The lure of perch

After dropping on that nice pike the other day it inspired me to get out again. Not for pike but for perch and instead of laying in bed and snoozing all morning I got up and out on to the bank as the sun was rising. It was a cracker of a morning, the type that made me think of all the mornings I'd wasted in bed. The fishing wasn't bad either and I got in to some nice perch. I think I bagged around seventeen stripeys with the biggest going well over a pound but short of the two pound mark, at least by my guestimate anyway. A fantastic mornings sport and well worth getting up for but despite the beautiful morning and a few fish banked I went home thinking "what if?". After bagging the biggest fish of the session my next chuck resulted in something different all together. I felt a knock and hooked in to something. The rod just bent over but wasn't bouncing, and I thought I'd hooked a pike. Often a pike just sits there for a moment as it doesn't always realise it's hooked on a small jig head. When finally this fish started to move I had lots of ferocious head shakes and an erratic fight and then a huge perch came to the surface. It's tough to guess it's weight but if my biggest of the session was short of two pound, this one wasn't far off double that one, easily. A definite high end two but could it have been more? I'll never know  as it flipped itself free of the hook, but at least I know where it hangs out.

I got some jobs done through the day but I'd got the fishing bug back and all I was thinking was where the next fish was coming from. I could go back and see if the huge perch was about but the odds on that were slim, may be another day though. So instead I chose another spot for the evening and went in search of the perch. I bagged a couple but nothing of any size. Sometimes the perch are there, sometimes they're not and it's as simple as that. I'll get back to that point a bit later though. I did manage a couple of pike on my little super vibrax again, one at nine pound and one at eleven pound. Both good fighting fish and a great bit of sport to finish the day on.

Friday was another DIY day and I needed to get cracked on early so there was no chance of a dawn raid on the perch. I actually didn't think I'd get much chance to get out even later in the day to be honest but I worked my little socks off and by about half four I was done. However I didn't have the full evening to fish as I had to pick the kids up from their friends house at 7pm. Probably two hours fishing at most,  but where to go?

I find that with lure fishing you can sometimes hit a spot a few days on the trot and get results each day, but they often tail off a little and sometimes it's even a blank. Both pike and perch will get wise and move off a little. If I went to any of the spots I'd been to recently there was a chance that the fishing might tail off and my two hours might even be fish-less. So I took the plunge and went to a new spot I'd never fished before. I know the conditions are spot on for perch, so If the new spot doesn't produce then there's nowt in.

I found where the perch live. In just short of two hours fishing I had 47 perch to about a pound and a half all on Kopytos shads. It was absolutely mental  and fantastic fun but it highlighted the fact that with perch, if you can find them then you can catch them. Finding them can be the hard part or it can be easy. When I found the shoal, If I'd chuck the lure 30 yards away I got nothing. Perch usually live in groups according to size and you at least get a follow and a nip from a small perch. Often the lure gets hammered by up to a dozen or so. If the lure keeps coming back with no follows or nips then don't waste your time fishing for perch here, move on and find them. That's exactly what I did and when I did eventually find them it was spectacular. So if you are out chasing perch any time soon with the lures keep that in mind. Just keep moving until you can find them. Don't waste your time in an area you think should hold perch if you're not getting them. If they're not hammering your lure they're not there so get mobile.

My best perch from the last few days