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Last month I mentioned that I was looking forward to dusting my perch kit off and getting out after some stripeys. Well, the other Saturday I found myself at a bit of a loose end. My son’s football had been cancelled and so, with no other pressing jobs to do at home, I decided I’d make a start on my autumn perch fishing.

After a bit of humming and hah- ing in my garage about whether to take my lure kit or a light feeder rod, I eventually settled on the latter, so I swung by the tackle shop on the way to my local stretch of the Great Ouse to grab a pint of maggots and a small pot of lobworms.

As I made my way across the meadow to the river I could see a couple of lure anglers working their way along the bank, so I headed to a quiet spot out of their way. I’d seen a few reports on Facebook of perch being caught from the Ouse recently and, from what I could gather, the nearside margins seemed to be the most productive areas for the species. I flicked out a small maggot feeder and a worm hookbait and sat back from the edge, watching my tip with anticipation.

It didn’t take long before I started getting tell- tale taps, then the tip yanked round as something finally inhaled the worm. It turned out to be a small perch of about 12oz.

I gave the swim a couple more casts before heading to a new peg, where I had a similar result. This pattern was repeated in several more pegs. It was good sport, but I couldn’t seem to locate any of the bigger specimens.

Speaking to a couple of the lure anglers as they passed by, it seemed like they were catching perch of a similar size to mine, so I don’t think I’d made the wrong decision on the tactical front.

One thing’s for sure, I can’t wait to get back down there and have another explore. It’s amazing how quickly five hours passed, and there are still a lot of promising spots in which I haven’t even wet a line yet.