Well what a dire Christmas break we're having weather wise ! Things started off looking good at the start of the holidays and I had planned a specimen Roach campaign over the festive period, but it's all gone a bit wrong !
The lake I was going to target has suffered badly from flooding, and whilst the water level itself isn't so much of a problem, it's the colour of the water that is. The lake has turned a very muddy brown compared to it's usual clarity at this time of year and realistically this will ruin the Roach fishing. So I have been scratching around a bit trying to find something to do and have ended up reverting back to a bit of Carp fishing on a more heavily stocked 'hungry' club water on which I had a very good session using a new method to me, zig fishing. I had always planned on getting to grips with this method of fishing with this time of year in mind as the Carp can usually be sat off the bottom for long periods of time in the slightly relatively warmer layers of water that can form, known as thermoclines. Being a reasonably deep and featureless water that I was fishing I decided to give it a go. The day was bright, and a rare break in the stormy weather of late. I had to search around a bit in order to locate some fish but once I got the first bite, sport was quite hectic, especially for the time of year. I fished two different colours of foam on the hook and though I did catch on both colours, one stood out head and shoulders above the other. The baits were fished at about half depth and within the same area as each other so the comparison was quite a fair one. Though the fish in this lake would be classed as 'hungry' they are no push over and the zigs certainly caught them off guard, and interestingly to prove this a fair proportion of the fish were in double figures which is not something that happens when bottom fishing here. Usually in a multiple catch you may get an odd better fish, but normally the only other way to get through to them is with pre baiting. Zigs are certainly something I will be playing around with on other waters in the future, especially when the bottom bait fishing is slow.

I started off well with a number of Roach of this stamp during my first couple of sessions, then the lake flooded !

 

 



Zig caught 16lb'er part of a catch of a dozen fish on the method, not too shabby for 29th December !

 

 



To conclude this entry, This morning I decided to try another club water that may hold some better Roach, in an effort to continue my campaign for the species, but unusually for me I packed up after only a couple of hours having not had a single bite...the water is shallow and a lot of cold water has gone in lately and this can be the only reason why the fish were showing no interest whatsoever. Again this is what you would class as a 'hungry water' and does have a large head of silver fish, so to not even get a liner within a couple of hours is quite staggering...
Hopefully the Roach fishing will pick up again if this foul weather ever abates, and I will be able to get back to chasing specimens of these lovely silver fish, until then I guess I will be scratching around doing whatever suits the conditions. Hope to report back soon !

More Winter Perch fishing

Had another couple of days Perching at the weekend, this time on a different water with a lower stock of Perch but where the average size is slightly better. The lake resides on the same club complex as the one I fished last week and is the same lake I fished throughout the summer and Autumn for Carp. I have always felt that this lake may hold some very large Perch due to the lower stock. There is just as much food available to them in the form of small silver fish as there is in the other lakes so there is no reason to believe otherwise. The fact that the average size of Perch is better is a good indicator of the potential top end. Most of the fish caught here seem to be over 2.5lb many being upper two's and low three's. There is a sprinkling of fish of under a pound that occasionally take the bait, but these are clearly a different year class to the bigger fish, whereas in the other lake I fished last week the fish seem to be of all sizes with the majority of the better fish being of low 'two's, and yet the lake has also produced some 'three's for me despite the higher numbers of Perch.

Back to the two day's fishing and over the course of the two sessions I fished the same swim but the two days proved to be entirely different in the way the fish fed. The Saturday started of quite bright but did cloud over later on, but the light levels were still high despite the cloud and I landed four Perch and a small Jack Pike over the course of the day. The Sunday however proved to be a far more productive day, with the cloud cover being much denser and the light levels far lower than the previous day. This facilitated a much more productive session and I landed around seven or eight Perch including my first 'three' of the winter, and another Pike. Incidentally due to the fact that this lake holds Pike, it is necessary to use a wire trace when fishing for the Perch, and I managed to find some AFW ( American Fishing Wire ), trace material in a 6lb breaking strain which is very fine and clear nylon coated. It is extremely supple and is knotable which is a huge bonus. The wire doesn't seem to bother the Perch as it behaves much like mono and has a dull camo finish. Overall I am very pleased with the results I have had using this wire and as such would wholeheartedly recommend it.



After a good run on the Perch fishing I think the next few sessions will be for Roach, especially over the Christmas period as I can Target a water close to home for some short day trips in search of some silver specimens...I'll come back to the Perch of course but I find it pays to mix things up to keep the interest piqued at this time of year !

Winter Perch fishing

This weekend I fancied a change from Carp, and as the weather has taken on a proper chill of late I decided to target some winter Perch. Fortunately as a by product of my local fishing clubs stocking policies, several of their waters hold an excellent head of big Perch, with many of them running to well over two pounds and a small number surpassing the three pound mark. I made it a social event with my son and his friend so they too could enjoy the good sport that is on offer. As it turned out conditions were not ideal for our target species as the sun decided to put in an appearance, and as anyone who has any Perch fishing experience will know, Perch do not feed well under a bright sky. Despite the far from ideal conditions we were still hopeful of a few fish, as we knew that once the sun set later in the day we would have around an hour when the Perch would take advantage of the falling light conditions and have a good feed. As it turned out, a band of cloud came to our rescue lowering the light levels and triggering an early feeding spell. Both the boys and myself managed a few nice fish with each of us landing specimens over two pounds, my son managed the biggest of the day at two pounds seven ounces.

Number one Son showing his skills with a 2lb 7oz specimen

 

 

 



We returned the following day, just my Son and I for a Dad and lad day and again we managed some cracking specimens to over two pounds. Bright conditions again made the sport patchy until later in the day when the light levels began to drop. The last hour or so was just crazy, and wherever we lowered the baits in they were almost instantly grabbed by a Perch. The fish must have fed well into dark as we were still getting takes when we could barely see the floats anymore and I daresay we could have carried on catching, had we the means of seeing the bites. This might be something we have to experiment with as it may be the case that the really big fish, the three plussers will come out after dark. Perch being a predator, like their Saltwater cousins the Bass, have incredible eyesight, far superior to that of their prey which gives them the advantage in low light conditions, and like Bass they are able to spot prey far beyond what you might believe. I may go into more detail about the set up I like to use for Perch at some later date, but basically I like to use a float paternoster set up with one or two little personal touches that I feel work well for me.

Pick of the bunch for me, but we had many fish of a similar size over the two days.

 

 

I'm looking forward to having a few more goes to see if I can net a three pounder, I know they are there to be had because I've caught some from these waters before. I will of course still be having a dabble for the Carp now and again over the course of the winter as I have a target of a 20lb plus winter Common...