Roach (Rutilus rutilus)
Current record: 4lb 5oz
Water: Long Lakes, Bassingbourn Barracks, Wendy
The roach (Rutilus rutilus) is one of the most widespread coarse fish in the UK, and one of the easiest to recognise: a bluish-silver body fading to white on the belly, red fins, and a distinctive red patch in the iris above the pupil. Body shape changes with age too, young roach are lean, and they broaden out into a deeper, taller shape as they mature.
Rarely exceeding 35cm, with 50cm as an exceptional maximum, roach shoal readily, often in large numbers in deeper water, and feed omnivorously on insects, invertebrates, worms, maggots, and plant matter. Young fish rely mostly on plankton until they're big enough to widen their diet. Roach are also genuinely adaptable to poor conditions: where invertebrate food is scarce, they'll simply grow more slowly, stay slimmer, and mature earlier, a real survival strategy rather than just making do.
They favour water with some vegetation, useful cover for fry and juveniles, and a food source for adults, and spawn in spring or early summer, sticking their eggs to submerged plants once the water warms.
Roach are a genuine staple of float fishing in the UK: willing to bite, forgiving of imperfect technique, and found in nearly every kind of water from slow rivers to still ponds, which is exactly why so many anglers cut their teeth on this species before moving on to anything more demanding.