UK Coarse
Float · Technique journey
A summer river (and sometimes canal) way to sort stamp roach: feed hemp until they graze, then a tare — or a single grain of hemp — on a fine hook. After 16 June on rivers.
Experiencedfloatrivercanal
Hemp holds them; a tare picks the better ones once they have settled on the seed. You cook hemp until it splits, feed it little and often down a crease, hook maggot until they graze, then switch. It is a 16 June tactic on rivers, and a lesson as much as a method.
A tin of cooked hemp is allowed if you do not want the saucepan. Tares are not a magic bait on a peg that has no roach.
Summer rivers after 16 June, stamp roach, some canals. Clear, settled water.
The close season. A barbel peg with no roach. First hour on a new river when maggot would tell you more.
From the graph
A starting point, not a shopping list you have to finish. Match the water in front of you.
12–13ft float rod, 3000 reel, 3–5lb line, a float you can actually see, fine hooklength.
On the peg
Grains of hemp every run, not a handful. When they graze, keep it going and switch the hookbait.
Stick or a light pole rig, fine hook, hemp cooked until it splits, tares soaked.
A summer crease, a canal far-shelf of quality roach.
Trotting or a still pole bait among the hemp. A tare, or a single grain, once they are on it.
Feed hemp, hook maggot. Do not start on a tare before they have seen the seed.
Summer, clear to slightly coloured, a crease you can trot or a canal far-shelf.
Open season. Feed hemp every trot, maggot on the hook. When the maggot starts producing better fish or they boil on the hemp, a tare. Stay on that line. Tiny fish means you have not got them on the seed yet — or this is not a hemp peg.
Starting routine
0–10 min
Get a bait in the water on the line you intend to fish. Do not search the whole venue in ten minutes.
10–30 min
Grains of hemp every run, not a handful. When they graze, keep it going and switch the hookbait.
30–60 min
If nothing, change one thing — depth, bait or spot — not three. Read the troubleshooting on this page.
A hold-under, a dip. Stamp roach are not always shy once they are on hemp.
In contact, a clean lift.
Net anything with size or spines. Wet hands, unhook, return. A photograph is optional; the fish in the water is not.
Starting on tares. Uncooked hemp. A river in May. Feeding a pint in twenty minutes.
No graze: wrong line, or too much hemp. Tares ignored: go back to maggot or a grain of hemp. Close season: go home.
Beginner setup
Learn stick float and maggot first. Then cooked hemp, maggot on the hook, a summer crease after 16 June.
More advanced
Change depth, bait or feed before you change peg.
No linked on-the-bank problems for this method yet.
Catches
Nobody has shared a catch using this technique yet. When someone does, it will show up here — we do not invent anglers or photos.