Winning tips from Cameron Hughes
Here’s how to capitalise on clear-water rivers
WHEN you’re looking to catch bonus fish to boost your autumn match weights, nothing can beat a few fat perch.
Many rivers now hold fish well over 2lb that are perfectly catchable, as can be seen from the results in Angling Times each week, but often the stamp of perch on offer is a lot smaller. It then becomes a numbers game to add 5lb or 6lb to your net.
Leicestershire’s River Soar has become a perch hotspot in recent weeks, helped by the same low and clear conditions that make catching roach and bream hard.
Many anglers, though, are unsure how much to feed to keep milking the peg of these perch – or, indeed, how much time they should devote to fishing for them and where in the peg they should do it.
“Finding the big Soar perch is tricky for the pleasure angler so, in a match, you’re hoping to draw a peg with some perch form,” says Daiwa star Cameron Hughes. “However, I know from experience that perch that are caught one week aren’t too keen on being caught again seven says later, so it’s not always a given.
“They are a fish that you can always rely on, though, and often the first few hours of a match is ‘perch time’, when you can very quickly catch 6lb of them – even more if some monsters turn up!”
To demonstrate the essentials of river perch fishing in autumn, Derby-based England International Cameron pitched up on the Cossington section of the river where some big fish had been caught the week before.
However, it was up in the air as to whether those fish would show again! Over to Cameron...
FINDING THE PERCH
“Faced with the whole river to go at, I look for a couple of things – slow flow and good depth close to cover. Cover is vital, as it gives perch an ambush point so reeds, weed or lilies are good. Ideally there will be be a minimum depth of 5ft, but on some pegs you’ll just have to work with what you’ve got.
“Slacker water is important because perch will wait here to ambush smaller fish – I’ve never found them to be that keen on sitting in the main flow. In many instances you’ll be almost margin fishing, with the pole pointing down the edge of the river. It looks odd, but it catches!”
IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING
“On some rivers you can feed your perch line and leave it to settle for 20 minutes, but on the Soar that’s fatal. It seems as though the perch get straight on the feed and get stuck in. You catch a run of fish immediately, this then fades so you feed more, get another run and then repeat this until the peg dies.
“Whether this is because you catch all the fish that are there is open to discussion, but all I know is that the first 90 minutes to two hours of the match are the best times to fish for perch. After that you’ll hardly get a bite and will be better off going after roach or bream.”
WATER COLOUR MATTERS
“You can’t pick what state the river will be in, but at the moment the Soar is gin-clear and perfect for perch. Being predators they feed on sight, so clear or just a tinge of colour is what I’d want. Heavily-coloured water doesn’t mean that you can’t catch, but the job becomes harder and lobworm baits giving out plenty of scent into the water are your best bet for a few bites.”
TOP HOOKBAITS
“If I am feeding worms I do believe that these are all that the perch will be interested in so there’s no point in fishing maggots or casters on the hook.
“The tail end of a dendra is my top hookbait, something around an inch-and-a-half long but by all means, change the size of the bait during the day.
“It’s also worth trying the tail of a lobworm to see if a ‘proper’ perch is at home. To prompt a bite I use the old ‘jigging’ method of lifting and dropping the rig to move the bait and try and entice a perch into having a go. This works brilliantly in clear water.”
WHAT DEPTH?
“The right depth to fish at can alter during the day and for me is based on the size of fish in the swim. If I was going for a big fish, the rig would be set 6ins-8ins overdepth but this wouldn’t work for small perch, as
you’d miss too many bites. Small fish never pull the float under properly so having the bait just an inch or two on the deck gives you the best chance of hitting a bigger percentage of bites.”
TIMING THE STRIKE
“Strike too early and you’ll miss the fish – too late and you’ll also miss it or, worse still, deep hook it. As a general rule I count to three when the float goes under and then strike, as this gives the perch enough time to get hold of the bait properly. I also strike hard to ensure I set the hook.
“When a fish is on, I keep the pole high at all times to bring the fish up towards the surface. If you keep the pole low, there’s every chance that even an 8oz perch will try to get into the reeds and weed!”