Roach - Rutilus Rutilus

General: The roach is a common fish of fresh and brackish water, and one that is likely to be the most familiar to anglers. The eyes are red; the body silvery with a blue iridescence and prominent scales; the rays of the fins and tail are blue, with the webbing between fin spines an orange-red. They are not large fish and the body size varies considerably depending on the food available and other local conditions. The largest roach recorded weighed less than two kilograms.

Habitat: Roach are found in freshwater lakes, canals and slow-moving rivers, and brackish waters and lakes.

Science: Roach feed on both animal matter and vegetation, principal foods being insect larvae, small molluscs and waterweed. They are tolerant of poor water conditions, even polluted water low in oxygen. The fish spawn from April to June in shallow water and attach their eggs – as many as 100,000 – to stones and plants. These hatch within four to 10 days, the fish larvae remaining attached to the vegetation until they have exhausted their yolk sacs. The young roach remain in shallow water and grow slowly, the males reaching maturity at two years, the females at three.

Although used as a source of cheap food in some eastern parts of its range, the roach is known primarily as a sport-fish. Its sheer abundance and ability to tolerate poor quality water means that it one of the most common fish caught by anglers. The fish’s natural predators include pike, eels and other large carnivorous fish, herons, osprey and aquatic mammals such as mink and otter.