CHOPPED WORM AND CASTER POLE RIG

PERCH love the colour red – after all, red maggots and worms catch loads – so why shouldn’t your feed be the same colour?

On commercial fisheries especially, perch will home in on red baits but you can stack the odds more in your favour by feeding them a mix of chopped worm and caster that’s been boosted with a blood red liquid additive. The clearer the water, the better this ploy will work.

The pole rig is relatively simple, consisting of a 0.4g carp-style float with a thick bristle to show up positive bites. Shot this so that the whole of the bristle is showing, using a strung-out shotting pattern across the final 2ft of the rig to give the hookbait a gentle fall.

On a commercial fishery lines and hooks can’t be too small, owing to the threat of carp. This is no bad thing, though, as a size 12 hook is much better than a size 18 when it comes to fishing big worm baits.

A 3lb perch can put up quite a fight so lines will need to be fairly stout. Look at around a 5lb mainline to a 4lb hooklink, with the bait presented just touching bottom, all finished off with a solid No8 elastic.