Small stream perch
How many times have we drove past and ignored the small streams, drains and rivers without giving them a second thought? I for one have been more than guilty of the above charge and this didn’t change until I bought 2 puppies and started to walk them along such places.
It was on one such walk in midsummer, that a small stream no more than 10ft across gave away one of her secrets, a flash of silver followed by a splash was all I needed to see to give me the desire to explore her more. Over the course of the next ten minutes there were several bursts of small fry leaping out of the water trying to avoid a predator of some kind. Identifying the culprit of the disturbance took a little while longer due to the streamer weed and the surface ripple, but eventually I caught a glimpse of a large sail like dorsal fin ram raiding a shoal of fry. It was a perch and a good sized one at that, but the good thing was there was a whole gang of them launching attacks on the fry that realistically stood little or no chance.
venues like this have so much potential.
Now I am guessing that the perch has many fond memories for almost all of us, it was probably the first fish that 95% of us first caught in our younger days and it’s the fish that on the coldest, wettest day always obliges with a bite. Dick Walker once said that the perch is “our biggest looking, large fish” and he was so right, those deep green sides, the spiny dorsal fin and the mouth capable of taking any small unsuspecting fish makes for an all-round eating machine.
Having stored away this sighting I waited until autumn to return to the stream and have a good go at trying to catch one of the perch. The first job was trying to locate them again, hours of walking the bank armed with a spinning rod, a few lures and a net followed. I had decided that I would use 12lb mainline as I had never heard of or seen any big pike coming from this area but just to be safe I would be using a wire trace.
Eventually I got a result, well not a bite but a shadow followed the lure in before diving into the depths. The next 4 casts had the same result, the fish were there but they were not interested in taking the lure, they just followed it and tried to work out what that strange swimming creature was. Shortly after this the attacks started again on the fry, so the perch were obviously hungry and in the mood I just needed to go back to basics and match the hatch as they say.
The next day I returned with half a pint of maggots and the last few sections of my pole to try to catch some fry, I also had a perch rod set up ready in the event that I could get some small fish to use as bait. (I will point out that I had already found out who owns the stretch and asked if it was ok to use live baits, this was fine as long as I caught from the same waterway).
Over the next hour or so I caught a dozen or so small dace, bleak and roach all around 2 inch long, these would make ideal perch baits. These were placed in a small bucket with an aerator that I use for pike fishing. It was actually quite good fun catching the small fish but I had to get on to the real reason that I was there and get into one of those perch. As a backup I also had some lobworms that I could use with a small maggot feeder if I needed.
For the live bait rod the set up was on the safe side just in case there was any pike around, a greys 1.5tc rod and 12lb main line straight through to the business end a size 10 ultra-sharp Gardner Talon tip hook. I will only use super sharp hooks for perch fishing due to their bony hard mouths and I have found that these hooks are the best on the market for this. For a float I used a small bobber style float set at depth using float stops.
The water was only around 4ft deep but the bottom 18inch or so was taken up with streamer weed, so the bobber was set at 2ft as I did not want the fish hiding and snagging me up every time in the weed, I was also hoping that the perch would be sat in the weed waiting to ambush its next victim. The bait was a small lip hooked dace and was flicked out to mid river and allowed to travel down on the flow, every now and again I would hold the line back to allow the live bait to explore any under features that could have a perch laying in wait.
Stunning marked summer perch.
Just as I was moving 50 yards down-stream I noticed a small disturbance near to a reed bed, so there was only one place this next trot down river was going. I had positioned myself next to a small bush and gently flicked the float over to the opposite side of the river some 10 – 12ft away, just as the float was next to the reed bed I held the line back just to give the perch time to notice the bait hoping it was still hungry and on the prowl in the area. After 30 seconds or so I released the line and let the float travel a further 6ft before doing the same next to a small lily bed, after holding the line for less than 5 seconds the float bobbed under the surface and moved away.
After re-engaging the bail arm I stuck into a decent sized fish which instantly fought like a perch, I felt the fish’s headshaking trying to dislodge the hook that is the beauty of using light well balanced tackle. The fight was over in no time and the perch was soon in the landing net, a stunning looking fish of around 2lb. The hook was perfectly positioned right in the roof of the mouth and with that the unhooking was straight forward, however whilst I was removing the small dace I had used I noticed that there was also a small fry in its mouth that had also been victim of the attacks and proof of what the fish were preying on.
Victim of a perch attack.
The fish weighed at 2lb4, a few photos and that was it, she was released to cause more mayhem amongst the shoals of small fry. Before casting out again I had a look at the dace that the perch had nailed and it was interesting to see that the perch had stripped the dace of all its scales and crushed its head in one speedy ambush. The rest of the day continued on a similar pattern but with a series of smaller fish.
Result of a perch attack. No mercy.
A few weeks later I returned to the same stretch this time armed with only lobworms and red maggots. I had decided that I would use a more static approach this time and fish the areas with features. One was the small lily bed that produced the 2lb+ fish on the last visit and the other was an overhanging willow tree on the far bank.
The setup was much lighter this time, Greys 1lb tc rods and 5.5lb Gardner Mirage mainline, straight through to a size 10 talon tip hook. A free running lead of 1/8oz was all that’s required on the slow moving stream and a float stop was on the line some 18 inches away from the hook, the reason for this was to keep the lead away from the hook and keep the line pinned down to the bottom.
Gardner tackle required for the perch.
One of the main things I always do at the start of a perch session is to get some bait in to attract the prey fish to the general area, so if there is no perch present they will eventually come in search of the prey fish. With this a few handfuls of maggots are thrown in along with half a dozen chopped worms to add some scent to the general area too. Then it’s just a case of casting in and waiting for the fish to come.
I tend to use bite alarms when I am perch fishing as I like to be looking around for signs of perch attacking so my eyes are not always on the tip or float. I also use a very long drop to my Nash slix bobbins which are as light as possible, any resistance and the perch will drop the bait.
After 20 minutes with no bites instead of reeling and recasting I simply reeled the worm in 12 inches and then reset the bobbin, I did this in the hope that if a perch was nearby it would see the movement, also it could be buried under some debris so doing this would get it out in sight again. It’s just after one of these twitches that I got my first bite of the day and the bobbin slammed against the butt of the rod.
Instantly lifting into it bite there was an instant connection with an almighty lump of resistance on the line, if this was in fact a perch it was a huge perch. It gave me the run around at first using the light rod but I had enough power in it to prevent her from getting to the reeds and the over-hanging tree that she was aiming for. After a few more lunges she finally surfaced and took a gulp of air and then gracefully slid into my waiting net.
The hook was perfectly positioned and the worm was hanging out of her mouth and resembled a small child eating spaghetti, a few photos and a photo session with me awaited the lucky lady before placing her onto the scales to reveal 3lb6, what a great fish for such a venue. The colours on the fish are perfect and that’s the beauty of a small gin clear stream, if it was a heavily coloured commercial then it would be washed out pale browns and greens etc.
3lb.6 Small stream stripy, does it really get any better ??
I fished on for several more hours that day but nothing else happened but to be honest I didn’t really mind, I`d had a fish far bigger that I could have imagined possible for such a venue and was going home happy. I haven’t been able to fish that same venue again since due to the constant floods we seem to have at the minute, it colours up very easily and then the perch are just not interested.
Why not give such venues a try near you, just because no one else fishes them doesn’t mean that there are no fish in them and you never know….. you may just drop on a hidden gem of a fish like I did.
The post Small stream, huge perch. appeared first on Danny Johnson Fishing.