Perch Fishing

[paulus 26]

What's you preferred method, live/dead bait, worm, maggot ,prawn, Feeder, Bobber?

[Borr 5,825]

More cracking fish, feck off will ya, lol. As a youngster it was brandlings out the muck heap fishing the Thames with a waggler. Later on a few decent ones on waggler in ponds with prawn.

[Daniel cain 45,146]

my lad has a fair bit of success using little jellies and drop shotting for them.... myself it would be a nice little livebait where allowed

[Nicepix 5,650]

I used to fish a trout lake near Wakefield and the owners allowed me to take a boat over the net into a small, overgrown neck end. It was like the mangroves, all submerged trees and overhanging branches. The water was crystal clear and I used to stalk perch using flies. The little ones up to 8oz were dead easy, but the 2lb fish were very, very wary. I tied some bloodworm flies that could be cast in front of a fish and just allowed to sink naturally. Any unnatural movement saw the perch melt away under cover. 

That was the best perching experience I've ever had. 

[comanche 2,944]

On 20/10/2022 at 19:54, Nicepix said:

I used to fish a trout lake near Wakefield and the owners allowed me to take a boat over the net into a small, overgrown neck end. It was like the mangroves, all submerged trees and overhanging branches. The water was crystal clear and I used to stalk perch using flies. The little ones up to 8oz were dead easy, but the 2lb fish were very, very wary. I tied some bloodworm flies that could be cast in front of a fish and just allowed to sink naturally. Any unnatural movement saw the perch melt away under cover. 

That was the best perching experience I've ever had. 

That reminds me of a pond l fished  when l first joined the local angling club as a junior member. It was originally a forest ghyll  in a narrow valley that had been dammed to power iron - working machinery. The water was  a beautiful amber colour but so clear that fish passing under  the rod tip several feet down were tantalisingly visible .  The pond had a reputation for being hard . All the fish  species ,even  the little perch were incredibly shy of any baited hook though they snaffled free offerings cheerfully enough .  Eventually an old chap took pity on me and taught me the wisdom of balancing a single floating caster on a well embedded size 18 so it sunk at the same rate as my free offerings. 

I can't  say l mastered the technique but l had a few perch up to a pound and a half which for a perch-loving lad were real prizes. 

Sadly the water has fallen foul to the carp craze . It has lost its magical clarity and is   just  muddy hole like so many others .

I have to admit to having mild misgivings about catching perch. I hate deep hooking them obviously but their lovely telescopic mouths are so delicate that l feel a bit guilty even when they are lip hooked.

Half a lob , on a fine wire hook  (not those awful thick drop shot things) fished under the rod tip on a light shot ledger is sort of my favourite tactic for perch. 

For live baiting l found stone loach or tiny gudgeon made better baits than roach or rudd . I think their thin bodies didn't  obstruct the hook point  . 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by comanche

[tomburras 2,729]

10 minutes ago, comanche said:

That reminds me of a pond l fished as a when l first joined the local angling club as a junior member. It was originally a forest ghyll  in a narrow valley that had been dammed to power iron - working machinery. The water was  a beautiful colour but so clear that fish passing under  the rod tip several feet down were tantalisingly visible .  The pond had a reputation for being hard . All the fish  species ,even  the little perch were incredibly shy of any baited hook though they snaffled free offerings cheerfully enough .  Eventually an old chap took pity on me and taught me the wisdom of balancing a single floating caster on a well embedded size 18 so it sunk at the same rate as my free offerings. 

I can't  say l mastered the technique but l had a few perch up to a pound and a half which for a perch-loving lad were real prizes. 

Sadly the water has fallen foul to the carp craze . It has lost its magical clarity and is   just  muddy hole like so many others .

I have to admit to having mild misgivings about catching perch. I hate deep hooking them obviously but their lovely telescopic mouths are so delicate that l feel a bit guilty even when they are lip hooked.

Half a lob , on a fine wire hook  (not those awful thick drop shot things) fished under the rod tip on a light shot ledger is sort of my favourite tactic for perch. 

For live baiting l found stone loach or tiny gudgeon made better baits than roach or rudd . I think their thin bodies didn't  obstruct the hook point  . 

 

 

 

Great reading!

[Aled 476]

Nice comments all, pleasure to read this thread. 

 

[Nicepix 5,650]

10 hours ago, comanche said:

That reminds me of a pond l fished  when l first joined the local angling club as a junior member. It was originally a forest ghyll  in a narrow valley that had been dammed to power iron - working machinery. The water was  a beautiful amber colour but so clear that fish passing under  the rod tip several feet down were tantalisingly visible .  The pond had a reputation for being hard . All the fish  species ,even  the little perch were incredibly shy of any baited hook though they snaffled free offerings cheerfully enough .  Eventually an old chap took pity on me and taught me the wisdom of balancing a single floating caster on a well embedded size 18 so it sunk at the same rate as my free offerings. 

