Things didn’t go as planned this weekend and was left with only a 4 hour outing on Saturday morning. The silver fish weren’t giving themselves up too easily so it was down to the trusty smelt! They didn’t let me down and had a couple of jack pike of them. No bigger fish were about from what i could see, maybe this was down to location or the strong cold wind that was hammering the little lake.
Sunday was lure building day, i’ve been trying my hand at making some wooden Jerkbaits. And to be honest i’m quite impressed with what i have managed to produce out of old bits of wood in the garage! After several coats of paint to seal them up i managed to have a quick test run in the local river to see how they move on the retrieve. Blimey i even amazed myself, on casting it just settled in the flow and just the top was above the water line. On making small jerks with the rod the lure swung to the right and then to the left, it looked spot on. I really cannot explain how chuffed i was with the results, it darting from left to right excellently. My epoxy resin should turn up towards the end of the week ( Envirotex Lite ) and then i can seal them properly and give them a go! I’ll let you know how i get on! I cannot wait to catch my first pike on one of these… i think its the whole ‘i made it myself’ to this newly discovered art forum!
I’ll post pictures soon of the finished product!
November 18th, 2008
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Just a quick report to say we’re 5 days in and already achieved 10 members! If it carries on like this hopefully it will be a great resource for all us Perch and Predator anglers out there.
Come on in and have your say! Signing up only takes a minute and all anglers are welcome!
Thanks for dropping in!
Mark
November 5th, 2008
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The Forum has been launched! Please sign up and chat to other members about Pike Perch & Chub fishing!
Click Here
October 31st, 2008
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Currently designing a rigs page. If you want one put on please let me know.
Thanks,
Mark
October 30th, 2008
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This Friday afternoon i decided to go armed with some lobs and catch myself a few small livebaits and have another go at the same stretch that produced last weekend.
On arrival at 3pm the jacks were striking a little further upstream so i decided to setup next to some lillypads and hope for the best a little bit downstream of the resident pike. First up i thought i’d catch myself a few baits and then try those on one rod and a nice fat juicy lob on the other. The small roach were most obliging and within 15 minutes i had a good 6/7 baits in the bucket. I rigged up with my normal float paternoster setup and sat back with fingers crossed. The float was bobbing away with some attention and after 20 minutes my first perch was bagged. Just over a pound and i was satisfied. I recast another bait to the same spot and the attention started after 5 or 6 minutes. This time not resulting in much, so i left it alone and cast a cut lobworm 15 yards upstream under a bobber float. Within minutes the first perch was on and quickly netted. This time at around half a pound he had put up a good scrap. The livebait still un-touched. Out went another worm and after a further ten minutes off it ran again, again around half a pound. I decided to cast the livebait just past this spot incase a biggie was nearby and attracted to the feeding smaller perch. The worm went back out 5 yards to the left.
Bang! The float bolted under and at first felt very good with the initial and a very angry pounder was landed. This followed over the next hour by another 3 perch between half a pound and a pound. Light was fading fast and i had around 30 minutes remaining. Then wallop the float flew under and held tight as a struck. This time it felt really special, the worm was taken and something nice was on the end of my line. At first it banged and knocked and felt perchy but then it just held the bottom… five minutes later and i still had no idea what was on the end, i lowered the net and was graced with my first ever eel weighing in at just under 3lb. Initially i was gutted as i thought it had been a large perch bite but this kind of made up for it as it was the first eel i had ever caught.
All in all not a bad day at all. 7 Perch and a new PB - happy days!
Saturday arrived and i was back on the river 13 hours after my last fish. This time a frost had hit hard and the temperature overnight had plummeted to around 2 degrees. The river looked dead. I tried all i could, had one rod out for the pike and one for the perch. The next 6 hours passed without a touch! Had the weather really killed it that much. It certainly looked that way. I tried various areas but no predators wanted to know. Oh well onwards and upwards next weekend if its real cold i will have to go for a wander and see if i can find them.
October 28th, 2008
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This saturday i decided to try a new spot! Much of my current success has been on a stretch approx a mile down river from where i tried on Saturday. The old spot was looking pretty much dead on a few evening visits i had made after work, and with it getting a few more anglers on that stretch i decided to venture somewhere new.
