In his book Big Fish from Famous Waters Chris Turnbull, when introducing Pete Garvan’s chapter on perch, describes how Pete set out on one of angling’s great adventures.
That statement was very thought-provoking to myself in that many of my boyhood fishing memories are of pedalling off at the crack of dawn with my old school mate Rob on one of our many fishing trips to the Marlholes that then dotted the old Blackcountry landscape on our quest for monster perch. 
Those Marlholes along with their perch have long gone and whilst most of the perch we caught were small maggot-snatchers one in particular will always stand out in my mind.
In truth I don’t know how big it was – a set of scales was way down a boy’s list of needs, and it was hard enough buying bait! but I suppose it could have been around the pound mark; it definitely stood head and shoulders above the other perch we caught and I really didn’t want to put that creature back. I held it up level with my face, turning it first one way and then the other, so proud to be the captor of such a massive fish, I wanted to show the world.
As the years rolled by there was a time when I thought I would never see such a fish again after the species was ravaged by disease, but slowly but surely they began to reappear and hopefully will inspire a new generation of angling apprentices.
I spent a long spell of my angling career targeting predators and caught my share of them before deciding I wanted more out of my fishing, but even now I can think of few sights in angling so inspiring as a big perch. I reckon a perch becomes big when it reaches 2lb, but only because I have been lucky enough to catch a few over that weight. There have been plenty of times when a 1lb fish would have been very welcome indeed! Not all angling sessions are red letter days!
I am not usually tempted to chase other people’s fish, and when the Great Ouse started to turn up its big barbel I didn’t succumb. But when those pictures of those massive perch started to show I don’t know how I managed to keep away from the place! I was and still am, very, very tempted, all invites graciously received!
My own list of ‘big’ perch does not compare with some of the Ouse fish, my own personal best stands at 3lb 12oz, along with half a dozen other 3’s and around a couple of dozen at 2lb-plus. A 2lb perch looks a big fish, a 3-plus looks huge, and my 3.12 looked immense, I would dearly love to put a 4-plus on the bank – and a 5? I dream on! The sight of a 5lb perch must be awesome! I have a water in mind, but it’s a case of so much to do and so little time.
The rivers I fish are now producing numbers of perch and they are well worth a try. To give yourself any real chance of a biggie though you do, as a general rule, need to be on the river at first light, and as dusk approaches that too can be another good time as any river angler who fishes into dark will tell you. But if you find it difficult to drag yourself out of bed on those cold winter mornings there’s still hope……….
Most areas now have small man-made lakes where small fish abound. I find them great for teaching kids the basics (modern day Marlholes?) but I soon grow bored with them…..usually! During the winter months when the rivers are out of sorts and the usual species are playing hard to get, some of these waters are well worth another look …..for big perch. They may be growing fat on the myriads of small fish.
My first thoughts were that the perch in these waters would be difficult to catch due to the amount of food available to them, but I had not counted on one common denominator on this type of water – water clarity or, rather, the lack of it!
Those perch seem, at least in my experience, to be very responsive to static, smelly baits like lobs or deadbaits. Deadbaits in particular can be very productive at times. Last winter Merv Wilkinson and myself shared over a dozen runs a day to small, fresh, half deads. They had to be half baits to stretch out our supply!
I can honestly say I have never caught as many perch on deads as I have from this type of water I’m convinced that because the waters are cloudy it makes the perch use their sense of smell to hunt even more than they usually would.
If I had to say anything against these perch it would only be that they appear to be not as vivid in their markings as fish from clear waters, especially as they get bigger. But we can’t have it all ways, can we?
So, this winter, if your river is in the meadows, or your carp are giving you a hard time, relive a little of your boyhood spirit and get yourself off on a perch adventure!
Girls welcome too!
