Huge perch landed at Chestnut Pool
The carp were in the mood for a feast during the latest contest at Chestnut Pool but it was a huge 4lb 6oz perch landed by Dave Carter that was undoubtedly the best specimen landed on the day.
After drawing in a favourable area on the Bedfordshire complex, the local ace decided to fish double caster down the edge on the pool and caught a number of lumps before the unexpected bonus found the bait.
Sadly, his efforts weren’t enough to gain him a position in the frame, with Dave Henegan’s 96lb 10oz of carp good enough for top spot, while Peter Simons took second place with 86lb 1oz.
Dream brace at carp lake
THERE aren’t many anglers who can boast of catching a 4lb perch and a 2lb roach in a single session - but Ian Henderson is one man who can lay claim to such a feat after banking this pair of specimens from a Hertfordshire stillwater.
His first bite of the day came in the form of a 2lb 2oz redfin, and the experienced specimen hunter from Essex admitted it’s been almost 25-years since he has banked a roach of such proportions.
Due to the bright, sunny conditions in the morning he had to wait until late afternoon for the resident perch – his intended target species - to switch on, and it was a legered lobworm tail on a size 8 Drennan hook and a 4lb hooklink that eventually tempted the 4lb 8oz predator.
But the action didn’t stop there and he went on to land a perch of 3lb and a brace of twos from a spot at 20 yards range.
“Even though the weather has been much warmer of late, the water temperatures have been very slow to rise so the secret for the big perch has been not to overfeed and just introduce a couple of
broken lobworms,” said Ian.
“I have caught roach to 1lb 8oz from this lake in the past, but I never realised that they grew this big.
I was using pretty crude gear so I’m certain that if I fine down my rigs I’ll be able to discover the true potential of the lake and hopefully catch a really big one.
“It’s another excellent example of what’s on offer with regards to other coarse species at specimen carp fisheries.”
Trio of stillwater specimen perch landed
WITH the nation’s rivers closed, angling guide Kenny Parsons turned his attentions to commercial stillwater perch and landed a trio of specimens over 2lb from a popular South West venue – this superb 3lb 15oz fish the highlight.
Spraying maggots to help attract fish into his peg he cast a running leger rig tied with 6lb Drennan mainline and a 4lb 12oz hooklink attached to a size 8 hook baited with jumbo prawn over the top. It wasn’t long before the impressive predator found his offering and he then backed it up with two other stripeys weighing 2lb 10oz and 3lb 3oz.
An experienced angler, Kenny teaches those wanting to catch specimen fish and up their personal best. Anyone interested can visit his website at www.kpanglingguide.com
First season perch success
THIS huge 4lb 13oz perch was the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Lee Amass’ first season targeting the species.
Over the last few months the 34-year-old IT worker has focused his attentions on a commercial stillwater in Sussex, breaking his personal best three times in total with other specimens of 2lb 14oz and 3lb 5oz during that period.
After spotting some small fish topping on the surface in a different area of the lake at the end of a day session, he returned the next day and headed straight to the spot, believing that perch could be responsible.
“I flicked out a hair-rigged king prawn hookbait under an overhanging willow tree,” Lee told Angling Times. “Every hour or so I fed 10 smaller peeled prawns as well as keeping a steady trickle of red maggots going in to attract the prey fish.
“Two and a half hours later I had a strange take - normally the perch in there scream off but on this occasion the bobbin pulled up slightly and then dropped back. When it twitched again slightly I decided to hit it. At first I thought it was a small carp because it just stayed deep and plodded around in front of me. When I got it to the surface, though, my legs went to jelly. I caught a 3lb 5oz perch a few weeks earlier and could tell straight away this one was in a different league. The lake has done 5lb-plus fish in the past and I knew this one would be close.”
Lee used a low-resistance running rig comprising a 0.25oz bomb with a 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink attached to a size 8 Kamasan B983 hook.
Quest for a 4lb perch ends in success
ANDY Loble’s quest for a 4lb-plus perch came to a triumphant conclusion with the capture of this 4lb 4oz fish from a Sussex stillwater.
The Shoreham-by-Sea-based rod has banked 50 twos and eight over 3lb, but a specimen topping the magical 4lb barrier had previously eluded him. That changed, however, when he legered a prawn hookbait soaked in a CC Moore liquid flavouring.
“I must have spent a fortune on maggots, worms and additives, not to mention the hours I’ve put in through the snow, rain and howling winds,” said Andy. “But I can breathe a huge sigh of relief now that I’ve finally banked my dream perch.”
Andy beat his prize with a running rig comprising 6lb mainline, a 4.4lb fluorocarbon hooklink and a size 6 barbless hook.
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.
PB equalling perch taken on a glugged prawn
AFTER a tough couple of weeks with only four small perch to show for his efforts, Andy Loble matched his personal-best for the species with this 3lb 6oz specimen.
Fishing at Alderwood Ponds in East Sussex, the 32-year-old targeted the margins with a large prawn hookbait soaked in CC Moore’s Shrimp Extract and Krill Amino.
