Giant commercial perch banked just before lockdown

KRISTIAN Thomas caught this enormous perch from White Springs Fishery in Wales, just before the UK went into lockdown to battle the Coronavirus pandemic.

The fantastic fish spun the scales to an impressive 5lb 8oz, one of the biggest perch Kristian, his friends and the fishery had ever seen.

He told Angling Times:

“I was at White Springs trying to catch big perch from the margins on maggots, worms and prawns. 

“By lunchtime I’d had two perch to just over 2lb, but then my float slowly pulled away again so I lifted into the fish. My first reaction was that it was a small carp but then I saw it top around 20 yards out and I was shocked to see it was a massive perch. It then stayed deep and I couldn’t lift it because I was fishing with light gear. 

“My mate Jordan was standing behind me with his small landing net and when he saw it he dropped his net to go and fetch a bigger one! I already had the perch on the surface so I screamed at him to hurry up. He was soon back, though, and managed to scoop it in first time. 

“The weight instantly fell off my shoulders, but I was in shock at the size of the fish. At this point, five other anglers had come over to look at the perch as I was weighing it. They all said that they’d never seen a perch that big!”