There are few finer sights in angling than a huge perch lying in the bottom of your landing net.
The vibrant blood-red fins, vivid stripes and distinctive spiky dorsal fins combine to create what’s arguably the most stunning of all of our coarse fish species.
Over the past couple of decades big perch have become extremely well-spread across much of the UK, and whether you prefer to fish canals, stillwaters or rivers you can guarantee there is a water close to home that has the potential to provide you with a new personal best.
Unlike many species, perch don’t travel in big shoals, but will gather in small groups around certain features or in certain areas, and it’s all about using watercraft to track them down, before offering them a snack they can’t refuse. In this article we’re giving you 10 tips to help you to do just that!
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Spice up your prawns
It is no secret that prawns are one of the best baits for big perch, but they will soon wise up to any offering that they see regularly. Simply changing the flavour of your hookbaits can work a treat, and you don’t need to head to your local tackle shop to find something to do this with, either.
Cooking spices that can be found in your local supermarket are a great option, especially those with a powerful, pungent scent. As such, flavours such as paprika and cumin are well worth a go.
Place a handful of prawns into a plastic food bag, add a generous sprinkling of your chosen flavouring, close the bag (blowing into it to add some air if you like) and then shake it well. Store it in the fridge overnight and the prawns will have absorbed the flavour by morning.
YOU CAN ADD ALL SORTS OF LIQUIDS, ADDITIVES AND FLAVOURINGS TO YOUR BAITS, OUR BUYER'S GUIDE CONTAINS SOME CLASSIC OPTIONS.
Work the angles
Big perch often hunt in small groups and if you catch one, there is every chance another could take the hookbait on the very next drop-in. The key to plundering the shoal is to minimise the disturbance when you strike into the first one, and fishing at an angle will help you to do that when pole fishing.
Apply a reasonable amount of pressure as soon as you set the hook, aiming to play the fish directly in front of you, before shipping back. This will minimise the commotion in the area where the perch was hooked, allowing it to settle down again as you play and net your prize away from the target zone.
THEBEST LURES FOR PERCH FISHING CAN BE AN EXCELLENT WAY OF CATCHING BIG PERCH AND SEARCHING LOTS OF WATER.
Find the best depth
The margins are the number one place to target perch on commercials, but carp can be a problem when doing so. They too love cover and are usually much bigger and more aggressive, and that leads to the perch making a sharp exit.
Aim to find 2ft-3ft in the margins, making sure to plumb up close to spots offering plenty of cover. Go any shallower and the perch will either refuse to come in or be skittish, but go any deeper and you are in the sort of territory that carp could invade.
A MARGIN POLE IS A GREAT CHOICE FOR PERCH FISHING. HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEST.
Set the hook properly
A firm strike is essential if you are to get the hookpoint to penetrate a perch’s bony mouth. This needs to be combined with a suitable elastic, because something that is too forgiving on the strike won’t drive the hook home and bumped fish will be inevitable.
You need to find a balance between hooking the fish properly and then making sure it doesn’t escape when it thrashes around at the waiting landing net. An orange or blue Daiwa Hydrolastic will be just about ideal. Set it reasonably tight and the chances of getting your quarry safely into the net with no mishaps along the way will be enhanced.
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Trickle in maggots
Whether you're fishing a river for perch or a stillwater, maggots should always come into the equation. Not only do perch love them, they also draw in small silvers that your predatory target will follow. Feeding a couple of handfuls of maggots before sitting back won’t work though, and a constant trickle is much more effective.
Keep the catapult close to hand and fire a dozen or so maggots over your spot every couple of minutes. Make sure that you stick to that routine too, even if you are struggling to get bites, as this is what could prove to be the catalyst for success later on in the day.
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Remove the resistance
Perch hate resistance and if they feel any in your set-up they will often eject a bait before the hook has been set. To create a mega-low resistance rig, use a helicopter-style set-up, tying your bomb directly to the end of the mainline, perfect when combined with bite alarms.
Attach the hooklength above this via a large run ring. Once a perch picks the bait up, the ring can move freely up and down the line, so the fish feels nothing untoward going on and therefore confidently inhales the bait.
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Use the right float
There is no magic formula when it comes to bait presentation for river perch, and it pays to use a versatile float rig to give yourself plenty of options. A loafer is a bulbous and highly buoyant pattern, with which you can present a bait in all manner of ways.
You can use one to run it through a river at a snail’s pace to begin with, gradually speeding things up as the session progresses if you are still searching for your first bite.
The mood of perch will change with every session and on some days they’re more inclined to take static baits presented close to marginal cover. These floats are perfect for that too, and they can even be used to ‘lay on’ a bait a few inches overdepth next to a large raft or reedbed, for example.
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Step up your hook size
As already mentioned, setting the hook isn’t always plain sailing with perch, and so using a large one will edge the odds in your favour. They are a species that have cavernous mouths, and they often flare their gills and thrust their jaw downwards so that they can swallow anything that takes their fancy.
Hooks from size 6 through to 12 should come into play. Go to the bigger end of the scale when using hefty hookbaits such as prawns and lobworms, but scale them down when working with bunches of maggots or casters.
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Colour up the margins
Plumb up and find the desirable 2ft-3ft of water in the margins on a stillwater and you may think it is nailed on for a few bites. It probably is, but you need to colour up what is going to inevitably be clear water to make the perch stay put.
Introducing a dark groundbait that has been overwetted will make the margins murky. Use something like Dynamite Baits Black Swimstim or SonuBaits F1 Dark. Add four or five balls without any loosefeed at the start and only top up when you are confident the area is devoid of fish. Cupping in or hand feeding additional groundbait is bound to spook fish if it goes in on top of their heads.
THE BEST MARGIN GROUNDBAIT WILL HELP DRAW PERCH INTO THE AREA AND KEEP THEM THERE.
Trap your worms
A hooked lobworm will be very active, constantly wriggling as it sits on the bottom. This can sometimes lead to it moving up the hook’s shank and going over the point, meaning you’ll be seriously compromised when it comes to striking into bites.
To prevent the point from becoming masked, once the worm is on the shank, slide a slither of a bait flag (commonly used by pike anglers with deadbaits), a piece of red elastic band or a small section of float rubber over the point and up to the worm to keep it in place. This can also be done with a small hookbead, as shown in the picture below.
NEED MORE TIPS ON CATCHING BIG PERCH? HERE IS ANOTHER ARTICLE THAT CONTAINS LOTS OF EXPERT ADVICE.
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