Dave Coster How To- Find Perch With Prawns

This entry was posted on 16th January, 2019

Many commercial fisheries hold decent sized perch and at this time of the year when the colder weather has slowed down carp activity, it’s a perfect time to target them. But there is one major problem when trying to catch perch in this type of water and that’s all the small silver fish that are invariably present. Perch love baits like worms, maggots and casters, but rarely get time to find them before roach, rudd and skimmers have mopped everything up. The answer is to use a bigger bait and peeled prawns fit the bill perfectly.



A brilliant way of fishing prawns is with a pole, cupping in a few that have been mulched with chop worm scissors. A pole cup provides pinpoint accuracy, so you can feed very close to features likely to hold perch, such as the remains of lily beds, overhanging cover and structures like bridges. Peeled prawns attract in their own right, although they can also be mixed with some chopped worms and casters for added appeal. But if you do the latter use a big hook and a whole prawn to avoid small fish problems.



If you decide to feed chopped prawns neat, it’s possible to get away with a smaller size 12 or 14 hook and just a tail segment as bait. Normally bites are instantaneous, because any perch in the vicinity will home in very quickly as they pick up the strong seafood aroma. Usually you will get a quick flurry of bites from some decent perch and then the swim dies. Sometimes a second helping of feed brings back the action, but on most occasions you need to keep changing swims in the hunt for those bigger, more elusive perch.