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Perch

My winter target was a 3lb perch and I was lucky enough to catch one last week, I'll keep plodding on now to see if I can get lucky enough to have a look at another one.

I managed to squeeze a few hours in at the end of today and winkled a few fish out. Firstly a couple of chub to just under 4lbs, then a perch just over 2, followed by another straight after that weighed 2.07lb.

Today was the first time I've caught a perch on prawns, previously the chub had always got there first. I baited with the little ones and then fished a king prawn on the hook. The bites were completely unmissable, which is always nice.
 
A couple of days ago on the Severn and at current high water levels, Perch options were somewhat limited at this height.

Had an idea of where may be fishable and fortunately it was. Started on a weedless Texas rig, but no interest from the fish. Switched over to a floating worm in a different colour and bang, an instant hit, with a Perch of 2.3lb landed. Another quickly followed of 2.1lb. Move up to the next swim and take another Perch of 2.9lb. Thereafter the tentative bites started with no hookups. Time for a rethink and out comes the dropshot rod, fishing a smaller similar coloured lure. This did the trick and another 4 Perch followed, all between 1.8lb and 2lb, and all caught really close in. I was starting to think that a dusk Perch feeding bonanza, may be on the cards, but then the howling gale got up, making finesse fishing, next to impossible.

Still a nice way to christen the new Westin T&C rod.
 

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Afternoon Dan, on the float, with prawns today. I've been enjoying that 11ft acolyte and watching the float go under so haven't given the drop shotting a concerted effort yet. That and I'm conscious I'm crap at it šŸ˜‚
 
Had a very nice last couple of days of the season up my local canal, just a few hours each day and I had perch of 2lb 10oz, 2lb 9oz, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 3 oz and two at 1lb 15oz.

Terrible photos as two of them I'm holding the fish one handed whilst trying to take a selfie on my phone, one a random cyclist took but as you can see not the best and a couple of them were so bad I deleted them.
Wish I'd just taken mat shots of all of them to be fair.

I used a simple float ledger rig with a small running lead, light as I've got pole float and fished with 2 Dendrobena's on a size 6 hook and just drip fed red maggot.
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Neil Blood said:
A couple of days ago on the Severn and at current high water levels, Perch options were somewhat limited at this height.

Had an idea of where may be fishable and fortunately it was. Started on a weedless Texas rig, but no interest from the fish. Switched over to a floating worm in a different colour and bang, an instant hit, with a Perch of 2.3lb landed. Another quickly followed of 2.1lb. Move up to the next swim and take another Perch of 2.9lb. Thereafter the tentative bites started with no hookups. Time for a rethink and out comes the dropshot rod, fishing a smaller similar coloured lure. This did the trick and rec another 4 Perch followed, all between 1.8lb and 2lb, and all caught really close in. I was starting to think that a dusk Perch feeding bonanza, may be on the cards, but then the howling gale got up, making finesse fishing, next to impossible.

Still a nice way to christen the new Westin T&C rod.
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Sorry to resurrect an old post.

Neil - Iā€™m thinking of buying a Westin T&C rod. What model do you have and would you recommend it?
 
Richard Bennett said:
Sorry to resurrect an old post.

Neil - Iā€™m thinking of buying a Westin T&C rod. What model do you have and would you recommend it?
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Itā€™s the W3, 5 - 15g and is ideal for fishing cheb and Texas rigs in the 5 to 7g range.

There are more model options available in the spin style rods, rather than the casting rod, which I have.

Also donā€™t be tempted to upgrade to W6 as in my experience the burgundy varnish chips off far too easily!
 
The Perch on my local canal are really frustrating! Drop shotted for 3 seasons and only caught small fish to about 10oz (might be my technique?). Odd better fish caught on worm but no fish caught on Prawn at all. Deadbaiting with 3ā€ roach for Pike one day produced a BIG Perch (between 2-21/2lb) in every swim on the length (a total of 12). The bites came every time a boat past and stirred up the bottom, lifting the baits, leaving me to think a moving bait is the way to go. For the next 3 sessions either small livies or a 3ā€ dead lifted/twitched under a float produced fish. (The better method) CRACKED IT!! or so i thoughtā€¦.itā€™s as if they have totally disappeared again. Cannot repeat the success however hard i try. Iā€™ve since moved onto a local ā€˜commercialā€™ where near 5lbā€™ers are coming out in matches but cant say iā€™m enjoying it tbh!
Anyone else had much success with Prawn on the canal? I have so much confidence using them everywhere else i go but not had one single bite in 3 or 4 seasons.
 
Nigel Whittingham said:
The Perch on my local canal are really frustrating! Drop shotted for 3 seasons and only caught small fish to about 10oz (might be my technique?). Odd better fish caught on worm but no fish caught on Prawn at all. Deadbaiting with 3ā€ roach for Pike one day produced a BIG Perch (between 2-21/2lb) in every swim on the length (a total of 12). The bites came every time a boat past and stirred up the bottom, lifting the baits, leaving me to think a moving bait is the way to go. For the next 3 sessions either small livies or a 3ā€ dead lifted/twitched under a float produced fish. (The better method) CRACKED IT!! or so i thoughtā€¦.itā€™s as if they have totally disappeared again. Cannot repeat the success however hard i try. Iā€™ve since moved onto a local ā€˜commercialā€™ where near 5lbā€™ers are coming out in matches but cant say iā€™m enjoying it tbh!
Anyone else had much success with Prawn on the canal? I have so much confidence using them everywhere else i go but not had one single bite in 3 or 4 seasons.
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Nigel, I've had many good perch on prawns

I'm assuming you are feeding red maggots over the top every now and again as well as putting in a few broken ones.
 
Yes, almost always use red magotts. I just think Prawns are a ā€˜perfectā€™ bait. Easy to use and i tend to squeeze short sessions in when i can so they are handy. If they arenā€™t working, iā€™m obviously prepared to change but just cant understand why they wont work. There is 3 of us that have all tried them and all given up. Prawn over chopped worm & magott works everywhere usually!
 
Had a similar problem in the Ouse beforeā€¦.was using whole prawn over chopped prawn, worm and spraying maggot over the top occasionally. After having a chat with a local matchman he said I was probably overfeeding the small fish for the time of year and I should just try very sparingly flicking out squats at 10 min intervals to keep the silvers active and competing for food longer which will attract the perch and then make the silvers scarper so leaving your prawn hookbait to take! First trip out was a bit of a nightmare as I couldnā€™t catty the squats out to far bank accurately, resorted to feeder but it was all wrong, so I invested in a 2nd hand margins pole put a bait cup on the end and tied up some very sensitive float rigs. Has worked brilliantly ā€¦.found it a bit hairy when hooking a half decent one but the elastic soon tames them
Basically perch do love prawns but you need to get them in your swim in a hunting mood!
 
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