ATTACK OF THE PERCH....

A few days ago i managed to skip work a little early and decided to grab a pike rod and go fishing on a local river for the last couple hours of the evening. The weather was clear skies and actually quite warm, not ideal conditions but to be honest i didn,t really care as i had an itch which needed to be scratched and only a spot of fishing could reach it.

Soon as i arrived i set about catching some bait as i,d only brought one pike rod and wanted to walk up the river using a free roving livebait as bait to see if anything would grab hold, as i,d not fished this stretch for pike much i thought this technique would be the way to go to try and help me get a grasp of the river. After half an hour i had 6 nice size baits in the bucket so i stashed the bait catching rod back in the truck and set off up the river. Theres a lot of boats on this stretch and i like to fish a float close to these when i target the perch here, so i did the same with my pike rod thinking that they would be in similar areas hiding in the shade out of the sun.
I like watching a float as it trots in and out of the margins as the livie tows it behind as it does what it does. After a few minutes in my first spot the float shot under so quick it actually made me jump, a quick strike and a nice thump thump on the rod tip showed i had a fish on. After a few more thumps the biggest perch i,ve seen rolled on the surface and at the same time threw my livie and hook back at me in disgust. Now that was a BIG perch, thers been reports of 4lbers caught from a little further up this area and i,ve had them to 3lb 2oz, but this beastie was definately a lot bigger than my pb. I stayed in this area for a while but nothing more happened so i trotted of a couple boats away. After dropping the float back in it shot under again within a couple of minutes and i could see i was attached to another big perch, which again spat back my tackle. I reckon that the baits i were using were a bit too big for the perch to get in their mouth properly, small enough for them to have a go at but not small enough for them to fully engulf before i made my strike, and i won,t leave them to swallow the bait as that would only result in a deep hooked fish which is no good.
Every time i moved i would get a take on my livie, most of which i am certain where from perch as when i reeled in the bait it had no teeth marks. I did make contact with this tiny pike which kept throwing itself around as i brought him in, which is always good to watch. I also bumped of a bigger pike of around 6lb which came of at the net.

All in all i had a really enjoyable couple of hours fishing and its really got me thinking about big perch now .

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