Im sure we have all been told at one point that if you wanna catch lots and big perch you need to look at dusk and dawn and to an extent ive believed it however ive never really acted on it always starting my sessions early morning and fishing through the whole day. However ive had a good amount of time and sessions to really say that, dusk is where its at!! i have no experience fishing at dawn because i cant get up that early however dusk i can say with confident is the best time to go fishing! I have had about 6 sessions on the same lake now starting at 9am and ending at about 4pm. Throughout the day even when i fished a variety of different lakes i could not get a bite infact i think i out of all the sessions i landed maybe 5 perch in total. however when the light fell and the temp dropped the bait became alive! the perch were on it!
Now to find the shoal, my go to searching lures are jigs and Texas rigs, both can be fished a fairly faster speed helping to cover more ground and fish through more shoals. i had a few hits on jigs but no hook ups, i swapped to a Texas for a more gentle approach and managed to start banking fish. over the past 5-6 sessions ive landed what must be 10-15 perch just in dusk!
trust me, fish in dawn, go to work, then fish at dusk you will not be disapointed!
I saw the pressure and it just screamed perch! i grabbed my rod and went off to do a test that ive wanted to do for a long time, is the Ned rig really worth it!? is it as good as people say it is? So with the pressure low, spirits high, overcast weather and mild i got the z-mans hooked up and went to visit my favourite mark. Upon arrival i went to a boat which always has a steady shoal of perch below i, nothing big but to get the blank off the table was a brill thing. The pike were EVERYWHERE and didn’t show any signs of wanting to do pike things, so i lost about 4 lures to pike and throughout the day about 7 to snags. When the bite dried off on the z-mans i decided to change to a slick shad in young perch colour this was because id seen perch hitting bait on the surface and the bite rapidly increased, even tho the river was low the fish were on the feed hard! The day slowly got more and more annoying as kept getting bitten of and snagged but the ned rig was killing it as soon as i found the shoal id just wipe up taking what felt like the whole shoal one by one. I stuck to margins and slacks all day really as its very tidal and i cant get 7g to stick on the bottom however one mistake cast ended up seeing the z-man bugz getting crushed in the middle of the chanel by what felt like a solid fish, unfortunately there wasn’t much fight as the tide was pulling too hard when i got it into the net i saw its shoulders and realised this was a big girls child, hopefully shes out there, besides that this fish was already a pb! i don’t do too well on the perch aspect i cant get big ones to save my life but i managed to pull this one out and she was the end of the day on a lovely PB fish!
Welcome to another JT Carpers blog, this week we go over a short session myself and Jack had whilst away with our families for the bank holiday weekend last month.
So, as I was already on holiday with my family at Waldegraves Holiday Park on Mersea Island, Jack and his family joined us for the weekend, obviously with a few lakes on site, a small slot for fishing was bargained for and we were in our element.
So, on the Monday myself and Jack went up to the lakes at sunrise with the plan being that our wonderful partners would then bring food and children later in the day so we could all have a little family picnic whilst trying to entertain the kids with some fishing.
Our main target for the day was to use a whip to fish for the silver fish in the lake to try and keep the action as thick and fast as possible to keep the children’s attention on the fishing. With a few hours spare before they arrived, we decided to get some rods out for the carp whilst setting up the poles for later, clearly not for our own benefit of course.
With constant and real fun action on the whips we landed ourselves some lovely fish from Roach, Perch, a small cool looking Carp and finally the best of all, a brand-new P.B for myself in this absolute unit of a Gudgeon!
With this being my first ever Gudgeon I was actually very happy, obviously I love catching carp and fishing for them specifically but I just love fishing all round so a new species is always cool.
With the day continuing and us losing 3 carp on our carp rods (Honestly no idea what happened, these carp seem to be tricky!) we then hooked into a carp on the whip which unfortunately snapped the hook link straight away and really gave us some food for thought.
After another carp taking the whip for a bend and snapping off, we decided to ditch the whips and float fish for the carp instead on our other rods.
A short while later as we were packing up Jack was in on his newly configured float rod, a £1 rod he picked up some years ago was put to the test and luckily prevailed! We were introduced to this awesome little mirror carp and our only carp of the day.
