Huge day-ticket perch snaps up a floatfished prawn
It was so big that it looked like a carp with spikes!”
These are the words of Chris Macey, who was on hand to slip the net under a huge perch that his cousin landed from the margins of a day-ticket lake.
But if it hadn’t been for a cruel twist of fate, it would have been Chris himself cradling the impressive 4lb 13oz predator on the banks of White Springs Coarse Fishery in Wales.
“I’ve been trying to catch a 4lb perch for 10 years, and my cousin Jon and I had fished the venue a few times before, taking fish to over 3lb,” said Chris.
“We started off with our usual tactics – low-resistance feeder rigs and prawn hookbaits, with groundbait, chopped worm, casters and pieces of prawn in the feeders themselves. We cast these off the edge of an island, and I set up another line using the top two sections of a pole to fish down the edge tight to an undercut bank, also on a floatfished prawn.”
After a disappointing day with no perch to show for their efforts, the two anglers were in the process of packing up when events took a dramatic twist.
“Jon had given up, so I asked him if he would like to have a bash with my pole as I reeled in the other rod. I showed him ‘the spot’ and left him to it,” added Chris.
“A few minutes later he struck into what we thought was a carp, but after playing it for a while we realised it was probably a very large perch! Soon I slid the net under the most impressive fish I’ve ever seen – it looked like a carp with spikes! If I’d only waited a few more minutes in my swim before packing up, I would have been the one holding the fish, but I was just thrilled to have seen a perch like that. It was awesome!”