Overview
RF4 staff members dive into the game and share their knowledge with the players. This guide was written by admin LadyofGames with the intent to show players how to catch the Common Roach on Mosquito Lake using float.
Introduction
This guide was written with the intent to show players how to catch the Common Roach on Mosquito Lake. The decision was made to focus on float fishing only. While not everything was fully explored, it became apparent early on that fishing with the leader set to minimum, produced the most fish, that the use of groundbait increased the amount of fish and that fishing with fluoro line and a fluoro leader as well had a positive effect on catching Common Roaches. A total of nine hours were spent on fishing, another three hours were spent on collecting data, sorting through it and gathering the results that are displayed in this guide. This guide covers basic information about the species, a review of the data collection techniques and results, discussion of techniques and rigs, a talk of the locations, some comments on hook and bait selection, and finally some points that I haven’t covered, but could prove to be starting points for those anglers that want to dive further into the world of the Common Roach.
Species overview
The Common Roach (Rutilus rutilus), is a fresh and brackish water fish of the Cyprinidae family, native to most of Europe and western Asia. It is a small fish, often reaching no more than about 35 cm. The roach can often be recognized by the big red spot in the iris above and beside the pupil. It is very adaptable and can be found in any freshwater ecosystem, ranging from small ponds to the largest rivers and lakes. It will feed at any depth, although its preferred food sources tend to be in shallower water. It tolerates organic pollution and is one of the last species to disappear in polluted waters. It is also often the most numerous cyprinid in nutrient-poor waters. It tolerates brackish water. Roach will survive in temperatures from close to freezing 4 °C (39 °F) up to around 31 °C (88 °F). The roach mostly inhabits freshwater ecosystems that are somewhat vegetated, because larval and young fish are protected by the vegetation and the mature fish can use it for food. The common roach eats a wide range of foods, from plant material, bottom-dwelling (benthic) invertebrates, to worms and maggots. Young fish feed mainly on plankton, until they are of a size to enjoy a wider diet.
Getting Started
From the information gathered above, I picked out three spots that had shallow water and contained vegetation, but were slightly different from each other. Quickly I realized that a pole longer than 4 meters, took too much time in setting the hook, for the line is as long as the rod is. I swapped monofilament line for fluoro line to reduce the loss of fish – monofilament has more elasticity than fluoro and is also more visible than fluoro. Finally I settled with the Berserk S4 series hooks, for less fish were able to spit those out. As for depth, I found that the minimum depth worked best, 35cm for fishing without a leader, 38cm for fishing with a leader. Given the diversity of the baits, I checked the weekly leader boards. Honey dough and Bark Beetle Larva seemed best. For the third I went with Algae. I adjusted my skill tree points to have all points put in fishing with a telescopic rod, and have maxed out fishing with a fixed float rig and a slider rig.
Data Collection and Results
The first three fishing sessions where held at 50:59. I choose this location due to the reeds, the shallow water and the open water around it. Algae and Bark Beetle Larvae yielded no Common Roaches. Honey dough was doing a decent job. The weather on the first day was rain with heavy wind. The second day was rain, turning into overcasted with some wind. The third day was sunny. With the weather becoming warmer and less wind stirring the surface, the catches became more frequent. Maggots, Horsefly and Wheat Seeds replaced the algae and bark beetle larva. Horsefly didn’t result in more common roaches. Maggots and Wheat Seeds showed a bit better result, but not as good as honey dough.
The second three fishing sessions where held at 38:56. There were three patches of liliepads, a rock and some minor reeds. This location produced more common roaches. For bait, I sticked with Honey Dough, and swapped between Semolina, Peas, Red Worm, Pearl Barley, Worm and Cornmeal Porridge. Peas didn’t yield a whole lot of common roaches, but when one did bite on it, it was of a bigger size than most. Redworm too produced bigger common roaches, but the downside was a lot of side catches such as perch and different carp species. The weather on day one was sunny, on day two overcasted with rain and heavy wind, on day three it turned sunny again. Calm, warm weather produced the most common roaches, while rainfall with steep winds reduced the yield of common roaches to almost zero.
The final three fishing sessions were held at 55:45, in the small open section with lilie pads to the left and reeds to the right. This proved to be the best spot of all three locations. It is more sheltered than the other two locations, but has less ‘objects’ in the water. The weather was of influence too, as there was but one day of rain, but hardly any heavy wind, the other two days were sunshine from dawn till dusk. Again, I kept on the honey dough and switched between the other baits. Casters proved to work excellent, wet bread was pretty decent but gave more side catches such as Crucian Carp. Egg dough gave some common roaches, but proved to be more attractive to the Chinese Sleepers.
