How to Catch Roach

By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026

Roach fishing in the UK comes down to fine tackle, small hooks and steady feed. Roach turn up everywhere from farm ponds to rivers and canals, and most will take maggots, casters, bread or hemp on a size 16 to 22 hook, fed little and often.

Catching roach is easy. Catching a big roach is not. Anything over 1lb (0.45kg) is a very good fish, and a 2lb roach is a proper specimen that many anglers chase for years.

The eight steps below run from licence to landing, with a method-by-water table and a hook-to-bait table along the way. For identification and life history, see our roach species guide, and for other species and methods, the coarse fishing techniques hub.

Step 1: Check Your Licence and the Close Season

Turning up at an English river in April with a pint of maggots is a quick way to break the law. The rules change by nation and by type of water.

Nation	Rod licence	Coarse close season on rivers
England	Needed from age 13 (free junior licence for 13 to 16)	15 March to 15 June inclusive on rivers, streams and drains
Wales	Needed from age 13	Check Natural Resources Wales for current dates and byelaws
Scotland	None, but you need the rights owner’s permission	No close time for coarse fish
Northern Ireland	Check DAERA or the Loughs Agency	Check DAERA or the Loughs Agency

In England the statutory close season does not cover most stillwaters and canals, though some SSSIs, the Broads and private waters set their own. When checked on GOV.UK in October 2026, a trout and coarse licence cost £7.30 for one day or £36.80 for 12 months, covering up to two rods unless the water sets a lower limit. Check the current price before you buy. Our fishing licence and fishing seasons guides cover the detail.

By now you should know whether your water is open today. If you want roach in spring in England, fish a canal or stillwater until rivers reopen on 16 June.

Step 2: Find Where Roach Feed on Canals, Rivers and Stillwaters

On a canal, the obvious spot by your feet is usually the wrong one. Location matters more than tackle in roach fishing, and each type of water has a predictable roach zone.

Canals. Roach are the most abundant species on Canal & River Trust canals, and the Trust’s fisheries team advises fishing the boat channel or towards the far bank rather than the towpath margin. Canal choice matters too. Where zander are present, roach tend to be fewer but larger, and where there are none they are usually numerous but small, according to the Canal & River Trust. Our canal fishing guides list waters by region.

Rivers. Look for slacker water off the main flow, weir pools, and the tail of a swim where the current runs out from under a weed bed.

Stillwaters. Drag a marker float to find firm gravel among the silt, a favoured spot for bigger roach. At dawn and dusk, watch for rolling fish giving their position away.

Roach feed anywhere from the bottom to just under the surface, so pick a depth band as well as a spot.

Canal swim	What to expect
Boat channel or far bank	Deeper water, and the line the Trust recommends
Towpath margin	Shallow and disturbed, usually fewer fish

By the end of this step you should have a chosen swim and a likely depth band.

Step 3: Pick the Right Roach Method for Your Water

Most conflicting roach advice comes from anglers describing different waters. Match the method to the water in front of you and stick with it all session.

Water	Best method	Rod or pole	Main line	Hook
Canal	Pole, or a short waggler line to the far bank	13m pole, elastic 3 to 6	Light, to suit the pole rig	20 to 22
River	Stick float, trotted	13ft float rod	3 to 4lb	Match to bait (Step 4)
Stillwater, close to mid range	Bottom-only waggler	12 to 13ft float rod	2 to 3lb	16 to 18
Stillwater, distance or bigger fish	Quiver tip feeder	10 to 11ft feeder rod	3lb	18 for maggot, 14 for big roach

Pole. The most precise way to present a tiny bait on a canal. A poor fit on a wide, fast river. See our pole fishing guide.

Stick float. Fix it with three rubbers, use shirt-button shotting, and go bigger for faster water. Hard work on a still canal with no flow to carry it. Our stick float guide covers trotting.

Waggler. Attached bottom-only, it copes with wind on lakes and reaches a canal’s far bank. Skip it on fast rivers. See waggler fishing.

Feeder. Fishing for roach on the feeder suits small commercials and longer range on stillwaters, with a block-end, open-end or cage feeder. On a method feeder, keep the hooklength to 3in or less and use stickier groundbait. A poor choice when roach are feeding up in the water. More in our feeder fishing guide.

By now you should have one method chosen for the session.

Step 4: Match Hook Size to Your Bait

Roach are shy biters, and a hook too big for the bait is one of the commonest reasons for missed bites. Scale the hook to the bait.

Bait	Hook size	Note
Hemp or tares	20 to 22	A small hook keeps the seed looking natural
Pinkie, squatt, caster or bread punch on canals	20 to 22	Canal standard
Single or double maggot	18	Good starting point on most waters
General float fishing on stillwaters	16 to 18	Waggler and pole default
Bread flake	Go up from your 16 to 18 default	Flake needs a bigger hook to hold it
Double maggot for big roach	14	On a feeder heli rig (Step 7)

Line follows the method you chose in Step 3: 2 to 3lb main line on the waggler, 3lb on the feeder and 3 to 4lb for trotting a stick float. Tie your hooklength from lighter line than the main line, so a snag costs you the hook and not the float or feeder.

Leave the hook point exposed. A buried point on a size 20 misses bites.

