A double bronze maggot hookbait has accounted for one of the biggest river roach of the season in the shape of this pristine 3lb 1oz 8dr specimen.

It fell to the rod of 32-year-old landscape gardener John Joyce who headed to his local stretch of Dorset’s River Frome for a few hours’ maggot feeder fishing on the tip.

He told Angling Times: “I was catching plenty of small trout and eels when I struck into a much stronger fish, and I was surprised to see this huge roach pop up!”