pike and perch.co.uk

I’m back on the hunt tonight, and thankfully a night to be spent on the river is ahead of me!  I’m going out to fish until its too dark for the stripeys and then out with the carp rods for the night to see if i can find anymore monsters! 

I’ll update the site again upon my return!  Wish me luck! 

This morning i was up at 5am and out on the river by 5:30am.  I was hoping after the rain that the river may liven up a little, unfortunately the only perch i managed to capture was probably about half a pound.  I had been trotting the a lob and moving every 30 minutes to try to cover as much ground as possible.

At about 7:30 i spotted bubbles coming up just off some reeds no more than 6 feet from the bank so crept up and slowly lowered a huge lob into the water about 2 feet from the bubbles.  After ten mins the float slowly dissappeared, i struck into thin air and the lob was gone.  There was no great movement of a spooked fish so i lowered another in, and the same thing happened again… so in went another…

This time i struck and for a split second i thought i was snagged, and then boom the clutch went absolutely mental and i was into something that went off down river like a steam train.  I thought the reeds would stop it but oh no this fish had other ideas and come very close to the surface and the tail broke the water!  Wow boy oh boy was it a tail and a half… and it signalled to me that i was into a decent Common Carp!  It run downstream about 30-40 yards before i managed to turn it round, and about 10 knee knocking minutes later the battle was over and i managed to scoop it up into my net.

Low and behold i was in total shock at what i had just achieved!  And what made it even sweeter was that i managed to land it on 6lb line with a 4lb hooklink on a John Wilson Avon 1.25tc rod!  I want another one already!

The setting was amazing for the picture and thankfully they came out really good!  A big thanks go out to Sam for rushing down from work to take the pictures, i owe you more than a few beers!  Thanks mate!

Only a short update today as the weekend just past i didn’t manage as much fishing as normal.  I was down the lake both days for only a few hours each time.  Fortunately Tommy Topsoil didn’t let me down with the lobs and they arrived extremely quickly as usual and meant that lack of bait wasn’t an issue.   If you are interested he manages to do a 100 lobs for £12 delivered and i think every time i’ve ordered before 2pm they’ve been waiting for me on my doorstep the next day.  Absolutely outstanding service!

Back to the fishing… with the wind being up again its not easy fishing but conditions otherwise looked pretty good both days.  Fortunately in one location the perch were still there and feeding quite comfortably and were taken to just over a pound.  I think saturday morning i managed 6 of them before i had to leave.  Sunday evening i managed another 2 but still no more 2 pounders to grace the net.  I’m sure its only a matter of time before a three comes to say hello down there.  Its just a matter of having the time at the moment to get a good session in to get the feed in and try to pull them over it.  Hopefully this saturday i can try to get a good few hours down there from first light which should be good. 

I’ll keep the blog updated as usual to let you know how i’m getting on!  I may even try to get a couple of hours in tonight.  The joy of summer and quick outings after work…delightful!

I went out 4:30am saturday to try my luck on the river.  On my arrival it looked low and not exactly full of life, i chucked out a handful of maggots and a few silver fish had a nibble.   So on went a worm to trot down the far margin to see if anything good was out there.   On the forth or fifth trot i managed a nice chub to about a pound, and shortly after another followed suit and then all went dead.  Not even the maggots were catching.  So i thought it about time a deadbait went out to a very tasty looking spot. 

An hour later and i was on the move as it just looked dead where i was, barely any movement and i was questioning myself as to whether or not i was in the right spot.  I went down river about 80-100 metres where i’d seen quite a few tiddlers jumping clear of the water.  Out went two deads but again to no avail.  They were cast in different locations throughout the morning but i couldn’t buy a bite!   So unfortunately i went home later that day totally deflated.

Not to worry too much though as i went out last night and managed a jack on the first cast of a dead on ‘the’ lake, shortly after my buddy managed a perch of about a pound and then i bagged another pike around 6-7lb.  Not bad considering we’d only been there for 3 hours in the evening and the day before i’d wasted about 8 hours chasing not very much on the river.  Fingers crossed we’ll get some decent rain soon and bring the river back to life.  Until then i think i’ll stay on the lakes!  Not many stripeys were about but it was very windy down there so maybe that is something to watch out on future trips… never thought to much about the location of stripeys when there is strong winds, but thats twice its happened now!

Hmm!   

Well what an evening, i have just returned from the big lake having caught my biggest from there so far.  On arrival i walked to my favourite swim to find a guy already fishing there - totally gutted.  I set up one down behind some trees and thought i’d go have a chat with him before i start.

He said he was after alsorts and had got fed up with small perch nicking his maggots so went over to sweetcorn to go for the roach, with some success taking them to the 2lb mark.  I mentioned would he be there long and he said he was nearly out of bait so would give me a whistle when he’s done.  Low and behold i was in the spot i wanted at a little after 8pm, which isn’t bad going as that meant i’d only been there 20 minutes.  And being as i’d gone straight from work all i had to catch some livies was bread, thankfully he gave me a handful of maggots and i was away/  Third cast i caught a perfect sized bleak.

Thankfully i’d prepared and had the rod setup so on went the bait and i cast out to the edge of the trees whilst the guy was packing away.  I didn’t have to wait long as the bait was taken in under a minute by a pristine perch of 1lb 10oz.  Second biggest i’d had so far so i was well chuffed.  Out went the float for another bait…  2 minutes later a nice 4″ roach decided it fancied the maggot!  Perfect…!