The alarm clock beeped away at 6am and there i was alone on a secluded back stream of the river by 6:30 i had high hopes for the morning. The part i had chosen had lovely deep undercut banks and was a small fish holding area. Livebaits were coming thick and fast and i thought this day was looking good. I tackled up the perch rod with a float fished paternostered live bait around 3″ long, with high hopes that Mr Perch would soon arrive for his breakfast. I also opted to put out a pike rod as this area normally produces a good few pike. I’d had them previously here up to around 9-10lb. On a normal morning here i’d have seen many pike striking in the early hours but this time i had seen none - weird! After 2 hours i decided it just wasn’t happening here today. I had positioned the perch rod in favoured spots but produced nout. It was time to move.
I up’d rods and went for a look at other areas of the river. I found a nice spot with a lot of cover from reeds and lilly pads, it wasn’t an easy place to fish but looked good for a perch bite. Out went the float paternoster rod just off the lilly pads in a nice area of shade. And the other rod i positioned about 10 yards upstream tight to the bank. I began to question myself after 30 minutes if it just wasn’t to be today, but low and behold the float started to bob… and then it was off i struck as soon as the float went for a swim and i was in. A few minutes later a nice stripey as in the net! At 1lb 10oz it sure wasn’t the biggest but boy was i glad to see it. After thinking it wasn’t going to happen i was very happy i’d decided to move.
So guess where i’m heading this weekend! Got to see if there are many more Perch up in that area. It should be a good spot after the heavy rain from yesterday as its sheltered and off from the main flow. 3 days of work to go! I just hope the stripeys are hungry!
October 21st, 2008
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Well i have no idea what went wrong… the pike weren’t about feeding like normal, the perch were not up for it and even the silver fish had legged it! What a day. The river was dull with a slow flow to it, the weather looked good but the fishing wasn’t to be that great! Tried different stretches down the medway and just before packing up managed a Perch just under 2lb - phew i had survived what i was certain of being a blank session. I really thought the conditions looked good, but thats fishing i guess. If it was always easy i suppose i’d get bored of it. Hopefully this weekend after a long week at work the river will be full of life again and those preds will be after some of my baited rigs!
If not i guess its time to sit back and read Perch - Contemporary Days and Ways that turned up in the post earlier this week! Seems like a good read so far and makes the daily commute to work a little easier!
October 16th, 2008
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Well this saturday it was 1 degree on the car thermo when i arrived at the river! It looked full of life but the big pike weren’t about to play.
Managed two jacks and a cracking perch at 2lb 12oz’s. That made the session for me! I love nothing more than hooking in to a specimen sized perch. Fingers crossed there will be more to come. Would still love to crack the 4lb barrier from the Medway… one day soon hopefully! Its getting closer with reports of other large one’s coming out in recent days.
I’ll keep you posted.
October 7th, 2008
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I normally purchase the Angling Times to read whats new in the world of fishing and to see any new tips that have evolved and could help me to catch more fish. Not neccesarily focused to any one species as i enjoy alsorts. But what has struck me is the lack of Perch articles out there.
I have just trawled through a back log of Angling Times and struggled to find many. I turned my eye to a few copies of Pike and Predator Magazine in the garage, these mainly focused upon Pike fishing. Now understandably Pike fishing is more popular and Angling Times has its Carp section and Barbel get a lot of coverage too. But why don’t they ever run a mini series on the Perch ? Such a wonderful powerful fish that is the pleasure of most young anglers when they start the sport. To me its a new found obsession and finding information regarding these fish isn’t the easiest to come by.
Also there is the Perchfishers website but again this doesn’t hold a wealth of information upon targetting this species, and in forums they also get a backseat. I am then left thinking to myself of creating a solely focussed website upon Perch fishing, and if the interest is out there i shall try to incorporate a forum to this species as well.
Could you all please let me know if this would be of interest, and also i will need contributors to help create a database of articles to try and support those new and those experienced in the awesome Perch.
I look forward to your comments and thoughts.
September 29th, 2008
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Well what did i want more than another large perch…? Not much i can tell you! And this morning after changing location another river caught 3lb’r graced the net. There was me thinking to myself that it wasn’t going to happen this morning and i’d missed the prime time, when low and behold the float started to bop away and off she went. What makes this even better was looking at previous catches there aren’t any other recorded 3lb’ers down this stretch of river, and this is my second in a year.
The last one went 3lb 10oz and this one was bang on 3lb. Will there be a 4lb’er soon who knows!
The hunt continues!!!
September 14th, 2008
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