Monday Top 5 - Perch Fishing

This entry was posted on 15th January, 2018

That famous saying a big perch is “the biggest fish of all” is certainly true if you’ve ever had the fortune of witnessing a 3lb + stripy on the bank. They are often the first species people catch when starting fishing and a hugely popular species to go out and target at this time of year. Here’s a few tips to help you the next time you are out chasing those little predators.

 

Location, Location, Location

It might sound obvious but you can’t catch them if they are not there! Perch tend to congregate in shoals and are often found around two things: structure and food. If you find both of these things you will find perch. Places like boat yards, reed beds, turning basins on canals, overhanging trees, weir pools and sunken snags these are all likely places to provide cover for hunting and also shelter perch from larger predators.



Light Levels

The best time to target perch is the first hours of light and the last few hours of daylight. This is the time the perch use to hunt and are more actively on the feed. Target these feeding times and you’ll be sure to catch perch from a swim that in the middle of the day feels devoid of perch.



Resistance

Perch certainly don’t like resistance and will often drop a bait they feels offers too much resistance. If your quiver tip is too heavy or you are using a big fixed lead this is often the sure fire way to not catching Mr perch. Fish as sensivly as you can, if you are ledgering use the lightest tip or bobbin you can get away with and ensure you do the same with your ledger weight. When float fishing shot your float correctly and strike nice and early. If you are lure fishing use nice fine braid and lighter rods to help detect the sometimes subtle plucks that the biggest of perch can give you.



Dropshotting

My number one way of targeting perch is top head out with a bag of mini plastics and my dropshotting rod and explore. It’s a devastating light lure fishing method that allows you to hold your lure in the strike zone around cover in likely perch hiding holes for as long as you want it to be there. You can induce a bite by hanging your lure in Mr Perch’s face. If you haven’t already, give it a go.



Winning Worms

The amino acid packed lobworm is the single greatest perch puller I have ever known. There's endless occasions when lobworms have resulted in a capture when nothing else has worked. Either ledgered, float-fished or even free-lined, perch fine their scent and enticing wriggle irresistible. Make sure you have a few lobworms with you on you next perch hunting session.



I hope these tips will help put more perch on the bank for you but also make you think seriously about targeting this most magnificent of mini predator species in the future.