Guide to perch
Essential tricks to fool bigger stripeys on lakes and rivers
DICK Walker left us a legacy of memorable angling quotes.
One of the very best was his observation that the perch was ‘the biggest of all fish’ – and while that isn’t factually true, there’s no doubt that a specimen spikey has an aura unmatched by freshwater fish 10 times its actual size.
HISTORY
A popular food fish on the Continent, the perch is a fish that holds a lot of memories for anglers because it’s probably one of the first species they ever caught, thanks to its bold, greedy nature. But on the flip side, a big perch can be a real challenge to catch.
An out-and-out predator, even small perch will chase prey fish, and they’re a species always associated with snaggy swims boasting lots of cover such as reeds, trees and lily pads.
The classic perch fishing scenario could well be a small pond with a boathouse and lilies, and an attack using a ‘perch bob’ float with a garden earthworm beneath.
Catching big perch by design was always hit and miss in the 1960s and 1970s owing mainly to a nationwide disease that decimated their numbers – but the fish has been a real success story since, with a real boom in numbers and some massive fish available to catch today.
Tackle and bait advancements, along with an understanding of how the fish behaves, mean that the dedicated perch angler can now get almost instant results in relatively short sessions.
Couple that with commercial carp fisheries, which are packed with small fish and see the perch rarely fished for, and the angler has a new and easily-accessible source of stripeys to target throughout the year.
LOCATION
Where to find perch is all relative to the type of venue you’re fishing, but some basic rules apply to all waters. Perch will live under any type of cover or hang about near changes in depth such as shelves or drop-offs, which is where natural food will gather –