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Perch fishing


PerchMan

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Or better still a 4 to 6 inch livebait (perch is good)

 

I know what Andy means though Emma. On many waters around here, livies just didn't seem to work. You could try minnows, stickles, wee perch...anything and it didn't get much of a response, while lobs generally always did. It just so happens that most of the more productive waters that I've shown Andy, perch-wise, are very much like this. I do know what you mean though. I've had plenty of experience on other waters where livies are absolurtely deadly.

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Of course Andy, and for most of my bait fishing, for a variety of reasons, lobs are used as a first choice, but I believe that livebaits, and relatively large ones seem to be often overlooked by those who are after the very best stripeys.

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Personally I do sometimes use lives, a bit reluctantly, and quite understand why some would not use them at all on reasons of principle or practicality. There's no getting away from their effectiveness, though. There are waters where the club rules stop me using them (including the kind of water we're talking about here) where they would otherwise be absolutely the obvious tactic to use. One club water has a no livebaiting rule, no hooks larger than a 12, no fish to be killed. You would have to take your deads with you and then possibly argue the toss with the bailiff about whether a dead gudgeon contravenes the club rule about moving fish between waters. They could really just have one rule for that lake, "conventional match fishing tactics only".

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Emma, nice to see you again. I was actually wondering the other day where you went to ?

 

I suppose if I were fishing a water that didn't hold pike or very little pike the live baits would work much better for the perch but anywhere else is just asking for jack after jack after jack :rolleyes:

 

On the canal oddly a twitched lob has never produced a pike for me but does throw up perch, where a live bait would get me pike every damn time and i mean minutes after casting in some cases.

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I often end up with the odd pike on worms as well ! On the big natural lakes in my own area things seem to be different to some parts of the UK where the perch is seen as a Winter quarry. Here the perch seem to be prolific during the early Summer through until about the end of September, but fishing for them through the Winter doesn't seem productive? Wonder if it's the same in the big lochs in Scotland? Small lures and worms seem to account for perch of all sizes in my fishing.

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Yes Rich, we probably fish the same waters, right now is perch time, big time (I don't use the 'season' tag that some place on fish at different times of year)

I have never caught a perch (locally) from october until march and don't know anyone who has. Piking can be very difficult too, although I stuck it out and caught a few during the cold months, even one on Boxing day on a savage gear eel fished ever so slowly (thanks for that tip Andy M).

"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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I suppose if I were fishing a water that didn't hold pike or very little pike the live baits would work much better for the perch but anywhere else is just asking for jack after jack after jack :rolleyes:

 

.

I don't mind carching a few jacks when after big stripeys, I use wire traces and single hooks (barbed 1/0 2/0), the majority of thr jacks are unhooked in the water. Sometimes the ratio is more pike than perch, but thats ok for me. One evening 7 until dark last week we (2 of us) had 7 'jacks' two of which were pushing double figures and 4 stripeys between 3 and 4 lbs, (2 of them in 18 inches of still sunlit water) we are getting so we don't weigh perch unless we recon then to be 'fives'.

Significanty there were no smaller stripeys caught, just the four good ones (not counting the bait)

For genuine big perch it works,

"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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Yes Rich, we probably fish the same waters, right now is perch time, big time (I don't use the 'season' tag that some place on fish at different times of year)

I have never caught a perch (locally) from october until march and don't know anyone who has. Piking can be very difficult too, although I stuck it out and caught a few during the cold months, even one on Boxing day on a savage gear eel fished ever so slowly (thanks for that tip Andy M).

 

I've noticed over the years they seem to form big shoals comprised of mainly run of the mill sized fish during the late Summer / early Autumn, when they are often seen on the surface on calm days feeding on fry like mackerel do, sometimes well out in the lake. I've had them pass below the boat just below the surface and there seem to be scores of them in the shoals. They must move out into the deeper water for the colder months into specific areas along with the bigger specimens?

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I have never caught a perch (locally) from october until march and don't know anyone who has

My experience of big Northern and Scottish lakes also. I have spent a quite a bit of time in early spring trolling lures/fish baits of various sizes for ferox. The occasional pike, the even less frequent ferox, but never a perch before mid-April, and that's in places like Loch Awe that are stiff with perch in summer.

 

Obviously the perch are in deeper water in winter, beyond casting range from the bank, and boat fishing on big lochs in winter is rarely practiced - lack of boats for charter, extreme weather conditions, etc etc. I suppose someone with their own boat and determined enough (no, not me) could eventually locate them, but in addition to being in deep water, winter perch could behave like charr and hunt at various depths and hence be doubly difficult to locate - it took a lot of trial and error before a charr and my lure arrived at the same location and depth at the same instant.

 

That's assuming loch perch feed during the winter months - but it seems unlikely that they reach 4 to 5 pounds by abstaining from food from October to March every year.

 

I think our two Andies fish mainly from the shore - do we have any Scottish members that fish from boats often? PerchMan - any thoughts ? Do you fish big lochs ?

 

 

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I fish our lakes from both shore and boat, the geography of them means that if you know the depths then sometimes deep water can be cast into from the shore (big drop offs). We have located (fish finder) quite large concentrations of fish at depths from the boat in winter and have tried to present baits amongst them. Of course the fish finders don't indicate the species, well mine doesn't anyway. They could be roach which are present in susbstantial numbers, working on the premise that sometimes we locate perch we try to offer all the perchy type baits we can, however for the last 50 years it has proven fruitless and I really don't expect to crack the problem in the fishing years I have left. So for me high summer will always be stripey time. I was out last night until dark from the shore spinning and lure fishing water ranging from 3 to 30 feet, I took two pike and half a dozen perch, only up to a pound or so, and all the fish were found in the shallower water, I think that the perch were close in hammering fry and the pike had been basking in the warm water. a walk near to reed beds with result in lots of bow waves as pike sometimes in only a few inches of water are disturbed.

 

I have fished loch Awe too, in the summertime and taken a perch a chuck on floatfished worms and spinners. I really don't fancy trekking up there in winter, there are waters closer to home to blank in :(

Edited by Emma two
"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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