This was cast a little deeper and the bait presented about a foot from the bottom.   15 minutes later another take, unfortunately this one spat it out before i managed to get him.  The bait still being ok, so it went back out to the hotspot.  Then about 10 minutes after casting it in bang bang bang on the float and then he was off…  i struck into it i and knew i was on to a good un and boy did he put up a great scrap.   Out went the net and he was mine!  Ok not massive but being the biggest by nearly half a pound i was well made up!  He went 2lb 7oz on the scales and i was overjoyed!!!

After this all went a little quiet until bang on the float again and i thought surely not!  I hit into and it felt damn good, unfortunately it was not seen nor heard but it felt bloody good and it felt perchy!  And stronger than the two previous fish……  nothing else happened after this so i packed up and headed home as it well pretty dark by now and i was struggling to see the float.  But you’d better be sure i’ll be back down there soon after nearly getting my hands on a real good one!

Watch this space…!

I nearly forgot and then checked the dates of the first post and Pike and Perch is 1 year old today!

Thanks to everyone for popping in and dropping by on the forum.  Hopefully we can build on this and make it even better by the site’s next birthday.

Tight lines to all!

Mark

Hi all,

Today i went for a different approach and thought i’d try dropshotting for the Perch.  I went to a large lake near where i live armed with my spinning rod 5-20g with 15lb braid loaded onto a Shimano Sedona 750.  This outfit is a total joy to use when targetting Perch and seemed perfect for dropshotting.

New dropshot hooks are currently on order so i opted for some green size 4 fly hooks that i have and they seemed to stick out perfectly when mounted on 12lb grand max.  I rigged it so the lure was about a foot from the bottom and set about trying to christen the new technique and get to grips with how effective it could be.

It didn’t take too long to work either i think on about my fifth cast i was into a nice perch of around a pound!  A great way to start on a new way of fishing!!! Luckily i managed another around 15 minutes later and i was set on always taking a rod rigged up for dropshotting on my luring trips.

I’m not so sure the hooks i used stood up enough but for the trial it seemed sufficient enough, i cannot wait to get out more on this method and see if it out fishes the usual spinning and jigging!  Time will tell!

And hey if you haven’t given it a go yet i highly advise you try it out!

I went out on Sunday for a quick dabble and managed numerous perch again but unfortunately only up to a pound. They were going mad on a chopped lob and red maggot spot that I had baited up, at times they were suicidal. Unfortunately no bigger ones came along but hopefully in time I can suss out where they are lurking.

On Monday I managed to get a day away from the office and get back onto the bank. I tried a new spot on the river and baited as before and to my surprise I caught my first ever Ruff which came in at 3oz’s. A real heavy set little fish which I was elated to catch. Shortly after a had another before that area suddently stopped producing. Later in thte morning I noticed further the reeds shaking away a little further down the bank, something was on the feed, so armed with a 1oz quiver tip a chucked a lobworm right along side the action zone. Low and behold about 20 minutes later the tip went crazy and pulled round solid. I struck in to something with quite a bit of speed and power! Considering I was using 6lb line with a 4lb hooklink it provided me with a great spirited fight, I wasn’t sure what I had connected with and at first thought it was a chub when to my surpise a common rolled right in front of me before meeting the landing net. I was very shocked at catching my first river carp, I’d always heard that they were in the area but I have never managed to catch one. The swim went dead after the eruption stirred from catching the carp and all that was to follow was a bream around 4-5lb. I did find some great looking pools that look good for the perch and chub and these shall be tried on my next visit.

Not too sure if I’ll ever catch two pb’s like this again in a day but the river holds so many unknowns anything is possible! As for Sunday’s outing, I cannot wait!!!

The day arrived and i was down on the river by 4:15 ready to launch an assualt on the fish that lurked beneath.  The river was quite clear with a slow flow to it, not ideal conditions but i had to be there!  I baited with chopped worm and reg maggots on the edge of the reeds in the hope to tempt a stripey into biting!  I didn’t have to wait long and the first one was in the net.  Not a biggie but it was what i was after so i couldn’t complain.  After this i managed two more perch to a 1lb and a half on worms, a 4lb bream and a small chub.  Then the swim died. 

I put the rod down and a pike went for the float which was just dangling on the water… shortly after he then assumed his resting position right against the bank about 2 feet away from me.  I couldn’t help to see what he would like for lunch, so i tried a few worms and managed to get them on video dropping into the water, then i tried a few tiddlers to see whether or not he was up for the challenge of a fishy snack! 

Check out the videos in the forum to see what happened!

Friday evening was overcast with a light breeze on the water at the lake that has been my target this last week.  with over 70 perch landed between us during the my prayers were answered and i managed to catch a 2lb 1oz perch at 9pm.  I knew there had to larger in there, well i had hoped so anyway.  And after seeing this pristine Perch the full potential of the place has been exposed…!

I shall be on the river for the foreseeable future but i know that when the river is having it’s off days i have this place to head back down to.  Its barely fished which is a god send and hopefully it stays that way i can fish where and when i need to.  Phew!

Good like to all for the coming season and may all your stripeys be big ones!  I look forward to seeing captures posted on the forum and i hope a few of them are mine!