The Autumn Perch Thread

[Vagabond]

Dave - you've been fishing for perch since before most of us were nippers, and you're asking us?

Yep, I asked the question of myself, and got two different answers !

[Rusty]

Question Do I give up this location as a bad job, or do I persist ? The known best perch was 2-15 in 2007, since when there has been nothing reported over 2 lb. However, it does not seem to have been fished for perch recently, so I thought it possible a new cohort of bigger fish might be coming through.

 

Well, I'll venture an opinion. Based on my Kennet and K&A Canal experiences if larger perch were present in that location you'd have caught one by now. On my club waters once you've located them they tend to be quite predictable and the larger fish (if they're present) will fall to a lobworm just as the tiddlers do. You do get the odd transient biggy but generally they stick around their favourite areas.

 

I'd try another spot.

[JV44]

we have just got back from a fortnight on the Thames and I took the yak out most days lure fishing or drifting down river with lives keeping the float right up against the trees etc and both proved great for numbers but not size sadly ,the thing is it was nearly always first drift across a pool /along trees etc that produced a take and in the past the number of times that a move of spot and anchor up drop in bait and away esp with the Big Perch so agree with Rusty if they are there perch esp seem to gobble down the lure /bait very quickly ....hope you get a big bristling angry who wants some them Perch

[Steve Walker]

the thing is it was nearly always first drift across a pool /along trees etc that produced a take and in the past the number of times that a move of spot and anchor up drop in bait and away esp with the Big Perch so agree with Rusty if they are there perch esp seem to gobble down the lure /bait very quickly

Yes, I've had that too. Usually the better fish and too often lost because I wasn't expecting it!

 

There are days when they just aren't having it and all you can scrape is a few tiddlers, though. Whether they are there and not feeding or ripping up the river somewhere else, who knows!

[Vagabond]

Points noted, but all of you are talking about rivers/canals. The water I am fishing is in effect a large farm pond (large pond, not large farm) About three years ago I set myself a target of 2lb-plus perch from as many local ponds as possible. Have succeeded at three of the ponds - this is the fourth, so I am reluctant to give up too easily.

 

Before moving on to another water, I will try some different swims, although I have been fishing two swims that are deep close to a bank (in one case its an island bank) and the other swims are shallower. I think at least two more sessions devoted to perch should be fished before I give up. Its a productive pond, stacks of small perch, gudgeon, roach to a pound and in the past I have had several tench over 5, so the potential is there. One nice feature - NO carp other than a few crucians !

[Anderoo]

On the rivers I'm familiar with, the big perch do seem to have their favoured areas. However, I have found that this doesn't mean that just because you know where they are, you will catch them. It may just be that I'm not fishing particularly well, but many times I've fished swims that I KNOW hold big perch in good conditions and blanked. I have mainly put this down to these rivers being food-rich, and on those occasions the perch being stuffed from the day before (I don't think they feed every day). Also, especially on the smaller rivers, I may have spooked them.

 

Another (I think) very important point is that on some waters the best swims and feeding times are not always as you'd expect. On a small stream I fished the feeding time was classic, the 20mins into dark. But the best swims were actually very shallow, not the deeper areas with lots of cover as you'd expect. On the upper Thames, open water is very effective, compared to the snag swims, and the middle of the day (in my experience) superior to dusk.

 

I have a lot less experience on small stillwaters so can't really help there. But based on the above, I wouldn't want to give up until I'd properly tried fishing everywhere at every time!

Edited September 23, 2014 by Anderoo

[Vagabond]

On small still waters I have found neither dawn nor dusk much good for perch. Best times seem around mid-morning in summer, late morning in autumn, and getting progressively later into winter, until by January it is about 2 to 3 pm. This holds for all waters where I have deliberately set out to catch decent-sized perch.

 

This seems against most of the received wisdom re perch feeding at dusk, but even on a large water such as Wingham, all my better perch seem to arrive mid-morning !

 

I have fished rivers at all times of day and night, but all the perch I can remember turned up in broad daylight.

 

Perhaps I am under some sort of curse, but either worms or deads fished at dusk generates either a blank, or an eel in a very short space of time.

[JV44]

On a small stream I fished the feeding time was classic, the 20mins into dark. But the best swims were actually very shallow, not the deeper areas with lots of cover as you'd expect Anderoo lost count of the number of times whilst launching a boat at the slipway at dawn that the launch would be delayed as livebaits were hastily caught amongst the Perch almost beaching themselves whilst chasing silvers up the slope ....caught many a good Perch like this often in a foot of water ...slpiways and shallow sloping banks at dawn on rivers can be banker bets...

On a small stream I fished the feeding time was classic, the 20mins into dark. But the best swims were actually very shallow, not the deeper areas with lots of cover as you'd expect Anderoo lost count of the number of times whilst launching a boat at the slipway at dawn that the launch would be delayed as livebaits were hastily caught amongst the Perch almost beaching themselves whilst chasing silvers up the slope ....caught many a good Perch like this often in a foot of water ...slpiways and shallow sloping banks at dawn on rivers can be banker bets...

[Vagabond]

. But the best swims were actually very shallow, not the deeper areas with lots of cover as you'd expect. On the upper Thames, open water is very effective, compared to the snag swims, and the middle of the day (in my experience) superior to dusk.

 

 

Yes, for years I subscribed to the view "Perch like cover" because close to cover is where you often catch perch.

 

It was not until I started to sight-fish for and catch the 3-pounders in the clear waters at Deerdrink that I realised what the real situation is.

 

It is the Perch's prey that likes cover. Big bushes grow along the dam, lots of roots trail in the water, which is about 7 feet deep at the dam wall. Fishing on the bottom close to the wall generates tiddlers at a bite a chuck - must be stiff with tiddlers down there. (mainly tiny perch and gudgeon). Freeline these as bait a few feet out, at about two-thirds depth, and watch the bait. I clove hitch half a matchstick to the line about two feet from the bait, so I can easily see where the bait is, (you lose sight of the bait at about five feet depth) and stop it swimming into roots. The big perch come in fast from the open water, and the first thing they do after seizing the bait is to take it into open water to turn it. Otherwise the prey fish dive for the nearest roots as soon as the perch lets go. Have watched this scenario happen several times - and seen the big perch go for fish other than my bait.

 

ie Perch don't "ambush" their prey from cover, they come raiding into cover for it.

 

So it still makes sense to fish for perch close to cover, but not for the "traditional" reason ! Perhaps modify that, and fish between the open water and the cover.

 

Interpreting your experience, Andrew, I would say the perch can hardly believe its luck in encountering prey in open water - and perhaps dusk is the only time the prey venture onto the shallows

 

,,,and I am sure you are right in that big perch don't feed every day, they usually only feed on the days I'm not fishing.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Vagabond

[Steve Walker]

All that lovely classic illustrative artwork, wrong?