Tageting perch

[noodle996]

I agree barbless hooks for perch are not the est option they have a very thin easliy damaged membrane in their mouth (this heals very quickly so dont worry) barbless hooks especially the thinner wire one will tear and pull very easily not to mention they penetrate deeper than barbed hooks. if your worried abot un hooking try snipping two points of the treble on your spinners they still hook as well dont worry.

Oh rublex are also one of the best pike spinners you will ever buy.

[Andy_1984]

so when you off to devon then, would like to hear how you get on. and get some pics

[ndeezy]

so when you off to devon then, would like to hear how you get on. and get some pics

 

I'm off at the weekend, to be honest I only expect to get in a few hours fishing but may get up early in order to secure this! Will take a camera and pray I don't blank. Will set up one rod for perch, one for rudd, assuming they're about.

[Neil G]

Good luck with your quest for the Perch

 

My advice if there are pike present is pretty similar to the above....don't skimp on the gear (use trace and a strong rod & mainline) and take all the unhooking equipment you'll need for pike just incase as cutting lines and leaving hooks in pike is a definate no no.

 

If you are lure fishing the good thing is that deep hooking pike is no that likely to happen...often the lure is outside the mouth and easy to remove, especially if you flatten the barbs.

Edited June 1, 2007 by Neil G

[bingo]

You can quickly and easily crush down the barbs on the lure hooks. It may cause an occasional lost fish that barbs would have held (although very few if you keep tension on the line) but it does not affect lure action and surely makes unhooking much easier.

 

 

I agree. I do this with all my lures and spinners etc. I know there is an argument that barbed can cause less damage (due to lack of movement in the fish's mouth) but barbless hooks are so much easier to and quicker to deal with.

 

There is also the added bonus of not getting lures snagged on bankside vegetation or your trousers!

[danj84]

This is not always the case but if you use a smaller spinner, or smaller deadbait / tail section it reduces the probability of catching the larger pike. It is still likely that you will catch pike, jacks etc, so if you definately dont want to catch any pike opt for worm.

 

A deadbait tail section may also account for eels!

[Neil G]

Deadbaits definately account for eels...had loads of problems with them last weekend when fishing for the pike.

[Steve Burke]

I know that you'll by now have left for your trip but hope that you can get online whilst you're away. In any event this may help others.

 

Firstly perch behave differently in different waters. Tactics that work well on one water may be next to useless elsewhere. That for me is one of the attractions of perch fishing! It does mean though that you may need to experiment.

 

If pike are present you can of course minimise catching them by using baits that they're less likely to pick up - for instance maggots. However you'll probably catch other species, and these may or may not be welcome.

 

Worms are another good bet, but especially at this time of year they'll catch you pike, and not always jacks! In fact, I've often written that if I were fishing a pike match my first choice of method would be sink and draw lobworm!

 

Livebaits and freshwater deadbaits are very effective for perch, especially on coloured waters. On clearer waters I find worms often work better, although I haven't yet fathomed out why.

 

Lures too work best in clear water. It's impossible to give any advice on which specific lures to try without knowing the depth of the water. This is because many lures (be they spinner, spoon, plug or whatever) are designed to work in a specific depth range. Outside of their optimum depth range they'll be way inferior to other lures.

 

If using lures and pike are present you'll of course normally have to use a wire trace. The only exception for me is fishing with lures such as jigs (very effective for perch) that have just one single hook. In my experience pike can very quickly get rid of these - which is just as well as you'll catch more perch with these smaller lures if you dispense with a wire trace.

 

With baits I only ever use one single hook when perching and so again dispense with a wire trace. Experiments I've done show that the use of a wire trace dramatically cuts down on the number of perch, particularly bigger ones. I'm not saying of course you'll never catch perch with a wire trace, but it's probably the main reason why so few specimen stripies get caught on livebaits by pike anglers.

 

Location is of course of great importance, and here I’ve found that light intensity is the most important factor. Perch have better eyesight than any other coarse fish except zander and thus hunt best when they’ve got the maximum advantage over their poorer-sighted prey. This is in dim light.

 

The dim light may be in the shadow of jetties or overhanging trees; it may simply be in deep water. But as a general rule, the brighter the underwater light the deeper or closer to cover any feeding perch are likely to be.

 

Dusk is an excellent time in winter, whilst at this time of year dawn can be even better. However you’ll very rarely catch perch in full darkness as even they can’t see to hunt then.

 

Turning to rigs, the main thing to realise is that perch hate resistance. For this reason I always prefer to float fish whenever practical. If I’m legering I’ll use a running rig in conjunction with a heavy lead (1½ozs+).

 

Good luck with your trip! We’ll be interested to hear how you got on.

Edited June 5, 2007 by Steve Burke

[ndeezy]

Well, despite all the advice, I only went once and blanked in fine style. No evidence of any fish whatsover but it was a blazing hot day, too hot for fishing. I really should've gone in the evening and fished until nightfall but would've put noses out of joint. However, a nice day by the Ley and got a tan. I will take all the advice and use elsewhere. Roll on the 16th.