Monster perch caught from commercial fishery

KIT JACKSON proved that you don’t have to know a venue inside out to be able to fool its biggest residents by banking this huge 5lb 8dr perch on his first ever visit to a commercial day-ticket water.

The 22-year-old’s memorable session began when his brother Matthew invited him along for a trip to a small two-acre fishery not far from his Wiltshire home, which he believed would offer a great chance of beating his personal best perch of just 1lb 8oz.

Armed with a simple inline feeder packed with red maggots, Kit, from Salisbury, slipped a prawn flavoured with CC Moore Worm Protein Extract onto a size 6 hook and cast it towards a group of snags 20yds along the margins.

He slowly built up his swim with small pieces of broken prawn and it wasn’t long before he’d equalled his personal best. Little did he know that his very next bite would produce a fish more than three times as big!

“I hadn’t even seen the venue before, but my brother assured me that it held some huge perch so I found the likeliest-looking spot that I could and tried to get my rig close to the snags,” said Kit, who used a rig constructed from 4lb mainline and a 3lb hooklink.

“When I received another bite and the fish took off, taking line, to begin with I thought that I was connected to one of the small carp in the lake. However, then I saw it break the surface and I physically jumped because I’d never seen a perch anything like as big before. I safely landed it, and when my brother saw the fish in my net, he threatened to throw me in for being so lucky!”

“Many anglers get frustrated during the closed season, but there are countless other day ticket waters across the country with the potential to produce massive perch like mine. It’s just a case of getting out there and giving it a go,” he added.