By the end of this step you should have a hooklength tied to match your bait. The rule of thumb: the smaller the bait, the smaller the hook, and go bigger only for bread flake or a specimen rig.

Step 5: Choose Your Bait and Feed Little and Often

One of the cheapest baits on the bank is also one of the best for big roach. Plain bread, as flake, paste or punch, is hard to beat when the bigger fish are about, according to Fisheries.co.uk’s Malcolm Parnell.

The main roach baits:

Bread: flake on the hook for bigger fish, punch for canals, and paste as an alternative to flake. See our bread bait guide.
Maggots and casters: the all-rounders. Throw away any casters that float, because they drift out of your swim and pull fish with them. More in maggots and casters.
Hemp and tares: a canal standard that works as loose feed and on the hook. Some waters ban hemp, so check the fishery rules first.

To prepare particles:

Soak hemp overnight.
Simmer it for about 10 minutes until the grains start to split.
Simmer tares for 20 to 30 minutes until soft.
Let both cool and drain before the session.

Our hemp bait guide covers preparation and storage.

Loose feed a small pinch at a time, little and often, rather than dumping a big helping in at the start, and build the swim gradually. If you use groundbait, a little aniseed liquid adds attraction, but go easy with it.

Maggots pull in lots of small fish in warm weather, which matters once you start targeting bigger roach in Step 7.

By now you should have a steady feeding pattern set. If small fish swamp your maggots, switch to hemp or bread.

Step 6: Find the Depth and Read Shy Bites

Plenty of quiet roach sessions are really floats that showed nothing. Roach bite delicately, so the float has to show every touch.

Shot the float down until only the tip shows above the surface. Any more and a shy bite will not register.
Plumb the depth and start with the bait just off the bottom.
Watch the float as it settles, because roach can take a bait on the drop.
If bites come before the float has cocked, the fish are up in the water, so shallow up in small steps.
On rivers, use shirt-button shotting on the stick float for a slow, natural fall through the water.

What you see	What it means	What to do
Bites on the drop, before the float settles	Roach are high in the water	Shallow up
Bites only once the float settles	Roach are on or near the bottom	Hold depth, keep feeding

By the end of this step you should be getting consistent bites and know the depth the roach are feeding at.

Step 7: Target Big Roach in Autumn and Winter

The British record roach is 4lb 3oz (1.90kg), and it is a joint record. Dai Gribble’s fish from Linear Fisheries in Oxfordshire, caught on 19 March 2024, and Keith Berry’s fish from a Northern Ireland stillwater were both ratified by the British Record (rod caught) Fish Committee on 14 June 2024, as reported by Angling Times. Gribble’s fish weighed 4lb 4oz and was ratified rounded down.

His method, reported by Drennan, was a block-end maggot feeder on a heli rig with a 3in fluorocarbon hooklength. Angling Times sets out a similar helicopter rig for specimen roach:

Tie a size 14 hook to about 4in of fluorocarbon.
Bait it with two white maggots.
Fish it on a helicopter set-up with a block-end feeder or feeder bomb.
Cast to slightly different spots rather than building one bed of bait.
Stay until dusk and into dark.

Why winter? Once temperatures drop, small fish leave maggots alone, so the bait that drew tiddlers all summer starts sorting out bigger fish.

Look for firm gravel and roach rolling at dawn and dusk. Big roach can feed for as little as an hour, often at dusk, so packing up at sunset can mean missing the only bites of the day.

Fish waters with form, including canals with zander (Step 2). On English rivers, the close season starts on 15 March (Step 1), so a late-winter river campaign ends there.

Best for: anglers happy to sit through a cold evening for a handful of bites. Skip if: you want a busy session with plenty of fish.

Step 8: Handle and Return Roach Carefully

A few seconds of care keeps a roach fit to be caught again. These are small, delicate fish, so handle them quickly and gently.

Wet your hands before touching the fish.
Unhook over the water or an unhooking mat.
Use a disgorger with small hooks.
Keep the fish out of the water for as short a time as possible.

Keepnet rules vary, so check the local byelaws and the venue rules before using one. Roach spawn between April and June, depending on water temperature, in shallow water over stones or weed. That overlaps the river close season in England. Leave spawning fish alone.

The verdict: quick, wet-handed and back in the water.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best bait for roach?

Bread, maggots, casters and hemp are the best roach baits. Bread flake is hard to beat for bigger roach, while hemp works as feed and hookbait where the water allows it. Maggots catch roach of all sizes but attract small fish in warm weather. See Step 5 above for preparation and feeding.

When is the best time to catch roach?

In England you can catch roach all year on most stillwaters and canals, and rivers are open from 16 June to 14 March. For big roach, dawn and dusk are the best times of day. Autumn and winter are the best seasons, because small fish leave maggots alone once temperatures drop.

Are roach bottom feeders?

No. Roach feed at all depths, from the bottom to just under the surface, and can take a bait as it falls. Watch your float as it settles, and shallow up if bites come before it cocks. Step 6 above covers finding the feeding depth.

How do you tell a roach from a rudd?

A rudd has a protruding, upturned lower lip, and its dorsal fin sits further back along the body than a roach's. Those two features are the quickest checks on the bank. Our roach vs rudd guide and the roach species guide cover identification in more detail.