On the 28th November 2007 Kevin Green, Editor of IYCF magazine booked me in for a Perch feature on Milton Lake at Bury Hill fishery, it was a productive day. The feature will be out on sale in the 9th January 2008 edition.

Shortly after the magzine comes out I will do a report on this page how the day panned out with Kevin.

Full feature will be posted on this page week commencing 11th February 2008

How to catch a big Perch from Milton Lake

Finding The Margin Hunters

Giant perch are lurking in a day ticket lake near you and Russ Evans reckons his tactics will bag you a personal best…

BRITAIN is currently in the grips of a big-perch explosion. Right now stillwaters across the country are home to unprecedented numbers of huge predatory perch and this winter is your best ever chance to catch huge stripies.

  With most modern fishery owners keeping pike out of their waters to ‘protect’ fish stocks- thereby removing, the top predator in the food chain – the perch has stepped up to become chief executioner.

  Sure these lakes are teaming with carp that dominate catches in warmer months, but lurking in the background are these striped assassins, feasting on the millions of fry produced by the prolific spawning activities of carp, roach, bream and rudd.

  One water enjoying this perch boom is Milton Lake, a three – acre day ticket pond in Surrey. Its development mirrors a hundreds of similar waters across the nation.

  Dug in 1991 on the Bury Hill Fisheries complex, the pool was stocked with thousands of small carp, roach, tench, rudd and bream-and some perch. Lining the pool you can now find thick beds of reeds, rushes and lilies. This has created the perfect environment for perch and on a cold, grey, winter’s day IYCF stepped on to the banks of Milton to find out what has happened to the baby predators that were first stocked.

THE MARGIN MAURAUDERS

Trudging down the lane to the banks of Milton Lake, IYCF found venue regular and manager of the on-site tackle shop, Russ Evans, tucked away in a heavily vegetated corner of the 30-peg pool.

Either side of his wide fishing platform were thick beds of decaying bulrushes. To his left they reached several meters into the water, to his right they lined the bank but stretched just a few feet from the bank.

  “That’s where the perch will come from – they tuck into hidey-holes like that,” predicted Russ, pointing at the sorry-looking stems.

  “Perch love margin cover, such as dead reeds, old lily beds or tree roots hanging in the water. It must give them an ambush point to attack fry as they swim past,” he said.

“I look forward to it going cold when the carp stop feeding strongly. I think- great! Now it’s perch time.” It looked all implausible. As Russ dropped his rig alongside the decaying stems he was holding just five metres of carbon in his hand, his hookbait falling almost under the shadow of his platform.

  “You’ll be surprised…” assured Russ. “Perch come right into the edge. The most common mistake I see anglers make is that they fish too far out – they can be in a great swim, but cast over them.”

“Some days you catch perch on both lines, some days it is only one. But this tactic gives you more chances,” said Russ.

  “Perch can also be easily spooked. So rather than trying to spot, I’ll keep baiting two areas so I can alternate between them. Perch bunch up in fairly small groups-perhaps a dozen fish or so. I’m trying to nick the occasional fish without spooking the shoal.

  “When the plan works perfectly I catch a fish, bait up the spot where it has just been caught and then switch to the other line for a while to let the remainder of the shoal settle down again.

  “I find it really pays off if you don’t put them under too much pressure, especially when fishing so close to the bank.” It was a plan Russ stuck to religiously during our visit. After his initial baiting he settled into a pattern of fishing the larger, left-hand bed of dead rushes for half an hour before he’s have one or two quick put-ins on the right-hand margin to see if anything had settled on his bait. If no bites were forthcoming he’s flick in five red maggots then switch to the other spot.

  “It’s all about keeping a trickle of bait going in each area but then resting on the spots so the fish can settle on the bait.

  “I always flick five red maggots into each line every five to ten minutes. Perch have great eyesight and I’m sure they are attracted to stinking food.” This tactic also had one other beneficial side effect- it gave Russ the chance to catch other fish, too.

While his right-hand line tight to the small clump of rushes seemed devoid of fish during the first few hours of his session, the other line tight too the bigger bed of dead vegetation was anything but. Quality roach to 1lb, some rudd to 8 oz, a mid-winter tench and a couple of 3lb carp kept him busy as they fell to the simplest of hookbaits- a single red maggot.

  “This is one of the great things about waiting for the perch to switch on. The baits and rig I’m using can tempt pretty much every other fish in the lake, so it’s not ‘perch-or-bust,” he explained.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

When stillwater perching you don’t need expensive baits or a high-tech approach. Russ’s bait tray held just a pint of red maggots, a little tub of lobworms and a few casters, not a great deal of food to catch big perch.

  “In five fishing hours I’ll probably use no more than half-a-pint of mixed casters and maggots and less than a quarter of a kilo of chopped-up worms,” he said.

  “There’s no doubt the perch love the juices released from the chopped worms, casters and maggots, so use them to kick-off the swim.

  “When I got here this morning I fed both sets dead rushes with eight or nine worms that had been finely chopped, along with a pinch of casters and red maggots.

  “It’s a sludgy mess but it I perfect for priming a perch spot. It pumps juice into the water, but little food. It’s an attractant rather than s meal.”

This use of two distinct baited areas is one of the most important tactics for successful winter perching. As the BCUK-backed match angler revealed, this gives you the chance of creating two ‘pots’ of fish to catch from rather than just one.

1. This is the base of Russ Evans perch feed-juicy lobworms which are packed with liquid and perfect for chopping up.

2. A pinch of casters are also a key ingredient. Perch love crunching through casters and they are often overlooked as a bait for the species.