So, that was the last fish of the day and Super Jack saved our blushes with the children once again by rescuing us with an awesome little carp, with plenty or laughs and memories made this is exactly what fishing is about!
So on this day, I took the heavier gear and some jerk baits around 10cm and smaller. I went to the clear part of the river it sits at about 2ft with deep holes of about 4ft chub central. I found a lot of shoals but being a bright day it’s difficult fishing and managed to get a lot of followers however no takes.
I stopped sight casting thinking that the fish were not gonna be in the shallows, one blind cast resulted in a fish within the first twitch of the lure. The fish was fighting like a chub but when it showed up it was a pike of maybe 3-4lb I landed it in my 30cm trout net which was a comedy show in itself. but finally got the tripod set up and a nice fish
After spending more time with it going extra quiet I decided to move to deeper darker more weeder sections of the river I found a particular bridge I had been looking for for a while I knew it was covered in perch so I just wanted to find a couple of perch to save a blank. I ended up with one first cast which came out as a nice fish.
For a while, now id had owned some NST green machine baby craws when I was learning about perch lure fishing after seeing a 4lb wild perch come up on them! now I have learnt more about finesse methods now and I can really put them through their paces.
On the first impression, I was super impressed the material felt very expensive strong but stretchy, they rigged super well onto a weedless hook. I cheb weighted these floating lures on a super slow retrieve twitching it across the bottom.
I lost a lot of these but that’s fishing they are defo worth throwing! upon the first cast, I caught a nice perch from the margins but unfortunately lost it playing with the go pro Grrr!
Then moved over to my honey hole very snaggy but worth every risk for the amount of perch. and in seconds the ninjas drag screaming with a nice fish on the end. awesome!
After this, it was getting late and the cheb wasn’t coping with the silly amounts of weed. I finally found another bridge where the weed stopped. the first cast I had a follow from a small chub and second cast I banged another very pretty perch.
On another day this perch came up when i was looking for new marks, this perch shot out of the margin when i casted into a shoal of chub.
If you are interested here is the video you can see how it did!
Last year I received a 7cm Salmo slider for Christmas after hearing this lure was a must-have for pike I decided to pick one up in real roach colour, and to say I’m impressed is an understatement!
As I have learnt more and progressed through my fishing I have come to realise that its also an outstanding big perch and chub lure! After starting freshwater fishing last October I have been determined to master the fresh and catch everything from dace to salmon. And this chapter is on chub.
I started the day by waking up at around 6:00 and got to the river at 7:00, the lure got a lot of attention from small fish and within 10 mins a follow from a big chub and not only big but my first! she took the lure and missed the hookup. Heartbroken. Anyway, after trying to find her again it proved unsuccessful so I carried on moving to what I like to call my honey hole. Every time I come here there is some sort of fish be it chub, dace, trout, perch there’s always something to save the blank. And that I very much did, a specimen perch showed its face and took a liking to the Salmo with a spectacular fight to put a massive grin on my face!
After this I spent the rest of the day trying to find another chub in the crystal clear urban setting, unfortunately, I spent most of the time pulling hooks out of my fingernail or net, what a pain. But I didn’t let it get me down I swiftly ripped the hook out and carried on fishing, after my repositioning proved unsuccessful I went back to where I got my follow hoping the fish had come back and was ready for another go. And there she was sat in the flow sunbathing I dropped my net and pitched a perfect cast to her face after the follow and a few twitches of the lures I felt it. BANG. Reel screaming, rod shaking adrenaline making me feel bulletproof, this was my first chub. As she neared the net I prayed she would stay hooked and everything came to plan.
I have recently been down to the river and noticed a massive population of chub and super big ones mixed in with the average size ones, due to the slider being 21g I cannot cast it with my UL set up but I will be picking up some rattling hornets and lighter Salmo crankbaits and getting some real fun on the chub, remember to check back in then!
Something different from me today, I go to try and get the grasps of lure/dropshot fishing for Perch. I have previously tried, and failed, although so far only have 2 lure caught fish to my name, a Pike and a Trout. So I’m not the most confident when it comes to lure fishing and the Perch has evaded me so far.