“I have been fishing here for quite some time now and getting used to the feeding patterns of the perch. I fed chopped worm, dead and live red maggots and chopped prawn which created a cloud in the water and attracted the fish in,” explained the For Life Experiences angling coach.
“I’m still holding out for a 4lb fish and I won’t give in until I catch one,” he added.
Andy used 6lb Ultima Steel mainline to a 4.4lb hooklink and a size 6 Drennan Specimen Barbel hook.
Run of specimen perch continues
THE glut of huge winter perch has continued this week, with anglers celebrating the capture of 4lb-plus specimens from rivers, reservoirs and carp waters alike.
Sam Edmonds capped a remarkable few months in his budding fishing career by landing a new personal best of 4lb 12oz. The 18-year-old lure angling enthusiast, from Ware in Hertfordshire, adopted his favoured roving approach on a stretch of his local River Lea with his father and regular angling companion Gary.
After starting their session just before lunchtime, Sam landed a perch of 3lb 7oz in the first spot the pair tried, with Gary adding several smaller fish around 2lb. The action dried up for a while shortly after, but it wasn’t too long before Sam hit the jackpot, as Gary explained.
“We started leapfrogging along the bank and had covered more than a mile without a bite when, out of the blue, Sam hooked a fish – it looked like it was going to be a good one, but we weren't expecting a fish of that size! We were both gobsmacked – Sam was shaking, and so was I! We carried on fishing for the rest of the day, but it was hard to concentrate.”
Sam landed what is his seventh perch over 4lb using 12lb Nanofil braided mainline and a 17lb wire trace attached to a 2.5 inch shad mounted on a 0.25oz jighead.
Staying in Hertfordshire, very few big fish have been caught from the notoriously tough Tring reservoirs this winter, but that didn’t stop local expert Ken Brown from banking a 4lb 15oz perch on his first visit to the venue for a number of months.
After seeing grebes feeding on silverfish at around 70yards, he cast out a worm tipped with a red maggot and his only bite of the day resulted in the impressive specimen.
“At this time of the year you should really think about scaling down to get bites and that’s the reason I fined down my gear and used 6lb mainline coupled with a 4lb fluorocarbon hooklink. I think it made all the difference,” said Ken.
Finally, Steve Osbourne punctuated a carp session at Strawberry Fields with some quality perch fishing. The 65-year-old turned his attentions away from carp at the Kent lake and caught perch of 3lb 8oz, 4lb and 4lb 7oz. The Essex rod, who braved freezing was handsomely rewarded for his perseverance with what he called his ‘best winter catch ever’. His non-carp tally also included a 2lb rudd and a couple of roach around the 1lb mark.
Unique approach fools 3lb 2oz perch
A pungent groundbait mix helped Martin Florin net this 3lb 2oz perch from a club water.
The Bedfordshire-based rod settled on a peg that had a history of producing big fish and introduced plenty of maggots and chopped worm over a bed of mussel flavoured groundbait.
Despite gaining very little action in the opening stages, his luck changed late in the afternoon when the specimen fell for a half lobworm and red maggot cocktail.
“I knew it was a good fish as soon as I hooked it and when it went over the net I had a feeling it could be over 3lb. Thankfully it was and it made my efforts more than worthwhile,” explained Martin.
Canals on form for big perch
TWO anglers proved the rich spoils on offer from the nation’s canal network during the winter months when they banked an incredible haul of 120 big perch to a best of 4lb 4oz.
After finding their local rivers still running ‘up and coloured’, pioneering big fish hunter Dan Sales and his fishing companion Paul Goldsmith decided to discover what the Grand Union Canal had to offer.
By staying mobile and fishing small rubber jigs in and around a series of locks and marinas, the Hertfordshire-based duo covered more than 40 miles of the canal over three gruelling sessions to make their outstanding catch, which also featured 20 perch between 2lb and 3lb 10oz.
Travelling light was vital to their success, with both anglers carrying little more than a landing net and mat, plus a selection of 2in to 4in-long soft baits, which were fished in conjunction with 6ft rods and 5lb mainline.
“With the river being in such bad condition and the fact that neither of us fancied fishing a ‘commercial’ we got the map out and found a few areas of the Grand Union Canal that we liked the look of - it was as simple as that,” Dan told Angling Times.
“I hadn’t bothered to fish a canal since I was a kid and didn’t expect to find so many huge fish. But that’s not to say that it was easy fishing, because we’d often walk for two or three miles at a time without a bite.
“But when we did find a pocket of perch it was possible to catch up to 10 fish in a sitting - and they were all huge. It was really exhausting and both of us were absolutely shattered at the end, but to catch a perch of 4lb 4oz just blew our minds and really proves the potential of this venue, as well as many other canals across the country.”
Another perch angler to have got his New Year off to a bang was Gareth Evans, who had Angling Times to thank after he used a catch report published recently in the paper to pinpoint a stillwater in Sussex that produced a new personal best stripey of 4lb 10oz.
