Of my earliest angling adventures, catching perch from the River Thames with my father burns the brightest in my memory. Small perch were plentiful and easy to catch with the time honoured worm and perch bobber. The tribal colours and mohican swagger of this tenacious scrapper made perch universally popular amongst my little gang of fellow anglers. Back then a half pounder was a good fish and a pounder was a schoolboy's dream.
mixed fortunes
In the intervening years the fortunes of the perch have been mixed. Disease all but wiped out local populations in the late 1960's. But by the 1980's the perch population had bounced back and it seems that perch are once again plentiful, with their average size increasing almost yearly.
There has probably never been a better time to try for a big perch, but where to start?
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| first perch on the fly! |
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| any structure holds perch potential |
Knowing my local Grand Union Canal would be a good place to start, throughout January I researched potential swims and kept my ear to the ground.
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| lock inflow - often a holding spot |
Much tramping of the tow paths and some blanks sessions later my search narrowed down to a particular lock where the jungle drums told me of big perch holding up. The canal bed here is very snaggy, littered with bricks and boat debris arising from two hundred years of barge traffic bumping into the walls at the mouth of the lock... lots of ambush structure for striped predators. There is also an inflow culvert bringing a ready supply of tasty terrestrial treats marinated in warmer water. If I were a big canal perch I would want to live right here!
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| purpose built perch fly |
I needed a fly that would fish deep without getting stuck. I looked to Dominic Garnett's classic perch jig fly with some variations of my own by adding lateral line from grizzle hackle and using a 2/0 worm hook. I would use an eight weight rod with a floating line and a long leader for stealthy presentation.
I was ready to go, but on the first morning of my campaign Winter tightened her grip. Snow was now falling and the water was frozen over.
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| the perch shoal soon wise up and a fly colour change can make all the difference |
Forced into a re-think I reasoned that the ice-out could work in my favour..
I figured that the baitfish would concentrate into the small areas of warmer water where the thaw starts first. Rich pickings for big clever perch!
Now all I needed was to get my timing right.. and that proved to be a Tuesday afternoon as the light was fading. With most of the canal still frozen I found a channel of ice-free water perhaps 20 yards long reaching to the middle of the canal. As I watched a jack pike harrying silverfish conditions seemed promising..
the line went heavy and then began to thump doggedly
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| 3lb 2oz of beautiful fly-caught winter perch |
I cast my fly across the ice and then twitched it back to plop into the water. Then a very slow stop-start retrieve hopping the fly along the bricky canal bed. After two hours I had covered every square inch of my 'ice-hole' without so much as a tweak.
My frozen fingers had long since lost any feeling and I felt on the verge of giving up, but it was that stubborn voice in my head that spoke the loudest. So I decided on a change of tactics - a longer fluorocarbon leader and a long side cast, pulling the fly parallel to the ice line. On the second cast a perch shot out from under the ice and hit my fly. The line went heavy and then began to thump doggedly, telling me of a good fish.
In the net my prize took my breath away. Staring back at me it lay, the stuff of boyhood dreams... now made real.
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Next post - tying Perch Streamers - a step by step guide