Rig Setup and Techniques Used
After trial and errors, I used the following setup for float fishing Common Roach:
Initially I used the 6 meter pole, but as stated at the beginning of this guide, it proved to be too long. I switched to fluoro line and leader for a better setting of the hook and less misses when striking. The Berserk Hooks Rage Series S4 proved to be the best. For rigs I used both the Fixed Float and the Slider Float. To me it seemed the Slider Float was a bit more effective, but I’m not entirely sure and will have to do some further investigation into that. The usage of a fluoro leader did help. I used hooks #24 to #8. With hooks #8 I got less fish, whereas with hooks #24 I lost the most fish. Hook size #12 and #14 seemed to work the best as it caught me both big as well as small common roaches.
Baits and Groundbaits
During the nine hours of fishing I used one bait (honey dough) that proved to be working right from the start. The rest of the baits I switched until I found they too worked very good (wet bread and casters). Peas didn’t yield a lot of common roach, but when it hooked into one, it proved to be of a larger size than most others. This too was true for Redworms, although it also caught a lot of other species such as carp and perch.
For groundbait I used the standard Common Roach mix, as provided by the game. All my groundbait was of 10/10 quality and lasted up to 13 hours. At the start of each session I would throw 10 balls of groundbait around my three bobbers. I did not add any further during the remaining of the day, so as to see the difference between usage of groundbait and without the usage of groundbait. The areas that were less favorable for common roach, would attract more common roach while groundbait was still active, but would dwindle as soon as the groundbait was gone. The areas that already had a big population of common roaches, were not much affected by the use of groundbait.
Locations
I picked my three spots based on earlier gathered knowledge of Common Roaches prefering vegetation for food and covering, and their preference of shallow waters. The first spot I chose for its reeds. However, the vast open water around it and the wind affected this location too much. The second spot I choose for it having rocks, a lot of liliepads and some reeds. While it was a lot better than the first location, there also seemed to be more predatory fish activity in the form of perches. And perhaps there being a lot of objects in the water (rocks, to the left and right also planks/debris), it scared of the shoals of common roaches. Finally the third spot I choose due to it having some liliepads, some duckweed, and some reeds, but no rocks and lesser debris. This spot proved to be the perfect area for common roaches. See the map in the spoiler below. I have marked a section light blue. Here there are similar spots as 55:45 that for the curious angler might be a good start into diving further into the world of common roaches.
50:59 – fair, but the vast open water gets too easily affected by the weather. A different spot is recommended
38:56 – good, but also prone to having more predatory fish. With the right bait you can attract a lot of good roaches. Use the wrong bait, and you’ll end up with a wide variety of different fish species.
55:45 – excellent!
Weather and Time of Day
Weather and Time of Day (TOD) proved to have a big impact on the common roaches. The common roaches prefer to swim and feed in the top layer of the water. Wind that goes above 2.0m/s would cause a significant drop in bite rate. Rain too would cause too much disturbance to the water surface. And cold nights affected the fish in a negative way. On the other hand, sunshine and overcasted proved to be excellent fishing conditions.
Time of day too proved to be of impact. Around 7am in the morning the majority of the roach would become active. They would remain active on sunny days until 3pm in the afternoon. Later in the evening, they would become active again until roughly midnight.
Validation
During my last fishing session I used all knowledge I had gathered during the previous session. I picked a full sunny day and started fishing at 4pm in the afternoon. I used Honey Dough, Wet Bread and Casters, hook #10 (because I wanted a trophy), threw 10/10 groundbait at the 55:45 and prepared myself for the onslaught. Within less than an hour I had my net filled. Out of the 100 fish, 78 of them were common roaches. Cleaning my keepnet by first going to the cafe and sell the rest at the market, I made a total yield of 132 silver. Despite not being able to catch a trophy and land myself on the leaderboard, I was very pleased with the result.
Conclusion
The Common Roach is an easy fish to target. It has a wide variety of baits that will work well, and a few that work outstanding. It isn’t picky in what hooks are used, though medium sized hooks will work best. To reduce the loss of fish, fluoro lines are recommended. This too goes for the rod length. Given that the fish lives close to the shore, there’s no need in getting a big rod.
The data that I’ve collected has yielded much useful information. Nevertheless, there are still things to explore. I couldn’t cover all the baits, and I’ve left out all the boilies. Groundbait as well may be another venue to look at, as I only used standard groundbait. Mosquito Lake has a variety of spots that I didn’t touch, but look very promising. And last but not least: I’ve left the whole usage of bottom fishing unexplored as well as the use of other float fishing rigs. I encourage the motivated anglers to pick up where I’ve left of. Show me how you caught your trophy common roach – though I believe I’m getting very close to finding it! – and share me rigs that you’ve used that I didn’t. I encourage and challenge you to go out there and to come back with your findings. And if you learn something new, please share it with the rest of us!
Until next time – Tight Lines!