BRYANS ANGLE

I don,t know what is causing it, but at the moment all i can think of is getting back to the river and having another go for the perch. I love fishing for most species of fish and at this time of year i,m normally targeting pike, zander and perch with the odd beach fishing trip thrown in. But this winter its been perch at the top of my list, both on river and a small stillwater i know off that has thrown up quite a few 3lbers, not to my rods i hasten as all i,ve managed from there is double figure carp to a pleasing 17lbs on my worm and perch tackle. Great fun on my light tackle i can asure you, but not my chosen species. I even bought a freezer load of deadbaits from Uncle Fickling at the beginning of the pike season and have barely used any. I,m not complaining mind you as i have beaten my perch pb this winter and have had a good few more 3lbers, but would like to bag some nice pike or maybe a couple of zeds. But whenever the weekend comes around its always the perch rods that are ...

Ryan and myself spent a couple hours at first light this morning fishing for the perch again on the River Blackwater. It was breezy, overcast and had a slight drizzle in the air, my ideal conditions for perch fishing. We started off in our favourite banker swim where Ryan had 3 perch around the 2lb mark with the biggest going 2lb 2oz on his lobworms. I bagged a lovely fighting fit but fat pike of 10lb 2oz in the next swim on my little livie. That pike put up a great fight on my perch gear and was a real pleasure to catch. it was also in immaculate condition and only lightly hooked in the scissors. I actually believe that this might be my biggest pike so far this winter. We moved swims to another banker and Ryan had 2 small perch and another larger one of roughly 1lb 12oz. I just sat there and watched the smaller perch harassing my livebait until a much bigger perch shape ghosted out from under some weed and proceeded to swim around my bait before sauntering of in disgust. It was go...

Ryan and I had planned this little trip for the past week to fish our favourite area on the River Blackwater at Maldon. Bait was caught at first light and of we set to try and tempt some of the big perch which reside in this stretch of the river. I opted to fish with the small livebaits and Ryan went for lobworms. My first chuck cast between two boats resulted in my float disappearing within 2 minutes of hitting the water. After a cracking scrap Ryan slid the net under a lovely old warrior perch weighing 3lb 9oz.  Photos were taken and he was slid back a little further up the bank to resume its tyrade over the silver fish. Under normal situations i would of carried on fishing the same swim but decided to let Ryan fish in my place as he,s been struggling with the perch lately. Within 15 mins he had managed 2 more perch to a pb of 2lb 15oz, to say he was over the moon would be an understatement. We bounced in and out of a couple more swims with me managing a small 3lb jack for...