Rods for Specimen Perch

[Dick Dastardly]

Was having a discussion the other day with several mates of mine who like targetting big perch.Between us we fish most types of water and have all (thanks to recent years boom in big perch!) been quite sucsessful.On the vast majority of issues we all seemed to very much agree but when the subject of rods (even when used for the same methods on the same/similar waters) came up there was a massive difference in preferences.To take this a stage further I would be most interested in what the regular perch fishers on this site think.Please also say what type of water/size of fish/method you use with your rod choice and of course most importantly why you have made this choice.

 

Be most interesting to see if the massive difference of opinion is shown here to.

[argyll]

My two favourite perch rods for the Thames are

 

An Avon style rod for general bait fishing with lobs/small livebaits. I use a Masterline JW. Cheap but more than adequate.

 

A Dave Lumb Wizardstick for lures. This rod was made for canal pike but makes an excellent heavy duty perch lure rod. I used to use an ultralite but I found that it pays to bully a big perch away from the shoal as quickly as possible in order not to spook the remaining fish.

 

Fish are retained until the end of the session in a pike tube. Releasing a big perch immediately will spook the rest of the shoal.

 

Concentrating on specific locations where I know the shoals to be, I can expect to find fish between 1.75lb and 3.5lbs, if river conditions ae right. If the shoal is there then I can expect 3-6 fish before the shoal spook or lose interest. But its not unusual for these to be 2lb plus fish. Best time is half and hour either side of dawn. They are around at dusk too, but have moved and are harder to find. I suspect the frequency of boat traffic has someting to do with the preference for dawn over dusk. The river has had a long rest from boat trafic at dawn, not so at dusk.

[Peter Waller]

I use a Daiwa Avon/Specialist for bait fishing and whatever takes my fancy on the day for lure fishing.

[Steve Burke]

I couldn't find the ideal perch rod for bait fishing so had to design my own.

 

One of the problems with perch is that they have a wafer-thin membrame behind their lips. If your hook dislodges here it'll all too often pull out, especially with a conventional Avon rod. I found this for instance with the John Wilson Avon I once won - so promptly gave it away.

 

Some carp waggler rods have the right sort of action in the tip. Some also have a smooth enough action lower down. However, none I've seen are beefy enough to handle heavy casting weights, especially at range. Bear in mind that I might be using an ounce and a half or even two ounces of lead plus a live or deadbait, or a loaded swimfeeder.

 

What's therefore needed is a cross between an Avon and a carp waggler in action. The soft tip is essential, plus it needs to have a smooth action throughout, without suddenly locking up.

 

What I came up with is a rod of just over 12 feet in 3 pieces with a test curve of 1lb 2ozs. I named it the Fledger as you can both float fish and ledger with it. In fact it soon became a whole series of rods as it has interchangeable top sections, with heavier tips for barbel etc plus quivertip tops.

 

Such a rod is incredibly versatile to say the least. I use mine for a multitude of species from fishing under the rod top to long range feeder fishing.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I use a 12 foot ABU Enticer float rod and I'll be using a 6.5 foot ABU Conolon spinning rod for lures as of this year.

[yog]

Have a look at the TFG "river&stream" 1lb.2oz tc,,,i use it for big roach,perch etc...its one hell of a rod...dare i say it ..its probably my fav rod at the minute.

[Phil Adams]

Ive been using a Fox Specialist twintop for the past few months and have been impressed with its action. The 1LB Tc is soft enough but has plenty of backbone to stop rampaging chub. Ive not had any problems bumping fish or hook pulls as yet.

 

Although I dont specificaly target perch I would recommend the rod for the task.

[The Flying Tench]

Steve Burke:

 

One of the problems with perch is that they have a wafer-thin membrame behind their lips. If your hook dislodges here it'll all too often pull out, especially with a conventional Avon rod.

I've certainly lost good perch for precisely this reason. I take your point about having a softish rod, but what about line strength? I used to use 6lb line for perch but now I've come to the conclusion that I have to treat them very gently to avoid pull-outs, so I use 3lb unless there are snags. What do others do?

[Tim Kelly]

I find that I loose very few perch on lures, so maybe the answer to loosing perch on bait is to increase the hook size?

[Dick Dastardly]

I was more interested in reading WHY anglers use their choice of rod than recieving reccomendations!

 

Steve has hit on the big problem with choice of rod for big perch in that you need a light rod for not pulling the hook and enjoying the fish but a heavy enough rod to cast relatively large baits/rig combinations.

 

My mates choices vary from stepped up (comercial carp water type)"power" match rods to light (up to 1 3/4lb!) carp rods.At the present time I use a variety of rods my self.Namely a very powerfull waggler rod (this is an old blank from Calibre Steve not sure if it is one of the Fledger range or not as I got it in blank form from Gaz but it is 3 piece 12'and around the 1lbTC mark) This is my chosen preference for worms and small float fished lives.It has just the right amount of power to deal with a good perch without out gunning them and has no problem casting either light float or ledger gear baited with a lob.

 

For heavier baits used on paternoster rigs I use a Shimano 11' 1lb TC rod. This is slightly to powerful for the fish for my liking but does cope with casting the heavier weights better. For lure fishing a light homemade crank handled 10' rod.

 

Certainly havnt found an allround perch rod.

 

Re bigger hooks Tim,Im always concerned that using singles above size 6 will cause damage if taken back in to the throat.Despite not being 100% happy with small trebles I would and have used these in extreme situations in the past rather than risking big singles.