Perch Deadbaits

[Rob Ward]

Some good Fish there Emma.

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes cracking Perch Emma. Allthough must admit I was a bit distracted by the "background" in the bottom photo! So has the Lakes had a big increase in average perch size over the past decade like the rest of the country has?

Edited January 13, 2012 by BUDGIE

[Steve Burke]

Rob, my experience is that freshly-killed deadbaits are far more effective for perch. Even freezing overnight makes a big difference.

 

I've never used trout for perch but I'd guess if you killed them just before arrival they'd probably work. I say just before arrival as the management may not take too kindly to live trout being brought on site.

 

BTW, on every water I've tried them seabaits have been next to useless for perch. This isn't for want of trying as I've used whitebait and sprats all year on several waters when after stillwater chub and not caught a single perch. I've caught the (very) odd perch on static seabaits elsewhere, and a few on wobbled sprats. I don't deny that there's probably the odd water where they are effective, but I haven't found one myself and as many will know I do a lot of perch fishing.

 

It may be that perch don't like the taste of seabaits. Alternatively it may be that the seabaits aren't fresh enough.

 

Which brings us nicely back to the beginning of the post!

[Steve Burke]

Steve Burke did some experimenting with Wire for Perch perhaps he could comment if he looks in.

 

Many years ago I did some controlled experiments with wire on deadbaits and livebaits and came to the conclusion, on that water at least, wire made a significant difference to the number of perch caught.

 

As Budgie and I have pointed out before, when you consider how much piking is done pike anglers very rarely catch perch on livebaits or freshwater deadbaits (perch don't seem to like sea baits). It's certainly not just the size of the baits as specimen stripies have huge mouths for their size and can readily swallow the typical 6 inch bait.

 

Wire also seems to make a difference when using lightweight lures like jigs. This is even on waters that are rarely fished. For instance I well remember Leon and I teaching a youngster at Wingham. I'd almost never used jigs there before (and I didn't allow members to lure fish either at that time), but the perch very quickly learned to avoid jigs if attached to wire. A switch back to a nylon trace and we started catching them again.

 

Of course you can catch perch on wire, but my feeling is that on most waters (especially anything but the most lightly fished) you'll likely catch more without.

 

However I can only speak about the waters I fish. One of the great things about forums is that we can compare results on different waters, and Emma's results speak for themselves. Her perch are big by any standards, and are real specimens indeed for her area.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Steve Burke

[danny2391]

Emma have the big lakes seem the massive increase in Perch sizes that the rest of the country seems to have done in recent years as well then?

 

 

You could be on to something there as the perch fishing on my local water has over the last couple of years seemed to have produced bigger fish, but again in the winter seem to disappear!!

[Steve Burke]

Rob,

 

You know I am a carp guy. Please don't take offense for I am reaching for a smile not something to displease you. You are beginning to sound like a British carp angler. They (my Brit carp pals) assert, without proof, English carp are the smartest fish in the world. The smartest fish actually just may be English Perch. You say perch take ""time to check the bait out or if it picks it up and smells a rat to reject it"". That requires making a pretty sohpisticated intellectual 'either/or' decisions. Pretty smart perch. Carp can't do that, they're just fish.

 

Phone

 

In my experience specimen perch as opposed to small ones wise up to rigs quicker than any species I've fished for - including carp. Certainly there's no comparison between perch and pike, the latter perhaps being the dumbest in this respect. In fact pike are probably as dumb as small perch, and that's saying something!

 

For some reason perch totally change when they grow big, and are almost a different species. The only thing I can think off is that specimen stripies are more inclined to be in small groups or even solitary, so are in less competition with other shoal members. This is only a guess though and I don't really know.

 

Thank goodness though that perch, unlike carp, seem to have short memories. Otherwise they'd be almost impossible!

Edited January 13, 2012 by Steve Burke

[Steve Burke]

In reply to the point about wire and whether to use it when perching, for me it depends on whether I'm using a single hook or not. This is always the case whenever I'm using bait.

 

With a single hook I'm happy to dispense with the wire on the vast majority of occasions. This is because I've found that pike very quickly get rid of a single hook. For instance, I once hooked the same pike 3 times in an afternoon (it was easily recognisable by a growth under its chin). I landed it on the third attempt, but there was no sign of the other hooks.

 

For those who say we should always use wire when pike are present I'd ask do you do so every time you use worm as a bait for other species such as tench or roach? After all worms are one of the best pike baits going - in fact the pike with the growth took a worm intended for perch. Indeed, I've often written that if I were to fish a pike match my first tactic would be sink and draw worm!

Edited January 13, 2012 by Steve Burke

[danny2391]

 

 

Nice perch there Emma I think we both know this place don’t worry the secrets safe with me lol

[Rob Ward]

Thanks for the replies, Steve!

[Emma two]

Yes cracking Perch Emma. Allthough must admit I was a bit distracted by the "background" in the bottom photo! So has the Lakes had a big increase in average perch size over the past decade like the rest of the country has?

 

 

AH so you noticed the army Norwegian containers in the bottom of the boat, an they took you back to your green days eh?

 

Yes we seem to be enjoying big(er) stripeys....5lber this year parhaps?...its on the cards anyway

Edited January 13, 2012 by Emma two