Big Perch Preparation

There doesn’t seem to be many books available regarding specimen perch fishing and so I’ve downloaded everything I can find of relevance from the net and hacked through numerous articles and blog discussions.

There are some really detailed articles out there in the ether, particularly by a chap called Steve Burke which are great and Bob Robert’s website is always a good source of advice and direction for targeting specific species. I’m not so sure though about the guy who wants me to attract all the silver fish in the river but putting a week’s worth of Hovis breadcrumbs in and then somehow work double red maggot from the centre of these vast shoals outwards until I contact a 3lb perch….there must be an easier way!!

There’s quite a bit of contradictory advice when targeting fish of say 2lbs plus, as regards the best bait, tactics and time of year to fish, but they all seem to agree that this is a tough month to find shoals of big perch because they can be very spread out. I was going to target some very deep slacks on the River Dee with jigs but most articles say I’m bonkers because these are the areas they will avoid in summer because of low oxygen and limited supply of bait fish….rats, perhaps I should be barbel fishing this time of the year!

In my usual stubborn way, I’m going to give it a go anyway because my PB is not too demanding at 1 lb 4oz from 17 years ago and I can troll/cast past/to features in the river, as I make my way to the big holes. I’ve therefore loaded a small Shimano spinning reel with 5 kilo Power Pro braid and bought a selection of jelly jigs and a drop-shot rig from Harris Angling ready to go for it. The plan will be to troll some small Rapalas along the tree lines in shallower water and then drop-shot the deeper sections. If this fails, I’ve also bought some small livebait sliders and will get some gudgeon and small roach on the case if required.

I’m hoping to get the boat out there tomorrow once I rivet some home made trolling rests to the gunwales on the boat.

Fingers crossed for a result.

Mr Fish