Why light lures are the way to go

It’s prime time for big perch, so grab your rod and net, plus a pocketful of kit, and get out there!

THE rivers may be closed, but that won’t stop the nation’s growing army of lure fishing fans making the most of what are the best few weeks of the year to catch a new personal best perch.

In canals and stillwaters all over the country, these pocket predators are beginning to group up ahead of spawning, and are not only hungry, but at their most catchable.

Each venue will have a few hotspots where the big fish will be held up together, rather than being spread out as they are during the rest of the year.

This makes it the perfect time to adopt a roving approach with a light lure fishing kit to try to seek out these productive areas, rather than setting out your stall in one area with a standard bait fishing outfit. There are many other advantages to using a mobile lure fishing approach, some of which we’ve listed here. Have a read and hopefully you’ll be inspired to get out and catch the perch of your dreams.

You can travel light

Rod and reel, a small rucksack filled with lures, essential tackle items, landing net and a small unhooking mat...that’s all you need for a successful day’s fishing. Travelling light makes it easy to wander along a stretch of river or canal and cast to any likely-looking perch hotspots.

Explore swims quickly

Lure fishing enables you to quickly search large areas of water. This makes pinpointing perch locations much easier.

An excellent technique is to use jigging tactics to cast around and explore the swim and, once you find where the perch are sitting, switch to drop shotting, which enables you to fish a lure in the same area for longer.

Works on all venues

Park lakes, small ponds, commercial fisheries, reservoirs and canals are all likely to hold decent numbers of big perch. And light lure fishing is an excellent way to target a venue, especially if it’s one you’ve never fished before and you want to quickly ascertain what its perch stocks are like.

Short sessions success

Rather than spending hours sitting out in the cold, light lure fishing enables you to enjoy some fantastic sport in a limited amount of time, and to get some exercise while you’re doing it.

If you’ve got a suitable venue close to your place of work you can even catch a few perch in the lunch hour. If you keep your lure fishing kit in the boot of the car at all times you can make the most of any opportune sessions.

It’s not all about size

Yes, really big perch are regularly caught on light lure tactics, but it’s certainly not an out-and-out big-fish method. You are likely to catch everything from small ‘wasp’ sized perch through to 3lb-plus specimens. And on cold days, catching lots of smaller fish can actually be a lot more enjoyable than waiting for one big fish to come along!