Hi Guys

My objective of catching a Roach on the fly will have to wait ........at least till the ice blanket has gone the canal has been frozen since the 17th of decmeber 2009 !!

Anyway ive been playing with a wee tub of hot orange paint under varnish, these are on size 16 B170's and 2.3mm hotheads.............hope the extra colour will add to there attractiveness to roach ?

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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

The bows will love them...hope to see you get the roach all the same.

nice tyings , i used to catch the roach and rudd on blood worm patterns on my local river,, good fun

Some nice flies Englander, Will you be fishing these on the Forth & Clyde or the Union?? I caught some nice roach last season on the F & C

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"There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm."

Hi Max

Yes the F & C canal its at my back door, played around with the roach shoals in summer lots of interest but no action !! Frustrating or what !! Drive an man to drink !

Out of interest which stretch and what size and type of fly did you catch them on ? what size roach ?

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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

Its was at the Bainsford stretch and it was on maggots It was a bit of fun and they were around 5oz which i thought was good for a roach when they are under threat from pike. I had a few perch that were around 10oz that gave a good fight. I had one incident where i put a little roach back and a perch came up and nailed it I found a pod of roach last season across from the auction house and there were hundreds, getting them every cast, but this year iam concentrating on the fly

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"There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm."

Hi Englander,

The flies look good to me! Try green and pink heads too they also work quite well for me. Also experiment with different weights like 2mm 2.5mm 3mm and obviously metal and tungsten to be prepared for any situation(I also use plastic beads in the winter in shallow or in slow moving water). I find if you use two flies that is always better but Skateboard Dave for instance usually ties 3 on. The heavy one is always on the 1st dropper from the point. Make sure the dropper is short (2-3 inches!!!) to avoid tangles.

Keep us updated how you manage!

Best of luck

Peter