big Perch

[Restless Oblivion]

quote:

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is it just a case of scaling down pike rigs minus the trace, and what size bait would you recommend for perch of 3lb upwards.

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You didnt mention if pike were present in the lake, if so, you must use a wire trace, cos pike will quickly home in on live / dead baits and lures, its not fair to leave a pike with a set of hooks in its mouth, i use 15 pound wonder wire for my perech spinning, its never yet put them off!

[tony jolley]

Restless Oblivion:

quote:

---

is it just a case of scaling down pike rigs minus the trace, and what size bait would you recommend for perch of 3lb upwards.

---

You didnt mention if pike were present in the lake, if so, you must use a wire trace, cos pike will quickly home in on live / dead baits and lures, its not fair to leave a pike with a set of hooks in its mouth, i use 15 pound wonder wire for my perech spinning, its never yet put them off!

Nicely pointed out!!

[Restless Oblivion]

Thank you!

 

I can understand why people are tempted not to use wire when after perch, after all its bulky, and perch can get quite line shy when you fish for them with worm, and maggot etc, yet the same fish, when confronted with a good fishy mouthful, they seem to lose all caution, and just gulp it down!

 

Even when twitching rubber worms slowly on the bottem of my local canal ( grand union, herts) in winter, when the match anglers are using 1 lb bottems and 22 hooks to get bites off perch, i find perch of all sizes will grab the worm with no hesitation at all, despite the 8 inch 15 lb wire trace, swivels etc and 8 lb line, when on the hunt for large food, they seem to lose there natural shyness! the best one i had last year was on christmas morning, on an ondex no3, i had a perch that im guessing must have been two and half + easily, now you dont get them under the tree!

 

On the subject of the size of bait, i ve caught perch under a pound on 7 inch plugs in the past, so i would imagine a two ounce bait to pose no problem at all for a good perch!

 

Happy fishing!

[Steve Burke]

Glad to see you use Wonder Wire for perch spinning. That's what I first imported for in my days at Caliber.

 

Whenever I use treble hooks and there are pike in the water I always use Wonder Wire. However, when using jigs with a single hook or fishbaits with a single hook I don't use wire. I find it cuts down my catch rate, often dramatically.

 

For instance Leon was fishing with me at Wingham and we were showing a youngster how to catch perch on jigs. They kept shying away from those on wire. As soon as I put a jig in front of them without the wire - bang!

 

I accept that when using single hooks I'll get bitten off by pike. However, I don't believe it does the pike any harm at all, and they soon get rid of a single hook. Indded, I've several times subsequently caught pike that had earlier bitten me off, and the hook was nowhere to be seen. I'd add that these were fish that were easily identifiable, one for instance having a pronounced growth on it.

 

However, I'd again stress that, if there are pike in the water, you should ALWAYS use a wire trace when using a treble hook or hooks. The same goes for double hooks, as each type can stitch the throat of a pike up.

[JackPike]

i,ve had an 3lb 11oz perch on a 8oz live baitusing 22lb trace and size 8 trebles what a gob it had.Can you still get wonder wire here in the uk

 

[ 30 June 2002, 01:06 AM: Message edited by: JackPike ]

[Newt]

Steve Burke:

Newt, do you find that lures work well for perch in coloured water?  I've tried all sorts of lures, including soft plastics in those conditions, but have done far better with real fish or lobworms.

 

Something I have found interesting in comparing US and UK fishing is that over the pond you almost always seem to fish baits on the move.  Over here we tend to fish static baits unless we're drifting a bait out with a float. However, some of us do twitch our baits from time to time.

 

Could it have something to do with groundbait (chum?) being less used or even banned in certain US states?  We use groundbait to bring the fish to us, you go in search of the fish even when using bait?

Steve - I can't really speak to perch behavior specifically. Too warm down where I live for big perch. I do catch an occasional one but always very small. And I've never seen anyone catch one over a few ounces. I know the folks up north do have larger ones - yellow perch - but they have much cooler water on average.