I was hoping to christen my Rigged & Ready Fish Rig 180 a super light rod ideal for Dropshot and lure fishing for Perch. This time, my dad decided to come along and give Dropshot for a few perch a go too. We headed down to the River Chelmer, a river with an abundance of Perch, or we were hoping for anyway! We focused on fishing structures where we thought likely for the Perch to be, bridges etc etc.
I started the day using a FFS INBE Creature Lure in Get Bit colour, really hoping I would get my first Lure Caught perch! The lure is only small, so it gave me a lot of confidence the little wasps would go for it. At the first bridge, the water was crystal clear and we could see a lot of Perch darting around, although a lot where close in just staring at where the wall met the water, possibly after larvae?
The first cast saw instant attraction, with a group of Perch following the lure through the water as I jigged it. However none of them seemed to keen? Maybe I had to tweak retrieve to spark interest? (If anyone can comment or message me tips It would be greatly appreciated as I am still learning this technique!) I went for quick bursts which seemed to really get the perch chasing the lure, a quick burst, then stop, drag, quick and repeat…BANG! First Perch had grabbed the lure! And was quickly lifted in!
My first lure caught Perch!
I was chuffed to get my first lure caught Perch! A lovely little wasp! This bridge struggled to provide much else for us, so we wandered down to the next, where again it wasn’t long before I managed to get another on the same Lure!
I started to struggle to keep enticing these Perch to take, so swapped over to using worms on the dropshot for the rest of the day, which certinaily gave me more fish, clearly it was a worm day, however the Perch still seemd pre-occupied (Any thoughts maybe?).
A lovely little wasp by the Rigged & Ready Fish Rig 180.
The Perch were coming quite quickly for us through most of the day, and we caught a lot of the smaller wasps just on sight fishing, which is great fun watching the Perch suck in the worm and lure! My dad managed a few Perch too, and even a little Pike which put up a good fight!
A few of the other Perch caught, and the Pike!
The best Perch of the day came as the water started to colour up, preharps the more coloured water on the upper chelmer starting to come through, or just the sheer amount of boats that had been going past us?
The best Perch came from the middle of the River under a bridge, and was on the retrieve, still on Dropshot and Worm. And put up a great scrap!
The best Perch of the day!
On our wanders up and down this lovely bit of River, we did also stumble across a rather large grass snake, which I couldn’t leave out of my blog!
Grass Snake
All in all, a good day, and really helped me build confidence on the Dropshot, hope to go out on the jig and catch a few more soon! Really got the bug of this type of fishing! I’ve always loved a Perch too!
Until next time, Tight Lines All…
Rigged & Ready Fish Rig 180: (If you interested in getting anything from Rigged & Ready use the following code for 10% off! ESSEX A+R&R)
I highly suggest checking both of these out! Tom @ FFS Lures is a great help and will take the time to answer questions and help you find what you need to get you catching!
Afternoon fellow anglers, I hope you all had a great Christmas and you were happy with the fishy bits you received as presents. So, its that time between Christmas and New Year’s. The Turkey has finally run out and looking forward to a lovely joint of roast beef on New Year’s Day.
I haven’t been fishing since last Wednesday. I know it has only been a week but it seems much longer and I was getting the itch to go. Last night we agreed it would be a family outing. But I found myself going on my own. Even though I love fishing with the kids and family, it was nice to hit the banks on my own and reflect on a busy and unusual year.
I was in two minds whether to hit the river or go to a club lake. I thought I would check the river first to see how it was. To my surprise it was quite calm and a steady flow in a certain section. I spoke to some fellow anglers who were already battling the cold and felt it was going to be a good day.
I went up river to a nice spot and started to fish. I hit a nice pocket of Roach and pulled in 17 fish, not bad I thought. I also had a lovely Perch which was a nice treat on red maggots. What I did notice with the Roach, is that some had Black Spot. I thought it would be a good opportunity to explain what Black Spot is and how it ends up on a fish.
Black Spot is a parasitic flatworm that appear as tiny black spots on the skin, fins and flesh of fish. There is no method of control to eliminate this problem. This organism does little harm to the fish. The main problem related with black-spot is the unsightly appearance it may cause.
