THE ROACH - Rutilus rutilus
The roach is wide spread throughout England and Ireland (although the roach is not native to Ireland) but not so common in Wales and Scotland. The roach is silver in colour with red-orange fins, and is often mistaken for the rudd or vice versa by the inexperienced angler.
This is not surprising as even the fish themselves find it difficult, with a high number of hybrids between the two species. Both have greenish backs but the roach has silver sides, were as the rudd has a golden sheen to it.
Other hybrids are common with bream, chub and bleak. The roach does well in most waters, but prefer still or slow moving waters.They feed on invertebrates, insect larvae and bloodworms. With there slightly protruding upper lip prefer bottom feeding, but will feed midwater and take insects off the surface.
The roach start spawning between April and June, this is when the male produces white spots on his nose.These are called tubercles, and is about the only time of distinguishing male from female.
Spawning is done in the shallows, laying up to 40,000 yellowish sticky eggs on reeds, weed and stones. The fry start hatching about a week later depending on water temperatures, and start feeding on plankton but move on to larger food sauces as they grow. The specimen weight for the roach is 2lb(0.9kg) and over3lb (1.4kg) a fish of a life time and every course fisherman’s dream.