Gareth, from West Sussex, who is also the current silver bream record holder, laid a bed of loosefed chopped prawns and red maggots and then flicked a simple running leger rig over the top carrying a whole prawn to fool the specimen.
“I saw a catch picture of a big perch that was published in Angling Times and I recognised the venue, which played a big part in my capture because location is the most important key to catching big fish like this,” he said.
“In the last few trips to the venue I’d tried a softly, softly approach to try to avoid the large number of carp in the lake, which didn’t work. So on my last visit I fed really heavily and just waded my way through the carp with the hope of getting through to the low stock of perch. It worked a treat!”
Big perch dominate in Kennet and Avon Canal match
Big perch ruled supreme during the latest contest on the Kennet and Avon Canal with Justin McBere putting together 29lb 9oz of them to top the pile.
The Tubertini South rod used a simple worm and caster attack on the long pole line from his peg at Froxfield and netted numerous fish over the 2lb mark during the memorable session.
That was more than double of the nearest chaser, with Drennan Banbury Gunsmiths man Matt Herbert landing second place with 14lb 1oz.
One session, two personal bests
KEVIN Hewitt proved the pulling power of lobworms for big perch after smashing his personal best twice in the same session with fish of 3lb 5oz and 2lb 13oz.
Fishing off the dam wall at Coate Water Country Park in Swindon the Cotswold Angling manager broke his pb of 2lb 5oz for the first time when he offered a worm in conjunction with a feeder filled with chopped freebies.
But he left the best until last as he freelined a hookbait on a size 7 hook to bank his first perch over the 3lb barrier.
“I was just packing my rods away when I saw my line pull tight and I struck into-the fish-of-a-lifetime,” said Kevin.
Big perch on boosted prawns
THIS 3lb perch was the highlight of an eight fish haul for Andy Loble during a short session on a southern stillwater.
The West Sussex-based all-rounder’s winning tactics involved a king prawn hookbait soaked in CC Moores Shrimp Extract over a bed of groundbait laced with chopped worms, prawns and red maggots.
“This is the first season I’ve targeted perch and I’m already addicted to them,” said Andy.
“I’ve only been able to fish for three hours at a time, but it doesn’t seem to have affected my catch rate - on this particular day I even missed six bites because I couldn’t keep up with the pace of the action.”
Big perch on the feed
IT’S COMMON knowledge that commercial carp waters hold some of the UK’s biggest perch - and Simon Buckman further emphasised their potential when he landed this 4lb 13oz specimen from a day-ticket venue in Sussex.
Offering a prawn hookbait in the margins on a low resistance bomb rig tied with a 6lb hooklink and a size 8 hook, the Arundel-based specimen hunter smashed his personal best for the species by 12oz when his supermarket bait was taken by the impressive predator.
“Targeting perch in waters that hold a large head of carp is never easy, but it’s definitely worth persevering, especially at this time of the year when the water temperature has cooled and carp are much less active,” said Simon.
“I like to keep my swim topped up with chopped prawns and maggots which the big perch love. I really thought that I’d hooked another of the venues carp when my hanger pulled up, but when it surfaced a few yards out I knew exactly what I was attached to. After catching about 10 perch from the lake over the last few weeks I had been beginning to think that the bigg’un I really wanted would never come.”
Another angler to break his perch personal best this week was Adrian Eves who caught a fish of 4lb 13oz from the River Kennet.
The Surrey-based all-rounder had spent several sessions targeting local commercial fisheries but when they all froze over he had to turn his attentions to the running water venue instead.
His first choice of swim failed to produce a bite, but a switch to another hotspot gave him renewed hope as he hooked and lost a large fish within minutes of casting out.
Determined to avoid a blank he introduced another handful of chopped lobworms and his rod tip pulled round again.
“As the fish came to the net I could see the hook just inside the mouth and when it shook its head I was certain I was going to lose what would certainly be a new personal best,” explained Adrian.
“Thankfully, lady luck was on my side and everything held firm.”
His winning presentation consisted of a paternostered maggot feeder rig with a size 6 Fox Kuro S2 hook baited with an air-injected lobworm.
Last, but certainly not least, was James Howes who landed a trio of fish over the 3lb-barrier topped by a 3lb 3oz specimen.
His haul was taken during a short two-hour session at a local Norfolk stillwater and all three fish were taken on small rudd livebaits fixed below a loafer style float on a size 4 hook.
Big perch dominate Wye catch
The River Wye perch shoals have made a revival this winter and Gary Baldwin took advantage by putting together a 25lb plus net of them during his latest outing on the venue.
After seeking advice from friends, the Hereford-based rod visited a local stretch armed with a sack of worms and within moments of chucking out a small feeder packed with freebies the tip wrapped round and a 2lb specimen was soon in the net.
Things got even better later in the day when he smashed his personal best with a 2lb 10oz fish fell for his lobworm offering.
