Rods for Specimen Perch

[Steve Burke]

Point taken about a poor hookhold failing anyway if you need to bully a perch away from a snag.

 

However, in open water the hookhold can also fail if the hook is in the thin membrane behind the lip - even if you're playing the fish lightly. Partly this is because perch usually fight in a characteristic way by head-shaking. This alone can pull the hook. Here I've found from experience that a soft tipped rod does make a difference, and also with sudden lunges.

[Alan Pearce]

My fav rod for bait fishing and big perch during the past 10 years is the Normark 'Bob James' Twin Tip Feeder using the Avon style tip section. This is rated at 1.2lb test and is very soft. Baits and lead upto 3ozs can be cast with ease up to a range of 50 yards. Micro barb hooks can be struck into the fish and hook links as light as 3lbs are not a problem.

 

Much of my fishing for big perch is carried out very closeto snags and hard fighting fish are easily pulled away by burying the rod tip to the lake or river bottom and gently winding the fish to a safe area before commencing the fight.

 

More recently I have also used with great success and much larger baits, the Free Spirit 1.5 test Barbel Tamer rods. These are also one of my fav rods for use when fishing for very big tench in thick weed using small hooks (16 or 14) with just one or two maggots as bait.

 

Alan.