Perch Fishing - 24th/25th Re-visiting last good spot!
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.
