I took a risk on the weather today and had a day on my own in a boat.
Forecast was wet all day a few days ago but over the weekend the bad weather was forecast to arrive later - so I thought I might get a decent morning at least.
They let the boats out after about 8am so I was there at 8.15 and on the water by 8.30. Lovely soft conditions with a light W Wind.
most years there the perch mass in the deep water in September and this year has been a good one. This morning there were 4 - 8” Perch showing over an acre or two of water Right in front if the lodge. It looked promising.
I tied my boat to a buoy about 50 Yard’s out from the lodge and started fishing with a fast sinking line and a light wire trace to save pike chomping off my flies.
The trick is to use big flies to stop the small perch from eating them every cast - so I was using flies around 4 - 5” long. By 9am I had tried 3different flies and worked out how long to let the line/flies sink so that I was as close as possible to the bottom, but not snagging up every cast (l lost 3 flies in the day to the bottom).
From 9am till about 1030 I had a fish on every cast. Most were decent perch with a few pike mixed in. I tried different flies and different retrieves but still caught every cast. I weighed a couple to get my eye in for the weights, one was 1.12 and the next one was 2.05. One pike was about 12lb and I actually saw it hit a shoal of smallish perch, I cast to it and caught it. Great fun...
Then the rain and wind arrived and the fishing slowed right down. I carried on getting the odd fish, mostly perch with the odd pike mixed in. Most of the perch were 1.10 - 2.04 ish. I weighed one better one at 2.14.
highlight of the day came at noon when I hooked a decent fish And after a few anxious moments a much bigger fish rolled into the net. Another boat was passing (they were perching also) and I shouted across that it was over 3.5 lb. they asked to see it so I waved the net in their direction and they agreed. On the scales it went 3.12 - a superb fish.
The rest of the day was an anticlimax with few decent fish showing. I moved twice and then tried drifting - but only had a few smaller fish. 2 other boats that were perching were only catching smallish fish (they were using small flies).
Final tally was probably 40+ perch of which at least 10 were over 2lb and the best going 2.14 and 3.12. Add in 8 pike with the biggest at 12 lb and it was an action packed day. Maybe my last trip there this year as the pike trials have started and boat bookings are hard to get.
Forecast was wet all day a few days ago but over the weekend the bad weather was forecast to arrive later - so I thought I might get a decent morning at least.
They let the boats out after about 8am so I was there at 8.15 and on the water by 8.30. Lovely soft conditions with a light W Wind.
most years there the perch mass in the deep water in September and this year has been a good one. This morning there were 4 - 8” Perch showing over an acre or two of water Right in front if the lodge. It looked promising.
I tied my boat to a buoy about 50 Yard’s out from the lodge and started fishing with a fast sinking line and a light wire trace to save pike chomping off my flies.
The trick is to use big flies to stop the small perch from eating them every cast - so I was using flies around 4 - 5” long. By 9am I had tried 3different flies and worked out how long to let the line/flies sink so that I was as close as possible to the bottom, but not snagging up every cast (l lost 3 flies in the day to the bottom).
From 9am till about 1030 I had a fish on every cast. Most were decent perch with a few pike mixed in. I tried different flies and different retrieves but still caught every cast. I weighed a couple to get my eye in for the weights, one was 1.12 and the next one was 2.05. One pike was about 12lb and I actually saw it hit a shoal of smallish perch, I cast to it and caught it. Great fun...
Then the rain and wind arrived and the fishing slowed right down. I carried on getting the odd fish, mostly perch with the odd pike mixed in. Most of the perch were 1.10 - 2.04 ish. I weighed one better one at 2.14.
highlight of the day came at noon when I hooked a decent fish And after a few anxious moments a much bigger fish rolled into the net. Another boat was passing (they were perching also) and I shouted across that it was over 3.5 lb. they asked to see it so I waved the net in their direction and they agreed. On the scales it went 3.12 - a superb fish.
The rest of the day was an anticlimax with few decent fish showing. I moved twice and then tried drifting - but only had a few smaller fish. 2 other boats that were perching were only catching smallish fish (they were using small flies).
Final tally was probably 40+ perch of which at least 10 were over 2lb and the best going 2.14 and 3.12. Add in 8 pike with the biggest at 12 lb and it was an action packed day. Maybe my last trip there this year as the pike trials have started and boat bookings are hard to get.
