Thinking of Perch

As the weather is now getting more and more wintry and the Pike season is in full swing i feel myself drawn to pursue this perfect predator, yet i felt the need for one more try at the Perch.


My thoughts were torn, do i go to Spires a busy commercial lake, or do i go to the little fished farm pond with the hope of a surprise or too? Well it had to be the latter as so much magic of the unknown doesn't exist these days as our waters get busier and the fish start getting their own names after numerous repeat captures.
The day itself was more suited to kite surfing down the coast as the wind was irritatingly blustery and very strong, there were moments where an audition for Mary Poppins would have been more appropriate as i held down my umbrella from the offending gusts. Perhaps i should have gone pike fishing i thought, but i was here now so best get on with it. The Rudd were as ravenous as ever and a bite a chuck was had, once again it was a case of persistence with these greedy Rudd and anticipating the arrival of a perch or two.It just took 30mins before my first reasonable Perch came, not a monster but a fine looking stripey, the best part of the middle of the day was full of Rudd and then another nice Perch fell to my float fished worm. All the interest had taken my attention off the weather and upon looking up an almighty black cloud decided to drop its load...... didn't it come down! what with the wind as well everything got saturated, me included! This little pond always chucks out a surprise so when i hooked what i thought was a Crucian carp i was surprised to find it actually was a Goldfish, this amused me immensely. No more big Perch were caught, and my soggy gear and myself retreated back to the van en route to home sweet home. It is definitely time to dig out the pike rods.

Honestly! a Goldfish!

Spires Lakes

Still on a Perch mission a day at Spires lakes was done, if your like me and you favour escapism and solitude in your fishing, then commercial fisheries like this, especially at weekends are to be avoided but occasionally these waters can sustain species to specimen sizes such a place is Spires. Two small lakes, well ponds really, make up this fishery with the top pond being the carp lake. The lower pond is full of silvers and Perch were introduced years ago to control Rudd populations. This pond has produced Perch just short of 5lb and even today is throwing up many two and three pounders. Perch were introduced to the top lake a little later and now this too is producing three pounders, so avoiding the pressured lower pond i opted the challenge of the higher lake to see what lurks.
Arriving at dawn i settled down at the dam end in the deeper water and the usual fat worm under a float was presented close to the margins by an over hanging tree, within minutes i was missing bites as little silvers try to do away with my worm. Inbetween these nuisances small Perch started to show and some sporting carp to 9lb kept me busy as i tried to filter out a big Perch.

Unfortunately that huge Perch never showed and the largest i had was around a pound. Despite the struggle i was entertained by a Kingfisher that chose to fish right from the tree next to me throughout the day which was superb to watch and to top that my last fish of the day was a cracking Golden Orfe of 4lb.

Return to an Old Haunt in Search of Perch

An early morning start was executed, off to an old schoolboy haunt of mine that once held a good stock of hefty perch, unfortunately its only recently that the perch have again become established having disappeared from this pond some years ago, why is any ones guess as the water has always been healthy and food a plenty? The carp here have previously reached near 30lb but many of these fish have died of old age and a younger generation are now packing on the weight, will there be twenty's? The pond in question is delightful, very under fished, somewhat neglected and not of any particular size and still offers a bit of the unknown.
Arriving in the dark i made the small ramble towards the pond only to be ambushed by a flock of hedge hopping pheasants! i think they were as startled as me shrieking aloud as they dashed for cover. After settling down in a swim a fat float fished worm was placed in the margins and bites galore were inevitable as this pond is stuffed with Rudd, even if i had a worm of abnormal proportions these greedy little buggers would attempt to eat it.

As it started to get lighter a few hand size perch were caught along with a carp of around 10lb, a stunning common that made an account of itself on my 6lb float tackle. Another three immaculate double figure carp were caught and then my target fish, a Perch of just under 2lbs,

a nice fish that i doubt has been caught before and i honestly believe if you can get pass the Rudd, bigger Perch could be there for the taking.

One other highlight of the trip was the awakening of a toad under my bait tub, funny fat fella he gave me a pose on some old timber in the autumn sunshine.

CHEW BEFORE THE CIRCUS

A trip to Chew Valley reservoir was done mid September in an attempt to nail myself a decent pike on the fly before the pike trial circus arrive on the 15th of October. I have previously done the trials but due to some bizarre allocation system boats this year were bloody hard to come by.

On entering the lodge i did feel kind of uncomfortable without my fellow pikers around me, instead there was a gathering of trout anglers preparing for a competition scouting to see who is who, even today the sport still attracts those pretentious pompous idiots that look down on you if trout on the fly is not your thing. I took great delight in the end announcing that the pike was my chosen quarry of the day..... many faces of disgust i received!
It was nt long before " engines on and anchors away" motoring off towards stratford bay my chosen area of attack. I chose to use my own tied flies which were basically epoxy heads with a big eye and plenty of mirror flash on a fast sinking line, second cast and my first chew fly caught pike was had (above), and to be honest as chew pike go had to be the bloody smallest in this reservoir! Oh was i wrong, i ended up with a dozen around the same size with a biggest of 6lb but two big girls did follow my fly to the boat but just weren't to be fooled. A good day with plenty of action but will chew ever give up its beasts to me...... watch this space!