My first decent Blythe Perch is achieved

I managed to wangle an afternoon out fishing for Perch with Steve today. On checking the forecast we decided on the Blythe for Perch, as there has been no significant rain and the temperature although mild has been a little in between at the moment. Steve checked the temp and found it to be about 42 - 43 deg f (which converts to 5.6 - 6.1 deg C in "new money").









We arrived on the bank about 3: 30pm, the sun was out but it was quite windy - following gales from the west over the previous 16 hours. The water was slightly coloured with a bottle green tinge and had risen with just a couple of inches. However there was still little if any flow to contend with.

We chose our respective pegs and set up, me in a peg that had produced a 2.8lb fish before for Steve. He chose a swim further downstream.
I baited up using the dropper with plenty of chopped worm and some red maggot in to attract some fish.
Then a nice juicy lob was hooked in the head making sure I made a couple of neat nicks from the scissors to allow the worms juices to seep out, hopefully enticing any passing large Perch to take a bite !

I placed the float carefully in front of me no more than half a rod length out and near to some wispy branches and a dead reed bed, the depth was only around 3ft or so.
It wasn't long after I'd cast that I received a call from the mother of a good friend who had very tragically died recently. She was calling to give me details of his forthcoming funeral and whilst talking to her I prayed that I wouldn't get a bite at this precise moment, as I wouldn't be able to just break off the conversation if the float went under. Just as the conversation ended and I was saying goodbye, the float started to bob and move across the surface.

Literally as I put the phone down the float disappeared and I struck - I was in! The fish rose up and boiled on the surface, it was a good perch.

With my heart in my mouth I reached for the net, but by now the fish had dived for the dead reed bed directly in front of my legs. Thankfully it didn't find any snags and popped onto the surface again, I quickly thrust the net under her and she was mine.

It felt strange that I should catch at that exact moment ! I wondered if my friends spirit was anything to do with it, he was also an angler (a flukey one at that too) and I know he would have been chuffed to see me land that fish, so I dedicated the capture to him. (S. J. H. - R.I.P.)

I gestured to Steve, who came over to see what I'd caught. He correctly guessed the weight to be just over a 1lb. I was hoping for a little more maybe pushing the 2lb mark! Steve took some photo's for me and then went back to his peg. I weighed the fish and was (if I'm honest) a little disappointed for a split second that it hadn't reached 2lb but instead came in at 1lb 4oz

I was soon over my disappointment though when I realized what a fine fish it was, and still the second biggest Perch I have ever witnessed let alone caught. It was the first big perch caught by design, an achievement for me in itself.

I recast but there was no more action, bar a rather large crayfish (which I quickly culled), so I moved to the next peg to try another classic looking Perch hole.

After several casts I only managed to catch a small sprat of a perch, then the light quickly became too dim to see where I was putting my float so it was time to call it a day.

"A little sprat like this took a whole Canadian Lobworm"

A successful session all in all, hopefully I will get the chance to fish for a big perch again before the end of the river season in two weeks time.

"Stunning winter colours on display from this beautiful 1lb 4oz Perch"