 

I do agree that lures are more successful in water that isn't muddy. Some color is fine but too much and it gets really difficult. If the aim is to put the maximum number of fish on the bank, bait is the way to go. Still, they will take lures in all water conditions and part of the fun for me is figuring out which lure style, color, presentation is going to do the job best on a given day.

 

As to the movement vs. static thing, I have done some thinking on that and have reached some personal conclusions that seem to fit the observed facts so may even be valid. Although all are generalities and will certainly have exceptions.

 

Fishing over here has traditionally been for food for the table. And the simple fact is that most fish that are tasty and easy to prepare are preds whose diet is largely living (thus moving) critters. The bottom feeders tend to have lots of floating bones and flesh that needs careful preparation to be at all fit to eat. Channel catfish are an exception in that they are a scavenger but have almost no bones other than the spine so lots of easily gotten meat - and a skin that removes easily and the fish is worth the extra effort to make it good table fare.

 

This has colored our thinking and techniques to a large extent. And built in a strong preference for moving baits. Lives work much better than deads in most cases and lures are designed to immitate lives.

 

I have no idea why some states originally began their prohibition on chum/groundbait but I do know that if there was pressure from anglers, the rules would be quickly changed. But there isn't the pressure since most will not want to use it. Even where legal, groundbaiting is pretty much seen as "unsporting". Since a large number of our anglers are also hunters, the idea probably carries over since baiting land animals for hunting is pretty much prohibited everywhere over here.

 

We do have some anglers who target carp and buffalo but they are a tiny minority without much of a voice. Mostly at the lower end of the socio-economic scale and spend very little money on taxes, tackle, etc.

 

For the rest of the fish species over here that resemble the non-pred UK coarse fish, they simply aren't fished for at all unless for use as bait and even then will most commonly be taken with a net or some other non-angling method. They don't get large enough to present an exciting target, they aren't good to eat, and there are always other targets that are more fun to fish for and catch.

 

And as a closing note here - most US anglers would be absolutely amazed at the variety of substances you folks have available for hook bait and ground bait. And more amazed at the very interesting end tackle and presentation methods you have developed over the years.

[Steve Burke]

Jack Pike, Yes you can still get Wonder Wire, both in 5metre lengths and made up traces. The website is http://www.calibertackle.co.uk I'd hasten to add that I have no connection with the new owners, and in fact don't even know them. However, I've heard nothing bad about them whatsoever.

[Steve Burke]

Thanks, Newt, interesting reply.

 

Is chumming allowed in your area? If so, have you tried it?

[DMCA]

With regard to coloured water, I've fished in (freshwater) tropical Australia where the water was the colour of mud. You couldn't see into it at all(which is a bit alarming considering some of the nasties that lurk within).

Nevertheless the main method used appears to be lure fishing (tho they also regularly use live fish baits and yabbies, which are a sort of crayfish) AND they seem to attribute preferences for lure colour to the fish: when I was there one pastelly pink and light blue lure that looked decidedly camp and was known consequently as an Elton (!) was in favour.

The main target is Barramundi, which are some form of perch (at least I think they are) though with a highly reflective eye like that of the zander, which must go some way to explaining this. They catch other fish on lures, though, including catfish (which they hate), in these conditions.

As for perch here, I can't come close to the experience of someone like Steve, but all my bigger ones (2lb+) have come to lures (mainly cos I don't fish much else for them) and almost all of these to lures of 3 or more inches long, often much bigger.

Finally (yes sorry going on a bit here), glad to hear Wonder Wire is still available since it's all I've used for several years and it's great stuff and I'm running out.

 

cheers

[Restless Oblivion]

Caliber, still avalible, oh yes, thats cheered me up no end, i was told that it wasnt avalible anymore, i ve been looking everywhere for a replacement, and cant find a suitable one, thats great news, cos im running very low!