River Fishing Tips | Perch on the pole with Cameron Hughes

Faced with the whole river to go at, I look for a couple of things where perch are concerned – a slow flow and good depth close to cover. 

River perch like slow flow and cover

Cover is vital as it gives perch an ambush point, so reeds, weed or lilies are good but there has to be sufficient depth, certainly a minimum of 5ft.

In some swims, you won’t have that so you’ll have to work with what you’ve got. Slacker water is important because again, perch will wait here to ambush smaller fish – I’ve never found them to be that keen on sitting in the main flow.

In many instances, you’ll be almost margin fishing with the pole pointing down the edge of the river. The pole is unbeatable for precision placement of the hookbait close to cover, and would always be my choice over rod-and-line tackle.

The margins are a real hotspot for river perch