Another perch session

This morning was spent targeting perch on the river. I started fishing the stick float using the same tackle as my last session but I didn't bother with a hook length this time and just used 4.4lb Drennan Float Fish straight through. I also had a 1.25lb avon rod set up for live baiting, tackle on this rod was 6lb Sensor, a large loafer float and a 12" 15lb trace to a size 8 hook.

The session started pretty much the same as the last, I was catching small dace every other trot down the swim, as I gradually increased the feed the dace obliged and I was soon catching a dace every cast. After around 20 dace in the net I switched over to double red maggot and instantly hooked a good fish. The fish fought very hard for a couple of minutes but the hooked pulled, I didn't see the fish but I am pretty certain it was a large perch. I continued feeding fairly heavily (around a pint of maggots per hour) and the dace continued to feed freely, eventually I landed my first perch of the day which was well over a pound.

I continued to catch the odd dace, but as the morning progressed the perch starting showing more and the dace became more scarce. I tried the live bait rod and instantly caught a 1lb + perch, this was followed by 2 or 3 more but slightly smaller examples. A change back to the stick and a better fish was hooked, the fish fought well but not as aggressively as the perch, it made a number of attempts to get behind some marginal tree roots but I manged to net it at the first attempt.

My largest running water chub

A chub of 4lb 3oz was placed in the keepnet, I quickly recast to try and get another. The float went straight under and another decent perch was landed. The next fish hooked was another chub but after a short but spirited fight it swam around a boulder in the margin and the hooked pulled. At this point I had ran out of bait so had a few last casts with a dace live bait and a 10oz perch was landed.

1lb 10oz and 1lb 15oz, the largest two perch of the session

I ended the session with 1 chub (4lb 3oz) 13 perch for 11lb 2oz (largest 1lb 15oz) and approximately 50 dace.

The morning was very enjoyable but was over far too quickly, the 4 pints of bait I had lasted around 4 hours and I can't help thinking that I would of had a real red letter day if I had taken more. The chub I caught is my best running water chub which is very pleasing as is the fact that I am now catching 1lb plus perch more regularly. To finish the morning in style we stopped off, had a couple of pints of Amstel in a nice beer garden, I can't think of many better ways to spend a summers morning.