4lb 11oz perch smashes river record

A huge record-breaking river perch weighing in at 4lb 11oz has capped yet another incredible week for the species as venues across the UK continued to produce the goods despite the winter floods.

In the Midlands, the Derbyshire Derwent proved it is much more than just a prolific barbel river when Kamil Sulima slipped his net under the huge 4lb-plus predator.

The Earl of Harrington’s Angling Club bailiff has taken numerous large fish from club controlled stretches in recent years, but he set both a new personal and venue record when he cast a small Kopyto lure close to a set of snags. He said: “I got the bite just after midday and I instantly knew it was something special.

“This waterway is home to a lot of large perch and I’ve had even bigger ones follow my lures in the past.”

Adam Perna only needed an hour and a traditional float fishing set-up to net no less than 15 perch topped by a trio of specimens over 3lb with the best going 3lb 5oz.

After a biteless first two hours of his stint on a local farm pond in Oxfordshire, the Bicester rod thought he might have overfed his swim, but then the shoal of predators moved in.

“I went big on the bait front due to the mild winter we have had so I put in a heavy scattering of red and white maggots as well as a tub of broken dendrobaenas, plus 40 lobworms,” he told Angling Times.

“I didn’t get a bite for two hours before a large pack of perch arrived at 2.45pm and I struggled to keep two rods in the water so went down to the one float rod. 

“The action was hectic and I actually ran out of lobworms at 3.45pm and could not get any more large perch on the dendros that I had left,” added Adam, who used 5lb mainline straight through to a size 8 hook.

Moving further south, Fox-backed Dan Sales proved why he’s got a reputation as one of the most prolific big perch anglers around at the moment when he banked a brace of specimens weighing 3lb 8oz and 3lb 2oz in a catch that featured 10 fish over the 2lb-mark.

The Herts-based all-rounder was fishing with Fox’s media manager Lewis Porter on a stretch of the Grand Union Canal and the duo shared the capture of 26 fish with Lewis equalling his personal best of 2lb 6oz.

Both anglers used jigging tactics and caught the predators with Hot Olive and Firetiger Warrior Mini Fry from the Fox Rage range.