3. Don’t forget the red maggots. Red baits are great for perch and these wrigglers are superb both for feeding and for use as a hookbait.

4. The worms, six casters and six maggots go in a bait tub for chopping. He cuts up eight or nine worms at the start but rebaits with just three chopped worms.

5. Get busy with your scissors. Because it is winter and you don’t want to over feed the fish, make sure you chop the worms, casters and maggots into a bait box.

6. If you want to boost the bait up a bit more add a slug of BCUK liquid bloodworm attractor.

7. Load the chopped bait mush into a pot on the end of your pole and drop it into the water tight to marginal reed stems. Perch are attracted to the worm, maggot and caster juices leaking from the cut baits.

KEEP IT FINE

Like most modern fisheries Milton holds a mixed stock of species, so it is important you rig up your tackle correctly. This means striking a balance between power and finesse.

In the summer, when carp bully their way to almost any morsel of food, strong-arm gear is needed to ensure your rigs aren’t smashed up by marauding 10lb carp.

  The baits are anglers use during this heavy feeding period also tend to be quite large with pellets, paste, corn and meat ruling the roost.

But when it goes cold, fish feed less and the water goes clearer, giving the fish a better opportunity to inspect everything before they eat. If you want to catch a keen-eyed fish like a perch you must fine-down your tackle.

  “Perch can be finicky feeders, especially if it’s cold,” said Russ. “The heavy-duty summer carp gear is replaced with lighter lines, smaller, finer wire hooks, small floats and lighter elastic in my pole.

  “It is inevitable the occasional carp will pick up your bait and rough you up, but with my rig you’ve still got a chance of landing them.

  “in winter, carp don’t tend to fight as hard and bankside vegetation is less lethal. On a balanced set-up you can still land most fish you hook.

  “However, you’ve still got to be sensible. A big perch will give you a right old battle and your kit has got to be up to the job of taking the strain.” As you can see from the diagram and pictures of Russ’s rig, his tackle strikes the correct balance of strength and delicacy.

His line is Preston Powerline (0.13mm, 4lb 12oz), a low diameter mono that allows natural movement of his hookbait. Tied on the end of the 1.5lb hooklink is a size 18 Drennan Carbon Barbless- a sharp, strong but fine-wire hook that doesn’t adversely affect movement of the bait. Above that, the float is small and carefully shotted so just a tiny portion of tip stands proud of the water. This reduces the buoyancy of the rig which means perch won’t feel it when they pick up the bait, and it perfectly registers the shy bites perch give. The shotting pattern is also important, as Russ explained: “Perch have got great eyesight. You often see explosions of small fish on the surface as the big perch chase them down.

  “To increase the chances of a perch spotting on the hookbait, I string out the small shot to give the bait a slow, natural fall to the bottom.

“It is common to get bites as soon as the float has settled-I’m sure the perch have seen the bait, followed it to the bottom, then snatched it.”

This faith in the importance of moving the hookbait also explains why, every three or four minutes, Russ lifts his hookbait of the bottom a few inches before allowing it to sink back down again.

Injecting this tantalizing movement is calculated to induce a perch to attack the bait- and it was this tactic that brought him his first perch of the day.

Scale down for winter perch and plumb up accurately. Perch are often tight to the reed stems but sometimes they slip down the shelf. You must know the depth contours.

As the light fades Russ nets perch number four. The species often feed late in the day so don’t give up if you struggle for a bite for a few hours – last knockings is usually the best time

“To increase the chances of a perch, I string out small shot to give the bait a natural fall”

        INSTANT RESPONSE

After switching several times between the two baited lines, the right hand margin hadn’t yielded a fish until early afternoon. Every bite had come from roach, rudd, tench and carp that had fallen to the bait fished to the big bed of rushes on the left.

  But as the clock ticked past 1pm and after resting the spot for 30minutes, Russ got what he was looking for. Dropping the bait tight to the dead ‘stick-ups’, the float settled for a couple of minutes before he lifted the float five inches out of the water then lowered it again, giving the hookbait a fresh drop.

  The float had barely settled before it bobbed, then buried. A swift firm strike, needed to hook into the boney mouth of a perch, inspired five feet of soft elastic to shoot out of his pole tip as a good fish powered off. After a tremendous battle, which saw the fish break the surface several times, Russ’s gear held firm and he guided a 2lb-plus perch into his net.

The fish was a true specimen. Painted dark green and flashed with bold black stripes and red tinted fins, the epitmone of what a big perch should be. A cavernous predatory mouth was evidence of how it had grown so big and why it’ll soon top 3lb.

Following his own advice, Russ rebaited with three chopped lobworms, six casters and six maggots. He then switched his line of attack to rest the spot that had just produced- a great tactic. After picking off a couple more roach from the big bed of rushes, 30 minutes later he dropped a single red maggot  into his perch hidey-hole. Again, the float buried. Two minutes later a1lb 12oz perch was presented to the camera. This set the pattern for the final couple of hours of daylight. Although a couple of fish did slip his hook, the right-hand margin produced four perch, the smallest a few ounces over 1lb, the largest comfortably topping 2lb. Fabulous fishing by any standard.

Russ’s tactics also produced plenty of roach, rudd, a tench and some carp while he was waiting for the perch to feed.

What a great result – four fabulous perch on a cold, grey winter’s day

It's always important to select the right peg when hunting for big perch. Reeds and any margin cover offer the big stripey's the perfect hide out so they can pounce on their un suspecting prey. Red maggots on a small hook with a bit of wormy mush never fail to catch a perch or two.

Pole pots are the perfect way to drop feed right over your float with pin point accuracy.

IYCF 2008