What is remarkable is the life cycle of the parasite which is quite complex. It starts when a fish-eating bird (Great Blue Heron, Kingfisher) eats an infected fish. The black spot or worms are released and grow to sexual maturity in the bird’s intestine.
The adult worms pass eggs with the bird’s droppings. When the eggs reach water, they hatch into free-swimming organisms which then penetrate snails for further development. Finally, after leaving the snails they burrow into the skin of fish and form a cyst. The fish scales surround the cyst with black pigment that gives the disease its name. If an infected fish is consumed by a bird, the cycle starts again.
I hope you found that interesting or useful. Obviously if the fish is riddled with Black Spot, take as many pictures as possible and report it to the Environment Agency. They should then look to see how serious it is.
Until Next time, Tight Lines…….. Happy New Year…….
So, it was an early start today. Was fishing by 05:45 and made the rookie mistake of setting up my rod once I was at my swim. Still a bit dark at that time and took me a bit longer to thread the line through the eyes lol (getting old).
I was in the Colchester area and found a lovely mill pool, it was just the right spot. I used a basic float set up. So, stopper on first followed by my choice of float, a shot either side of the float and then a size 12 hook at the depth I needed and three maggots on the hook and I was out. The mill pool was teaming with life. So much fry around, which was great to see.
The first fish of the day was a tiger (Perch), as I was told it was fin perfect. Such a great fish to start the session off with. Then came some Roach nice sizes too. Then as I was taking a picture of the Roach, out the corner of my eye I felt someone or something watching me. As I turned, I could not believe it. Three otters just staring at me and me at them.
Now I know there are lots of mixed feelings about this creature and don’t get me wrong I agree with some, but it was amazing to see the two cubs and the mother together. They went in the water and swam to the other side of the pool.
Now obviously it was nice to see, but it had now messed up my fishing. I was in two minds whether to pack up or hang it out. So, I hung it out and I was glad I did. Whilst waiting for the fish to return, I watched a Kingfisher in the tree next to me and sorted out my tackle box.
After about an hour they returned, had some more Roach, Perch and a lovely Gudgeon which is my first in Essex. Very happy with that. It was only a short day today and was back home by 11:30. Unpacked my gear and cleaned my net etc. Until next time fellow anglers. Tight Lines.
Hi I’m back, with another fishing experience and as you probably guessed it’s about the Perch. I love watching these guys in the water, seeing the amazing tiger stripes and the way they swim on the outskirts of any shoal. This time of year, all you need to do is watch the fry in the water and there it will be, the stealthy Perch.
Sometimes on their own, but I usually see them in pairs swimming around. Does this mean they work together, like a pack of wolves or a pride of lions? Anyway, I just love watching this top predator of the water.
So again, I was fishing with my son Harry, on the River Chelmer and again he just wanted to use his pole. I did take a spinning rod with some small lures and dropshots. But as you know kids will only fish when they’re happy. So, pole it was, again a little ground bait and a few maggots out to attracted them over. We weren’t out far, as I knew all the fry was just by our feet all in the margins and that’s where the predator waits.
Harry caught a few roach, which were some lovely sizes. Beautiful silver with the red/orange fins. Then that boy only went and done it again, an amazing 2 ½ lb Perch. His little face was alive with excitement. He’s only ever caught one before, so he was ecstatic with what he had just caught.
Now handling an amazing fish like this is important and I might upset a few fellow anglers out there, but this is how I teach my son how to handle a Perch. So obviously net, unhooking mat, forceps/disgorger and everything is done low to the ground . Now I have taught him to mind the spikes on the top, but the mouth is a big concern for me. Unfortulantly I see it time and time again, anglers holding Perch by the mouth and extending out the whole jaw. Now this isn’t an American Bass which the jaw is designed a bit more flexible than our Perch. You can actually dislocate the jaw from a Perch and then this effects its feeding. We all know a predator that can’t hunt will soon die. Again, sorry if you disagree, but I got it off my chest.
So, now we have removed the hook safely, time for a few pictures and the tiger goes back. It swims back of into the fresh water cabbage and disappears.
I hope you enjoyed my blog and hope to see you again. You can send me messages and I will try and answer them as quickly as possible. Also check out my fellow bloggers on here with some great knowledge and experiences.
