A day of two halves with a last minute winner

When the self-proclaimed 'Perchman' Martin Roberts invited me for a day chasing the striped fish with him on his favourite venue I jumped at the chance> Perch have for a long time been my nemesis, I seem to be able to catch them up to a pound or so but the bigger ones keep eluding me. This was a chance to visit new angling grounds and to learn about catching big Perch.

As we pulled in to the car park we knew that we were in for a difficult day. Ice and lots of it, there were the odd small clear patches but nothing fishable. Decision time: clear some ice or clear off. We decided to give it a go.

Martin fetched his pole and we used it to move and break up the ice in two swims.
To start with we would be happy to catch anything in order to avoid a blank. Martin started well landing a small snotty Bream and a decent Roach, "2 nil" he quipped.
I chuntered to myself and battled on through the snow.

Eventually I landed a small Roach and then followed that quickly with a couple more, "3-2" I quipped back.
By this time the morning had been and gone and the ice was clearing rapidly, A huge sheet drifted across my swim and the decision was made to have a move. Martin headed for the island and I dropped in to a really fishy looking swim where I could place a bait under a tree, all fish love cover. My Prawn hookbait was snaffled before I could get a second rod out and I landed a 1lb 3oz Roach.

This was followed by several others up to 1lb 1oz, a Rudd, a few small Bream and then eventually our target fish, a 1lb 2oz Perch. Not the monster I had hoped for but it renewed our enthusiasm.

The sun even came out!

Martin's swim was very quiet but he fished on determinedly, local knowledge telling him to stay in there until dusk. He was right.
As the light faded he struck into a lump that led him a merry dance charging all over the place. He shouted across that he was into a Carp or the mother of all Perch. It turned out to be a stunning Ghost Common, isn't he pleased!

I thought that would have stuffed up his swim but within minutes he had another fish on, this time the target and he landed a cracking 2lb 11oz Perch.

From zero to hero in the space of a few minutes. That turned out to be the end of the action, a cracking days fishing considering the difficult conditions and I went home knowing I had learnt a lot from Martins's methods on how to go about chasing big Perch. Hopefully I will personally fare better next time against my nemesis(the big Perch not Martin!)