I can't  say l mastered the technique but l had a few perch up to a pound and a half which for a perch-loving lad were real prizes. 

Sadly the water has fallen foul to the carp craze . It has lost its magical clarity and is   just  muddy hole like so many others .

I have to admit to having mild misgivings about catching perch. I hate deep hooking them obviously but their lovely telescopic mouths are so delicate that l feel a bit guilty even when they are lip hooked.

Half a lob , on a fine wire hook  (not those awful thick drop shot things) fished under the rod tip on a light shot ledger is sort of my favourite tactic for perch. 

For live baiting l found stone loach or tiny gudgeon made better baits than roach or rudd . I think their thin bodies didn't  obstruct the hook point  . 

 

 

 

Wonderful story Kev. There was always a bit of magic about those type of waters especially when you add some schoolboy excitement and imagination.

[comanche 2,944]

2 hours ago, Nicepix said:

Wonderful story Kev. There was always a bit of magic about those type of waters especially when you add some schoolboy excitement and imagination.

It was a very mysterious water with dangerously sloping banks  ; ripe with tales of being "bottomless" in places , lost army pontoon bridges , a crashed Ww2 plane and an unfortunate swimmer being "sucked down by weeds".

Needless to say the banks are now lined with fishing platforms . As for being "bottomless" ; on a quiet day l plumbed it from one end to another and nowhere was it over 13 feet deep . Bits of a crashed plane and some abandoned military ordinance turned out to've been retrieved from another pond further down the chain . What was based on truth was the death of the swimmer. Only a couple of years ago l found out that during WW2 a Canadian soldier  who had "befriended" a local lady and her young family  had indeed drowned in the pond during a picnic . The account came from one of the woman's ,now ageing,  children who remembers seeing him enter the pond from the far bank and hearing him cry out with shock at how cold the water was   .  His body was found the next day tangled in a bed of lillies .

Even before that tragedy it seems local lore had the pond to be a bad place . Possibly because rivalries between iron working gangs who once  controlled various ponds and streams in the area were known to touch upon violence . Also local  smugglers were wont to keep prying eyes at bay with hair-raising tales of spectral goings-on to cover their nocturnal activities . 

It certainly was a very atmospheric spot with a chill to the air .

My Mum hated me fishing there so l usually told her l had gone somewhere else

Anyway it's a muddy carp hole now and the night fishermen seem to survive quite happily without recourse to side arms loaded with silver bullets . Perhaps they all use garlic boilies.

Edited October 22, 2022 by comanche

[Nicepix 5,650]

We had a 'bottomless' pond in Barnsley. It was perfectly round being based on an old colliery air shaft and had a steeply sloping cobbled brick bed. It and a smaller neighbouring pond was owned by a scrap dealer who used to charge 1s/6d for a day ticket. There was an 'uncatchable' carp reputed to be 20lb. Carp were so rare in our town that bus trips were organised for locals to view it. I plummed it rather crudely by casting a 1/2 oz Arlsey bomb to the middle and let it free fall. It did go down a very long way. As well as the uncatchable Tinkers Pond also held tench, roach and perch that were catchable. Also eels for some reason. It was situated about 3/4 of a mile from the river, but not connected and at least 100 feet higher up the valley. One of life's mysteries. 

The stretch of river is free fishing running through former colliery land. When I was a teenager it held nothing due to colliery pollution. By this century it held trout, grayling, barbel, dace, chub, roach and perch. I used to fly fish for all but the barbel.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Nicepix

[paulus 26]

We have a few old clay pits around here, Now these are deep, There was a story of a horse and cart falling into one of them, never to be seen again. A few years ago that same pit was drained as planning permission was granted, The remains of a pony and cart were indeed found in the silt on the bottom. One of the clay pits i fish drops off the inside ledge to around 5mts then goes down to around 18mtrs in the middle before coming back up the other side to around 5mtrs again. There are two holes one each side that reach 22mtrs. The water is gin clear all year round, It is full of millions of silver fish, i have had both my PB`s for Roach and Rudd from there 3lb Roach and 3lb 1oz Rudd, There are some massive pike in there but are not at all easy to catch. Well to be honest nothing apart from the Carp that were added in there a few years ago are easy to catch. But its worth persevering sadly many don't and give up after a run of blanks,  

[Lenmcharristar 9,732]

Some beezers there paulus, well done

[Nicepix 5,650]

I was quiver tipping for carp and barbel yesterday on the River Charente that is gin clear much of the time. Two very big stripies cruised through the swim just after I had cast the quiver rod out and just before I set up the float rod with worm bait to fish the margins 

They never showed again. 

[comanche 2,944]

I've always wondered if perch figure in many repeat captures. They don't seem to . Not the bigger ones anyway. 

 

[Daniel cain 45,146]

Found 2 little ponds last weekend that are rammed with perch ...my lad had over 30 switching from worm/maggot and tiny jellies on his drop shotting  set up..