Last season's perch fishing

[Anderoo]

I had a terrible season for perch - one fish over 2lb, and it wasn't through lack of effort . It was my biggest from the Thames and a lovely fish, but compared to the season before it was not good. Other people I've spoken to have said the same. There were the floods of course, and perhaps they moved the fish about making location tricky, but people as far away as Norfolk have also struggled - and there weren't any floods there.

 

There have been some huge perch caught from the tidal Thames and the usual bit of the Ouse, but in general it seems to have been a real struggle. Has anyone else found this? Any ideas why? The main reason I'm asking is so I can try to work out if the big perch I was catching the previous season have been washed away or if it was just a bad year for perch fishing and I shouldn't worry about it too much!

 

(And the perch in gravel pits can't have been washed away...)

[DavyR]

I've had my best season ever for perch - my previous best was just on 2lb and this season I've had fish of 2lb 4oz, 2lb 8oz, and 2lb 12oz. I 'm ashamed to say that the biggest one took a piece of popped-up fake plastic corn (for reasons best known to itself)!

 

These were all from a local stillwater, though - I haven't had a single perch (of any size) from a river this season.

[kleinboet]

I have had my best season as well!! My best day, I caught 19 Perch - not one of them under 1.5lb!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Just didnt fish for them like I normally do this season.Lots of reasons but not due to not wanting to!

Edited March 26, 2008 by BUDGIE

[highseas]

i have had a realy poor year for perch compared to last year wher i had a 2lb5 3 lb 10 AND a 5lb 9oz monster

[Kappa]

The swim where you had your 2lb had not been producing all that well for a number of years yet this year I had a truly unbelievable session there including a new pb! Unfortunately due to the poor weather the conditions were only "right" once.

 

I can't speak for other rivers or areas but for most of the year I didn't bother going perching as the river condtions were too poor.

 

Rich

[Dick Dastardly]

I suppose I shouild have given the Thames a go for the Perch thisa year with fishing it and all but was to bust trying to suss the piking out.It was nice fishing a new venue. Whats the perching like on the river in the Kingston area?

[dant]

Nope. I had a shocker too.

 

Fortunately, and unfortunately for my vanity I havn't really got the flooding to blame. Infact give or take the odd weekend Norfolk and Suffolks upper rivers had some of the best water conditions and levels I've seen for years, there was plenty of rain but not enough to do any damage.

 

I think the buck stops fairly and squarely at me with regards to the lack of good Perch this year for a number of reasons. Firstly I ignored stillwaters that I know contain Big Perch, ignored the Norfolk Broads and then 'squeezed' Perch fishing sessions inbetween concentrated periods of Chub fishing when the conditions probably weren't right. I've had half a dozen fish over 2lb's this year, all on the same afternoon from the same length of river that I fished for them all season. I've been drawn back to this paticular stretch as the Perch seen to form a bigger shoal than elsewhere and the capitanos of the shoal are three or four real brutes that have defied my hook for about 4 or 5 years since I first spotted them.

 

I think that if you want to stack the odds in your favour with 'consistent' bigger Perch fishing on the rivers it's hard to do so with off the cuff sessions, quite a bit more thought and planning has to go in and thats why I reckon I've had a poorer year than the last two or three.

 

Without wanting to open the 'to wire or not to wire' debate, I think my catches did tail off a little when the river ran clearer when using wire. On one occasion in early September I spotted a smallish shoal of Perch in the steady water at the back end of a weirpool approch my Gudgeon livebait under light wire very circumspectly often shying away at the last minute, yet attacked with panache the same bait under straight 5lb mono.

 

It's hard to judge whether it was a poor year for Perch over this way and on the Broads as nobody really seems to fish for them specifically, there were fish of between 4lb's and 5 taken from the River Bure near Wroxham but they were nearly all on Pike lures which seems to be the way most of the big Perch round here are caught, by chance.

 

I think for next year I'm going to broaden my horizons both locally and nationally put a bit more planning in and see how it goes. Tricky buggers these Perch.

Edited March 26, 2008 by dant

[Chris Plumb]

It felt like a leaner perch winter for me too - mainly as I only had 1, 3lb+ fish. So I've gone through my diaries for the last 4 seasons to draw some comparisons - as follows:

 

07/08 Season

3lb+ 1

2lb+ 15

1lb+ 19

35 from 16 sessions.

 

06/07 Season

3lb+ 6

2lb+ 19

1lb+ 36

61 from 18 sessions

 

05/06 Season

3lb+ 7

2lb+ 24

1lb+ 19

50 from 19 sessions

 

04/05 Season

3lb+ 4

2lb+ 24

1lb+ 21

49 from 16 sessions

 

The above only includes river/canal trips after Sep. and somewhat confirms my suspicions that the big stripeys were harder to find this winter!

 

C.

 

(Sits back and waits for the 1st ANer to call him an Anorak! )

Edited March 26, 2008 by Chris Plumb

[garyagreen]

still got 6 days of the season left over here on the rivers i fish had some good fish biggest 1.9 killo and 7at 1.8 but none of the woppers i had the year before but i am very happy with what i have caught best haul was fourteen fish all over a killo 3at 1.8 killo a reel red letter day .

 

tight lines gary