24.11.11

Monumental Roach Haul - Shaun Hodges

Top Guru all-rounder Shaun Hodges has been in touch to tell us about a monumental haul of roach that he took from the River Test in Hampshire. Shaun said, “I’ve been targeting this stretch since the start of November. I’d spoken to a few lads, who’d seen the roach topping and managed to narrow it down to one area.
The spot itself was a deep run of around seven yards between two weed beds. I initially used the catapult to loose feed the maggots but I just couldn’t get past the grayling, which would race off the shallow water to either side of the gulley and snatch the feed before it got to the channel.
To get round this I used a bait dropper to get the maggots into the gulley. To effectively fish the swim I had to flick my float tackle across the river and tease it back into the run, which was pretty short! Whenever the action slowed, I’d drops some more maggots out and rest the swim, grabbing a cup of coffee.
My final tally came to 28 roach, with 20 over 1lb, including three over 2lb, weighing 2lb, 2lb 2oz and 2lb 4oz. I can imagine ever getting close to a bag of roach like this again!”
Shaun tempted his huge bag on a homemade float and 4lb N-Gauge hook link material.

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