pike and perch.co.uk

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!

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!

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.

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!!!