The Coach Pole tips for bigger perch
COMMERCIAL carp are slowing down in the lower temperatures, but there’s one species you can always rely on for bites – the perch.
Most fisheries hold good stocks of these predators, some of which grow to phenomenal sizes. Often they are encountered by chance, but by adopting a tailored approach it’s possible to make the most of these often untargeted fish.
Angling Times news reporter Freddie Sandford visited Buttonhole Lake near Wisbech, Cambs, and outlined his simple approach for commercial stripeys…
PERFECT PRESENTATION “The most important factor in my approach is the way I present my hookbait, and this varies depending on how the perch are feeding.
“The first bait I always try is two casters impaled on a size 16 hook. A light rig with strung-out shot allows the casters to fall delicately through the water alongside loosefed offerings, and I expect bites just as the bait hits the deck.
“If no indications come within moments of my float settling this tells me that the perch aren’t intercepting my bait on the drop, and are likely to be mooching around on the lakebed, watching over my loosefeed. In this instance I change to a worm hookbait and bulk my shot towards the bottom of my rig. This puts me in direct control of my hookbait, allowing me to jig the worm to induce a bite.”
THE SESSION “On the day I caught the majority of my fish on casters, but later in the session a small worm jigged through the swim picked off a few larger fish that were settled over my feed. “Give both these baits a try to keep catching in the cold.”