Near-3lb River Perch on the Fly!
After a few Summers of catching a decent number of 2lb+ perch on lures I decided it was time for a slightly different kind of challenge. I would still visit my favourite Summer swims which took many blank sessions to find, but now I know where the perch are at this time of year they’ve been very reliable and with only a few repeat captures. The main difference is that instead of conventional lure fishing (which I’m fairly proficient at), I would try for them with a discipline which I’m far more clumsy and out of practice with; fly fishing. I asked my good friend and fly fishing instructor, Kevin Miles, to tie me up some flies replicating perch fry, after seeing a good perch spit one out in my landing net a few weeks ago. The resulting flies – tied onto size 2 Nash Fang hooks – were really good too! I should have really taken some photos of them before I started destroying them by hurling them into undergrowth and such like! I was using my Fox Predator XS fly rod, which I bought when it was on offer a couple of years ago and it’s been gathering dust since, …
Read More »