Fishing Methods - Perch spinning

Actually Catching Something.
Advice for Parents of Young Anglers

Fish Suppers for Sailors
A guide to fishing for yachtsmen.

Perch take lures readily

The hardest part is finding them - once you've done that you avoid spooking them...

They seem to attack from the rear and they will take a large spinner - a 1lb Perch will take a #5 Mepps. It can be hard to remove the standard treble from the fish's mouth so refit a barbless (or crush the barbs).

I cannot prove it but my gut feeling is that perch take better to a steady retrieve rather than a worked spinner - very erratic plugs don't seem to take them either - possibly I have made this self reinforcing by always switching to such when perch are around so feel free to experiment. A simple bar spoon does as well as anything else for me.

If you want to try for them with lures on a fly rod you will find they are great fun. Don't be afraid to use big lures though - 2/0 clouser is not too big.

In all cases try to overcast the fish if you can and bring the tackle through the shoal (which may well be patrolling - you might need to anticipate their moves) rather than dropping it into the middle of them which sometimes scares them.

Don't return fish close to the shoal - put them back 50 yards away so they recover before they find the shoal or they may spook the rest.

And use a wire trace, there are bound to be the odd pike about.