How big is to big for perch?

[lozza]

Ive been doing a bit of perch fishing recently with good resualts however I am sure there are bigger fish around. ive mainly been useing live baits around 3oz and catching fish up to 3lb. But in the last couple of sessions ive had perch of around a pound takan on the way in by bigger pearch how big would a perch be,to eat another 1lb perch. And with out useing another perch for bait what would you use? Has this happaned to any of you guys? Cheers

[Adam247]

Ive been doing a bit of perch fishing recently with good resualts however I am sure there are bigger fish around. ive mainly been useing live baits around 3oz and catching fish up to 3lb. But in the last couple of sessions ive had perch of around a pound takan on the way in by bigger pearch how big would a perch be,to eat another 1lb perch. And with out useing another perch for bait what would you use? Has this happaned to any of you guys? Cheers

increase the size of you live/dead bait or use a spinner or spoon to lure out the bigger ones , i hav emade up a ground bait mix of blended up worms with maggots and casters and soil , makes a good slop and then makes any perch in the area go mental for any bait they can get , so if you was to use worm you may get a bigger perch or not give it a go , i also add a small amount of ground bait to attract smaller silver fish into the swim bringing in more perch i have found , but not had a bigger perch take a smaller on , not yet any way

 

Edit may not be perch could be pike ?...

Edited October 8, 2011 by Adam247

[Tigger]

Ive been doing a bit of perch fishing recently with good resualts however I am sure there are bigger fish around. ive mainly been useing live baits around 3oz and catching fish up to 3lb. But in the last couple of sessions ive had perch of around a pound takan on the way in by bigger pearch how big would a perch be,to eat another 1lb perch. And with out useing another perch for bait what would you use? Has this happaned to any of you guys? Cheers

 

 

What !!!......I don't think there's a perch swimming capable of swallowing another perch of 1 lb.

[Emma two]

What !!!......I don't think there's a perch swimming capable of swallowing another perch of 1 lb.

 

 

That's what I would have thought too, perhaps someone will provide eveidence that they can?

 

Perhaps it's not big perch who are taking the'pounders' on the way in?

[watatoad]

What !!!......I don't think there's a perch swimming capable of swallowing another perch of 1 lb.

 

 

That's what I would have thought too, perhaps someone will provide eveidence that they can?

 

Perhaps it's not big perch who are taking the'pounders' on the way in?

 

Maybe someone has secretly introduced a few hundred Nile Perch...Now if they could just survive the winter...Hmmm

[Vagabond]

What !!!......I don't think there's a perch swimming capable of swallowing another perch of 1 lb.

 

Well, one would have thought so............but.....a couple of years ago I was fishing a water where I know you have fished.... hooked a perch on lobworm, was reeling it in. Then....wham ! ...and for a few seconds there was a very respectable bend in the rod.......then....Gone! I then wound in this very frightened-looking perch

 

1. Now, I didn't weigh this perch so you will have to judge its size by the (large) pair of forceps. I think it is less than a pound, but not by much.

 

2, There are pike in the water, but that wound doesn't look as if it was made by a pike - it is typical of the "skinning" effect produced on fish baits by perch

 

3. ... and whatever it was didn't actually swallow the bait, merely tried to swallow it. If it had swallowed it maybe I would be able to show a far more dramatic picture.

 

Now you know as much as I do and must make up your own minds. All I can say is that I now fish this water primarily in the hope of a huge perch. I have had perch (elsewhere) to 4 lb, and more than once have had a perch in excess of 2 lb followed in by far bigger fish - I just wish I had had a glance at whatever inflicted this damage.

 

 

Later. Have just measured the forceps. When shut as in the photo, 2.9" across the handles - so that makes the perch just over 12"

 

My weight against length charts for perch show that a perch in average condition (which this is) of 13" should weigh about a pound - so as I said above, less than a pound, but not by much.

Edited October 9, 2011 by Vagabond

[Emma two]

Perhaps perch will attack what appear to be proportionately large prey, even if not capable of (easily) swallowing them. The distress signals (like a fish being reeled in)being enough to trigger an assault?

 

See below a tiny stripey which had a go at my surface lure at dusk one evening last year. look at its proportions in relation to the lure in the context of this discussion.

 

Edited October 9, 2011 by Emma two

[Steve Walker]

Eyes-bigger-than-belly optimism, or maybe just aggression?

[Vagabond]

Eyes-bigger-than-belly optimism, or maybe just aggression?

Maybe, as the late Dave Marlborough commented on catching a 4" trout on a spinner "I'm not sure if the motive was hunger, rape or get-off-my-patch"

 

Certainly the intention of the large perch that will follow a hooked 2 lb plus perch can't be that they hope to eat it. Maybe its more like "What's she got there ? Can I frighten her off it ?"

 

A bit like the way a Greater Black-backed Gull will try to bully a Herring Gull into giving up its meal.

[Vagabond]

look at its proportions in relation to the lure in the context of this discussion.

 

It would be more meaningful to look at the size of the bite-mark on the perch under discussion - it's over 2.5" wide.

Edited October 9, 2011 by Vagabond