After a couple of fruitless sessions after Tench I decided to change tack and start Perch fishing.Yesterday(Friday)was my first effort.Venue was the River Chelmer below Chelmsford.Here the river is canalised with 13 locks between Chelmsford and Maldon.
I used modern'ish gear,the oldest was a Mitchell 324 circa 1974.End tackle was as simple as it gets,a small chubber taking a couple of BB,size 10 hook baited with a dendrobeana.
The aim was to move around trying likely places and cover plenty of water.Have recently lightened the load I usually carry made this a breeze,pick up the small bag,rod,net and go.
Starting by one of the locks I caught small Perch from the off,mainly small but a few bigger ones up to about 10oz.Moving from swim to swim and catching from most of them I eventually arrived at a swim with a short length of concrete bank.Looking down into about five feet of clear water I could just make out some small Perch milling about.The bank was about fifteen yards long ending in a group of reeds,sorry no pics Doh!Dropping the tackle in I inched it towards the reeds.I caught three small Perch straight away then it all went quiet.I crept to the spot,looked down and a small group of much larger Perch had moved in. I moved back,dropped the tackle in and let it creep towards the reeds.The float went under and I connected with a good fish.At first I thought I had hooked a large Chub as it fought so hard.After 3-4 minutes I landed it and it was a fine Perch of 1lb 11oz,not a big one but very satisfying with lovely markings.
Next run down I hooked another,a very different,hard fight and an Eel of about 2lb was landed.The Perch actually fought harder than the Eel!
The swim died after that so,moving on I had several more small Perch before calling it a day about 7-15pm.
I had about twenty Perch in total,they were all caught within a foot of the marginal growth,nothing in open water.A fine few hours spent in some lovely countryside.I am hoping for my first "three" this season,fingers crossed!
First Perch session this September
- Grumpy
- Arctic Char
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First Perch session this September
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- ReelMaker
- Brown Trout
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Re: First Perch session this September
Good evening sir,the fishing looks good on the River Chelmer,a lovely Perch on light tackle travelling light.well done Terry
- PershoreHarrier
- Rainbow Trout
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Re: First Perch session this September
A fine looking Perch - well done.
- Coral Maestro
- Chub
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Re: First Perch session this September
A lovely Perch and a great write up. Well done!
What do they know of fishing who know only one fish and one way to fish for him?
- Jack Hargreaves.
- Jack Hargreaves.
- Harry H
- Rainbow Trout
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Re: First Perch session this September
Lovely looking Perch
Both my nephews have boats on the Chelmer and have told me of seeing some really big Perch, just need the current situation to calm down so I can take up the offer of a trip.
Both my nephews have boats on the Chelmer and have told me of seeing some really big Perch, just need the current situation to calm down so I can take up the offer of a trip.
There are three things that improve with age: wine, friendship and water sense, and there's no short cut.
Anthony Shepherdson
Anthony Shepherdson