I love it when a plan comes together

[BoozleBear]

Nice one mate. Very jealous!

[HOPPY4]

Richard, Well DONE! I miss fishing for them while I am here! Way to GOOOOOOO!

 

HOPPY4

[Kappa]

I'll wait until I can fish the hotspot again and will let you know

 

Well I went back again today with Anderoo. Typical of Anderoo's luck this season (he was too ill to come along on the red letter day) the heavy rain on Christmas eve had left the Thames a foot higher and muddy brown, conditions didn't look good.

 

The water was much too muddy for lives so we tried worm which I’ve never had all that much success with. We fished half heartedly for a little while whilst we discussed alternative venues, then just as we had almost decided to leave Anderoo's float wandered off with a very long but lean perch of 1lb 15oz the result.

 

More perseverance and patience from Anderoo ended up with a short but fat fish of 2lb 10oz. Again the fish were really good condition and lovely looking.

 

Hopefully Anderoo will post the pics of his fish next week!

 

Rich

[Steve Burke]

Richard, could you not catch any livebaits or did the coloured water put you off?

 

I'm confident of perch finding livebaits in such conditions. This is because they're better low light vision compared with their prey and can then best turn it to their advantage.

 

Indeed, on commercial carp waters that are often highly coloured I find livebaits are far more often than not superior to worms. On the other hand, on clear gravel pits I find it more often the other way around.

 

Of course each water responds differently, and I find this applies more to perch than any other species I've fished for. This to me is one of the factors that makes perch so interesting!

 

It's great though that you've found some big perch where pike aren't a confounded nuisance. On my local waters this was rare, and so why most of my river perch have fallen to worms.

[Anderoo]

Managed to borrow a laptop briefly!

 

Congrats to Rich again, an amazing session. That 3lber isn't far away Thanks for letting me have a bash, as I've said before, finding the fish in the first place is the hard bit. And what beautiful specimens they were too, stunning fish.

 

Steve, we tried lives but the only bites came to lobs. So I still haven't caught a big perch on a livebait!

 

I hope we have a chance to go back before having to go back to work...

[Kappa]

Hi Steve,

 

Catching the livebaits is not usually a problem. Its just seems the perch don't want to take them when there is colour in the water. Although Anderoo caught last time it was really hard going. I think they might well take a live particularly if it was anchored rather than allowed to roam. But for whatever reason if the water is muddy brown the fishing is very hard.

 

One explanation is that due to the turbid water they feel more confident to roam from their more obvious snaggy homes, making them harder to locate?

[thedogs]

I have been targeting perch for three winters now as an antidope to bass withdrewall. I started with a 2lb target that took months then I got a flurry of fish to 2lb 15oz. Then I got a 3lb 4oz and then on the 31/12/06 I got my pb of 3lb 9oz. My best this winter is 3lb 4oz with just a hand full of upper 2s so far.

Its a numbers game so be persistand and you should break your PB several times before 14th march. Good luck.

[thedogs]

First 2008 perch session yesterday afternoon, not brilliant though. Caught four fish 1lb 5oz, 1lb 8z, 1lb 7oz and 2lb 7oz. Three on live gudgion one to worm. I t was very cold best fish caught right on dusk.

[thedogs]

Caught five perch in a 2 hour session. four at around 1lb 8oz and the biggest at 2lb 9oz. All on kosha live rud!

[Steve Burke]

Nice perch fishing indeed!