Look on a map today and you will see that the River Idle is a tributary of the Trent, flowing through Nottinghamshire and joining the Trent at West Stockwith. It wasn’t always like this however. Prior to ca 1629, the Idle was a tributary of the River Don. In 1626 King Charles I hired the famous Dutch land drainage engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden to drain Hatfield Chase and the area around the Isle of Haxey. In doing this, the course of the Idle was changed. What a monumental task this must have been. Today, the Idle is a most delightful angling river, especially of you like roach fishing. The river isn’t fished very much these days, mainly due to the fact that this area has a large number of commercial waters in the vicinity. However for keen river roach anglers, this waterway has been a Mecca for years and can be very challenging indeed.
Probably the best method, if you want to get a good bag of roach, is trotting with a stickfloat. However this style of angling is becoming a dying art. Even the floats are getting harder to buy. In some tackle shops they have never been seen in years. One thing I have learned over the years is that legering is not very successful on this river, if it is the roach you are after. If you want to fish a stationary bait on the bottom you would be better off using laying-on or stret-pegging tactics. Chucking out a feeder can often be the kiss of death and trying to hit bites with even the most delicate quivertip set up will leave you tearing your hair out in frustration. I don’t want to go into the technicalities of trotting with a stickfloat. This article is not about how to learn the art. What it is about is to encourage those of you who have perhaps never fished a river before to get out there and try it. Over 70% of my own angling these days is spent on waterways such as a rivers, drains and canals. And to me the capture of a truly wild fish; that is, a fish that is bred and born of the river, means a great deal.
And what of the Idle? What is the chance of getting a two pound roach, that magic target that eludes many good roach anglers? I’m a bit of an optimist and I would say that the chances are fairly good. In the past the Idle has certainly produced two pounders. My good friends John Ledger and Bob Roberts have both had two pound fish. Len Squires has had them, yet many great roach anglers have not. Tag Barnes best fish was 1lb 15 oz, as was my own. Mick Lomas has had them to 1lb 13oz and the legendary John Neville has had them to 1lb 14oz.
One of the best catches I ever heard of from the Idle was when Tag Barnes caught 30 fish in one session all over 1 lbs, the best 1lbs 12 oz. And then there was John Neville’s epic catch of 66 roach, taken in the early 50s, which weighed 66lbs! The smallest fish weighed 12 oz and the biggest 1lb 8 oz, all taken on breadflake. There are many stretches of the Idle that have never seen an angler in years. I would bet that in these areas there are 2-pounders waiting to be caught. I have caught two pound roach from many waters in my life but never yet from the Idle. To hit that target from this lovely Northern river with its deeply red finned pigeon-chested roach would just be a great achievement. And you never see a hybrid! |
Welcome!Log into your account
