Pussycat Perch?

[Aknib]

The Perch season will well and truly soon be upon us and I have a question....

Has anyone ever witnessed a predatory fish, other than a Perch (and if so I would be grateful of your shared experience) playing with their prey without the slightest intention of eating it?

I've watched Pike look on, completely disinterested when i've hit 'em on the snout with a deadbait, I've watched eels take baits too.

I can't vouch for Zander but i've felt the initial 'bang' before they go in for the kill but the kill inevitably comes.

Chub also need intent imo and tend to go in without warning but when they do it's decisive.

But Perch?

They seem to delight in playing with their prey, like a cat with a dead mouse... continually tossing it up in the air as if it were still alive and putting up a fight.

Do you have any experience of predatory fish, other than Perch, habitually using their prey for 'supposed' entertainment or whatever reason they do it?

Or indeed Perch for that matter.

It's the reason the Perch Bobber was invented imo, a float that will withstand the play and sail away upon intent.

 

[@Clive]

Never seen anything like that Steve. At this time of year I see lots of perch activity taking advantage of the high banks and clear water. The two activities I have seen involve solitary fish, usually the bigger perch, and also zander of the same sort of size chasing single targets, usually dace, that skip across the surface before the inevitable "Cloop" of the capture, and also the classic multi perch ambush. The latter involves a squadron of perch of a similar size arriving in formation, steaming into a shoal of bleak and causing panic amongst them. A bit like the bait ball clips you see on tv.

In both scenarios the predators take their fill and then move off elsewhere, which is frustrating.

 

[Aknib]

The one overriding memory which I relate to was whilst fishing the old river, around mid-morning I donned my polaroids and to my amazement, around two dozen big Perch, all above 2lb or so, were holding station in the flow right in front of me.

I couldn't resist dropping a freshly caught Dace in the middle of them and they took turns in charging at the bait, no intention of taking it, more disgust that it had invaded their territory, as I had interpreted it.

Again on the river on a separate occasion, I watched two large Perch stalking (again) a Dace, close to the bankside as it swam along the contours of the riverbank right beneath my feet.

Perch can be lightening quick and these two just seemed to be content in the chase rather than picking the Dace off at will.

 

[@Clive]

They are fascinating fish. I used to fish a trout lake that really ought to have been a coarse fishery. I got to know the owners, or tennants to be precise quite well and they let me take a boat over the net that seperated the trout fishery from the neck end of the lake. The small channel was snided with hawthorn bushes and big perch. Fish of 16oz - 20oz would readily take minnow lures or shrimp imitations, but the big, old fish just treated them with contempt. Eventually I started catching fish over 2lb by sight fishing, casting from a distance, a small home-tied bloodworm fly. It had to be allowed to fall naturally except for just the slightest twitch every now and then. Anything else would see the perch come out of hiding, take a look and just sink back where they had come from.

 

[Philip]

I have a really clear memory of fishing a small Kent lake that held some really good Perch. I would fish for them with live baits on a tiny paternoster using a Drennan chubber float and a bomb of about half an ounce holding things in place. The lake was shallow only 2 or 3 feet for the most part. Anyway one morning the float was keeling over and a Perch sort of "rolled" on the surface pushing my live bait in front of it but not taking it. It did it two or three times sort of nosing the bait up onto the surface but no intention of taking it. It was rolling almost like a Bream or Carp feeding roll, just a very gentle up to the surface and sort of slide back down again, nothing agressive or rapid at all.

I have watched Zander at very close quaters by torch light approach baits really slowly ..almost creeping up on it. It was quite eerie to see as their eyes shine in the torch light & you see the two glowing spots edging closer and closer but they either take the bait or shy away..I have not seen them play with it as such.