The Common Roach (Rutilus rutilus, family Cyprinidae, plural also "common roach") is a freshwater and brackish water fish native to most of Europe and western Asia. It is locally simply known as "the roach", but actually the fishes called "roach" can be any species of the genera Rutilus and Hesperoleucus depending on locality. The roach is typically a small fish, often reaching no more than about 35 cm (14 inches) in length. A fish of 1 kg (2¼ lb) would be considered a largish specimen but they can, sometimes, attain weights just in excess of 1.8 kg (4 lb). The roach has a rather streamlined shape, being four times as long as it is wide. * Name's origin: from Old French roche, possibly from Germanic. Two kinds of fins can be noted: * unmatched fins, including the dorsal and caudal fins; The former give the fish stability in the water, and the latter are used for orientation. Bodily systems The roach has four pairs of gills set side by side that have hairs whose function is to keep foreign particles out. The gills together form a V-shaped set. There are also the gill slits which are used as exchange surfaces to extract oxygen from the water. The heart is found beside the gills, which allows blood to be pumped through the gills with a considerable pressure. The circulatory system is otherwise rather simple. Deoxygenated blood passes through the heart only once. The roach has a non-keratinous outer skin of several layers about 100 μm thick. It is made up of connective cells. This epidermis has no glands, but there are glandular cells which secrete a mucus that protects the fish's scales. The scales sheathe the roach in a kind of exoskeleton. The roach has a head with eyes, and blind (i.e., without an opening at one end) nostrils, which do not open into the mouth as is true of other fishes. The roach also has a lateral line along each side, running from one end of its body to the other. This line of special scales is equipped with holes which connect the fish's outer body to the nervous system, enabling it to detect movements nearby by picking up small variations in long wavelengths in the water, caused by movements of other creatures.
Fishing for roach in Britain is relatively easy because the species is found in most rivers, lakes and ponds throughout the country. Larger specimens tend to be particularly elusive, but smaller individuals are easy to catch on relatively light line and with a bait such as maggot or worm. They also take particle baits such as sweetcorn and can be caught on a variety of different types. The only limit in type is regarding the size of the bait. Boilies and luncheon meat are generally avoided by Roach because they are too large for them to swallow. Because it is a schooling species, it is not unusual for an individual fish to be caught many times during a single session, and sometimes a larger, specimen individual could be waiting outside the shoal. Roach are infamous for their ability to throw the hook during a catch, which further perpetuates the idea that larger roach are notoriously difficult to bank. The maximum recorded weight for the species in Britain is 4 lb 3 oz (1.90 kg) and any fish over a pound is regarded as a specimen individual. See also * Vobla, salted Caspian roach. External links
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