Tag Archives: perch

Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I’d target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there. I haven’t really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process. With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic – even those more associated with winter – so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I’d double my chances… I thought! S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day. I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the “snooze” button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself. Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just …

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I very often lumber myself with far too much tackle – travelling light is something I wish I was better at – but sometimes it pays to have a few non-essential items, “just in case”. This is especially true if you’re travelling a long way from home to a fishery and don’t have the option of returning home if things aren’t quite as expected. One can never be sure exactly what to expect when arriving at a fishery; no matter how well you’ve done your homework on weather, etc. there’s always a chance that the water conditions and fish behaviour you’ve planned for are a million miles from reality. I do believe in remaining as flexible as possible in my approach to angling and I know for a fact that having a bit of extra tackle with me has saved me from a blank, or helped me put an extra fish or two on the bank, on many occasions. A prime example of this was a recent zander session on the Great Ouse. I’d taken some frozen deadbaits with me, but zander are notoriously picky feeders, and they will mostly take a fresh deadbait more readily than a pre-frozen one; …

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Hi, this is not a proper blog post – I intend to post one of those very soon – it’s just a test to see how my profile’s looking. A lovely Barbel I caught last-cast on the simplest of methods; touch-legering luncheon meat under a near-bank tree Once properly up and running this is going to be a blog about fishing in the UK and abroad, updated whenever I’ve got something to say in between writing my Fishing Articles. If you like to fish for specimen Barbel, Pike, Perch, Zander, Chub, Roach, Rudd, Grayling and occasionally Carp, then head over to my website to check out some of my instructional articles & videos, then check back here soon for new blog posts. Thanks for checking my stuff out!

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Spurred on by my recent capture of 3 x perch over 2lbs, and confident there were more fish to be caught, I returned to the same area for a few evening sessions lure fishing. Being so late in the year I could only arrive on the bank with about an hour of daylight remaining, so I had to make the most of what little time I had. I armed myself with a selection of my most successful perch lures of the past few years, along with a couple of wildcards, just in case. When lure fishing, you’re bound to have your favourite lures, but there are always going to be days when your favourites don’t work. So it’s always worth carrying a few patterns which have never caught you a fish before. All lures have their day, and you never know for sure when that’s going to be! One lure I was glad I had taken along was a Storm Naturistic Perch, which is a soft-bodied swim bait. This style of lure has a soft rubber outer body, with a heavy internal weight. They sink quite quickly and all the action comes from the tail, which is shaped to move …

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Big perch can be truly enigmatic characters. At times almost impossible to track down; at other times they giving themselves away with gleeful aplomb. Ignoring baits is an infuriatingly perfected big perch pastime. But get the timing right they’ll take anything you throw at them!

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Until around four years ago, my only real experience of perch was catching the occasional small fish on maggots or worms as a youngster. I’d never specifically targeted the species and a fish of over 2lb was something I could only dream about. Then one day’s pike fishing on a small drain changed all of this. I was wobbling a mackerel deadbait for pike, without success, when I noticed a group of perch following the bait in. I immediately grabbed my lure rod and caught a phenomenal number of perch from the swim, including a fish of 2lb 7oz. It was one of the most spectacular creatures I’d ever set eyes on, and it set me wondering what a 3lb perch must look like. Since then, perch have become one of my favourite species to target and I’ve had my eyes set on landing a perch over 3lbs; on bait, or preferably on a lure. My previous PB perch of 2lb 7oz I’m now quite experienced at catching perch on lures, and it’s surprising just what a range of lure styles they will take. I target perch on all sorts of venues, and lure style generally depends on whether I’m …

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I’m sure that if I told another angler that I knew of 2,000 miles of mature, hardly-fished water; much of it with specimen potential – they would either think I was lying or be eager to hear more! Well it’s true. Right here in Britain we have a huge network of unexploited angling waters, which aside from a few matches, rarely see any angling pressure at all. They are easily accessible, with comfortable banks suitable for disabled anglers and chances are that wherever you live in this country – even in the centre of a city, you live just a matter of minutes away from one of these waters. If you’re still wondering where on earth I could be describing, I’ll spell it out to you… CANALS. Whilst canals have long been regarded by many as sparsely populated, infertile waters, where you might be lucky to catch on a pinkie and size 24 hook; there are a number of species which have managed to thrive on neglect and grow in both size and numbers, virtually unnoticed. I’m talking about species such as carp, tench, chub, bream, perch, pike and even zander. You only need to read a few canal match …

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Hunting a 3lb Perch After a summer of mainly small-river barbel fishing and evening lure fishing stints, I can look back with satisfaction that I’ve had an above-average season and I’ve achieved a few new goals – not least of which my lure caught 15lb pike.  Throughout the Autumn and Winter, I shall be targeting mainly pike, along with other predators such as chub and perch.  So far the going has been good.  I’ve been fishing with my long-time fishing buddy, Matt, and between us we’ve already had 6 pike of between 14lb and 19lb this season.  Besides the pike, there have been numerous respectable perch captured. We were not only both seeking our first 3lb-plus perch, but also our first fish over 2lb this season.  This is how we got on… The first perch session of the Autumn began in late September, with Matt and I selecting swims with different features. Mine was a shallow, still bay, with a couple of deeper holes and some overhanging trees on the far bank.  Matt’s swim was a high-bank with shallows below, which gradually deepened off towards the far end of the swim. It became apparent that perch were present in both …

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A new personal best Since the start of the river season, I have focused mainly on barbel – trying to ‘up’ my personal best – and on my second session I managed a new PB with a barbel of 7lb 13oz – beating my old best by five ounces. Obviously I’m thrilled by this, but I’m still hoping for a double-figure barbel before the end of the season. A new personal best barbel for me, at 7lb 13oz Variety Most of my summer fishing sessions are restricted to weekdays after work, so when I got a day off, I decided it was time for a little variety and visit a new venue, noted for its tench stocks. Tackling up for tench I also took along my light spinning tackle and a barbel rod just in case I fancied a change later on. Arriving at the lake there was a large tent erected near the water, with recent campfires, disposable barbecues, a bow saw, a rubber mallet and loads of litter nearby. It literally looked as if someone had taken up residence. But there was no-one around! Very odd. Then when I looked into the crystal clear water, which was only …

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This article was first published on the now-defunct “AnglersToday” website, in 2005 Warm welcome to Andrew By Andrew Kennedy Since this is my first article for AnglersToday.co.uk, I thought I’d better introduce myself – I’m Andrew Kennedy, I’ve lived in Derbyshire for the majority of my life, except for a year in Australia and another in Sheffield.  I have fished for the past 18 years of my life (as of 2005), considering myself to be a bit of an ‘all-rounder.’ Specimen angling in freshwater is my main interest, but I regularly fish a variety of methods for an array of species and my captures in Britain alone include species as diverse as pike, salmon, ruffe, grayling, golden orfe, carp, zander and bleak, to name but a few.  I am by no means an expert on catching huge fish, but at the moment that’s what I’m working on.  My personal best list is very varied, with many fish I’m proud of – but there are no real “monsters” on there ….yet!  I’m still young though, at 23 – so hopefully the next few seasons will see some vast improvements in my catches. What fishing means to me Most of the fishing …

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