Perch on lamprey?

[Steve Burke]

Zedhead, this is Peggy, Steve's wife. He's just gone up to bed but will reply tomorrow. He says please PM him if he forgets - he's got a shocking memory!

[Steve Burke]

All perch are cannibalistic, whatever their size. However, I know what you mean.

 

In general I've found that bigger baits/lures are usually better for big perch. My "standard" size live/deadbait is 5". Even then I often get perch under 2lbs. If I go down to 4" baits on overstocked commercial waters I also get a lot of carp. I've even had a brace of 1½lbs tench on 4" deadbaits!

 

With lures my starting point is about 3". In fact friends and I have done well on 5" banana-shaped Kwikfish and Flatfish. Indeed, Peter Rogers has 3 times had a specimen perch on each hook of these big lures. On one occasion both the perch were over 3lbs!

 

Of course, if you're after a big bag of perch and not so concerned about the size, then you'll usually be better off with smaller lures and baits.

 

However, there are days when even the bigger perch prefer a smaller mouthful. Additionally, there are some waters where smaller baits/lures are usually better even for specimen stripies.

 

Indeed, Wingham may be a case in point. When lure fishing for pike there I've rarely caught perch on 3-4" lures. This is despite a big year class of 3lbers. To put this into perspective, Peter Rogers and I didn't catch a single perch below 3lbs last autumn, winter and spring!

 

The reason is probably that Wingham contains a large head of fry, and the perch have been keyed into these. This happens on many other waters, and so it's important to bear this in mind when choosing lures. The answer of course is to have an open mind and find out by experimenting.

 

What I really want to find out though is how big the perch is that followed a 3½" Abu Atom to my feet at Wingham last winter! It dwarfed the 3 pounders!

[GlennB]

Well, the perching didn't work out at all. Turned into a pike day.

 

I was fishing with - basically - lightish pike tackle. Early on a nice jack took a 3" lamprey section on the retrieve. Two other lumps of lamprey on big circle hooks got me into tug-of-war sessions with decent fish which eventually let go before I saw what they were.

 

Caught some roach to use as deads for the perch. Caught two more jacklets of about 2lbs on these

 

Twice I've been piking down there and twice I've blanked. Why can't s#ddding fish co-operate?

 

[Brian Carragher]

Glenn

Small pieces of lamprey depending on the diameter of the bait,either 3/4 inch or 1 inch hooked on a six or eight are what picks up good chub up here as well as good eels. Hooked just once through the skin is ideal, bigger pieces attract pike as you've found out.If pike are suspected of being about I use Drennan 7 strand as its very fine wire without adversley affecting results.Have just bought some fox fine wire to try so we'll see what happens with that

[GlennB]

Hi Brian

 

I'll try those short sections on The Avon around Bath. Much better chub and good eels further down the river from where I was today.

Have you experienced pike going for such small lamprey sections?

p.s. don't you find those toothy circular lamprey mouths revolting? Wouldn't want one of those attached to me.

 

cheers

[Brian Carragher]

Have'nt had pike going for such small pieces yet but I still dare'nt take the chance. Any small jacks will wolf the bits of lamprey down so the wire is just a precaution.

Masterline have just brought out a braided line interwoven with fine wire that would be just perfect for this job but I have'nt been able to track any down yet up here in the North East.

One of our tackle dealers in the town is from Bath (just an aside) and used to fish Bath areas.

Only been to Bath once and never took any rods but that free stretch under the wier and alongside the baths looks really good,some good barbel from around that area I understand

[GlennB]

Brian Carragher:

 

Only been to Bath once and never took any rods but that free stretch under the wier and alongside the baths looks really good,some good barbel from around that area I understand

Many fat chub, vast shoals of bream too. Read of a 200lb net of bream hauled in by a match angler! Unfortunately I hate fishing city centre stretches. I like to get out in the wilds, althought today I was pretty close to RAF Lynham and the Red Arrows were having a hard days training in the skies above me. None too peaceful.

[Emma two]

This thread attracted my attention because lampreys were responsible for for my best perch day when i was young. I was boat fishing one of the big lakes, simple technique, dropping a lobworm straight down to the bottom. That was successful in that I soon boated an 8 inch perch. Unhooking it caused it to regurgetate 3 inch long live lampreys, it was stuffed with them. it was easy to see what to do, get the lampreys on as hookbait. it worked well I caught perch for hours, each one bringing me more bait, and the size going up well beyone the initial 8 incher.

 

the local streams provided plenty of small lampreys for bait after that, but i havnt used 'em for years, maybe i should.

 

of course after reading the posts, I realise you have been talking about lumps of dead 'big' lampreys. (have used 'em for pike) however there is more than one way of using lampreys for bait.

[Newt]

Hi Emma two. We are glad to have you join us.

[Steve Burke]

This thread attracted my attention because lampreys were responsible for for my best perch day when i was young. I was boat fishing one of the big lakes, simple technique, dropping a lobworm straight down to the bottom. That was successful in that I soon boated an 8 inch perch. Unhooking it caused it to regurgetate 3 inch long live lampreys, it was stuffed with them. it was easy to see what to do, get the lampreys on as hookbait. it worked well I caught perch for hours, each one bringing me more bait, and the size going up well beyone the initial 8 incher.

 

the local streams provided plenty of small lampreys for bait after that, but i havnt used 'em for years, maybe i should.

 

of course after reading the posts, I realise you have been talking about lumps of dead 'big' lampreys. (have used 'em for pike) however there is more than one way of using lampreys for bait.

 

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for sharing it.