle) have come to a fairly large pheasant tail spinner pattern, about size 14, and a huge dry mayfly. I kicked myself for not getting a photo of the latter fish: it would have gone a pound and a half at least!

Theo

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