Recommendations for trotting

[fruitloopy]

I went trotting with my centrepin for the first time Tuesday night on the River Nene in Peterborough. While walking along almost every spot on the bank was littered with disposable BBQ's, night lights and beer/vodka bottles with strange Polish type words and lettering...not that I want to stereotype any particular nation!

 

Anyway, I was intending to trot with a worm for a nice big Perch, my PB on perch is still under a pound and I would love to catch a 2lb+. I've been reading around and will be putting some of Steve Burke's suggestions to good use soon.

 

I intended to trot a worm under some tree's and had varying success, catching a PB Dace at about 8oz's and a tiny Perch. I had problems with getting the line out from the reel and keeping the float moving. Also I couldnt have more than 1 AAA shot down the line because with this and the weight of the worm it sank. I was also having to pay line off the reel and shake it out of the eye's of the rod to pay out line.

 

I am thinking that the bigger the body of the float means more shot down the line and will help to pull the line off the reel better...is this right? The Nene doesnt have a fast flow anyway, and Tuesday night was faster than usual because of all the marvelous rain we had that morning.

 

If this is true can anyone recommend some good floats to purchase? Would I be better of making my own?

 

Thanks.

[Anderoo]

Yes, a bigger float will take more weight to cock it and should also help pull line off a pin, although a freely spinning pin should pay off line with small floats too.

 

The best type of floats for perch in running water are either grayling floats or chubbers.

 

Grayling float:

 

 

Chubber:

 

 

Attach them top and bottom with float rubbers. They take a fair amount of shot (especially the chubbers) and are good with big baits like lobs. I have a favourite lucky grayling float I use for river perching, I'd be devastated if I ever lost it! You can make your own, I've seen some beautiful floats made and used by Richard Capper and Goosequill. I've never had a go myself though.

 

Perch like to be just off the flow and under or near to cover. Big perch can be so infuriating at times, with very short, sharp feeding spells, usually at dawn (spring/summer) and dusk (autumn/winter). The picture below is my lucky float in an absolute banker of a swim, a good depth of water, cover, slack water just off the flow - I still haven't caught a perch from there In fact my perch fishing last season was so bad I didn't catch a perch from that stream all year...!

 

 

 

Wow, it's nice to talk about perch again!

 

Good luck, and well done on the dace by the way, that's a belter.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Anderoo

[fruitloopy]

Thanks Anderoo, and thats a lovely spot...very similar to the weedy spots I was letting my float drift to. I fully expected even small Perch under it as it was a nice dark, weedy spot of of the main flow under some overhanging trees. I caught my Dace there so I could only assume that Dace arent gonna hang around the same spot if Perch are there.

 

I'll nip out to the tackle shop later and have a look for some of your recommendations.

 

Oh, and a small confession. I remebered that the anal fin of the fish I caught was convex but I couldnt remember if this meant Chud or Dace. I now know its a Chub.

Nevermind, I still enjoyed catching the little fella!

[Guest tigger]

Recently I've had some great sessions on my local river catching lots of decent sized Perch (1 1/2 lb) trotting from a single red or white maggot to trotting 10 + maggots mixed red and white. I recently broke my favourite float but was fortunate to find Fosters of Birmingham have them. If you phoned them up and asked for a full se of Steve Mahers floats you'd be very happy with them. There only £1.50 each and the post is £2.50 for one float or 20. They really are the best floats I've found or used.