Rivers still flooded and more perching

Earlier in the week I managed to visit the river Kennet. I had talked to a mate Paul who suggested that it would be perfect for barbel and chub with the temperature and colour of the river. So Tuesday I headed up to the Kennet after checking the levels on the EA site for the stretch I was going to fish. However what I didn’t take into account was the heavy rain we had over night. As I drove into the car park we had the second heavy hail storm of the afternoon. The river was within it’s banks (just) and I found a couple of swims that offered some sanctuary from the strong flow of the river. The only problem was that they were situated on the far bank.

5oz feeders were being employed. However with the amount of debris coming down they just wouldn’t hold bottom. Even with rods set up beach style with the maximum amount of line out of the water. However even with the minimal amount of line, the amount of debris collecting on the line soon had the feeder dragging around and away from the area where the barbel might be holding. So after 2 hours of looking and fishing the river beat me and so I drove home a disappointed man.

Then looking at the EA site over the next couple of day the river reached a new record level and is still over the old highest level now 5 days later as I write this. No wonder things were so difficult.

So Friday came and Andy (you should have been here yesterday) and I made our way to a perch lake where I’ve had a fair degree of success. We agreed to meet at 7.30am however Andy was 15 minutes late due to some road closures and a lengthy detour.

I settled into a swim I had not fished before letting Andy who had not fished the fishery before to have the best swim.

Prawns, worms and maggots were to be the bait for the day. Now last time I fished here the smaller prawns were the better bait that caught the perch on so this was our initial plan. Spraying maggots over the baited area.

Andy was the first away with a nice little perch of about 1lb 8oz.

I was fishing two area’s one close in and the other towards the island. Things were very quite, just a few line bites came my way. Then a couple of hours later Andy had another perch of 1lbs 14oz and there was so much fish activity in his swim it looked as though a good few would come his way.

At 11am and 2.5hrs without any action was enough for me so I moved swims. I moved to the other end of the lake and try my luck here. First cast produced a common carp of about 8lbs on prawn. I tried worm but nothing was interested.

Andy started to float fish and caught a few crucian carp , well that’s what we think although more identification is needed.

At 12.30pm I struck into a very perchy take and sure enough a nice little perch of 1lb 11oz came to the net. Andy next had another of these crucian carp of 2lbs 7oz

12.50 I had another perch of 1lb and missed another perch take 10 minutes later. I kept the maggots going in every few minutes.

13.30 Another perch followed this time of 1lbs 14oz.

In the next hour I caught another 3 perch which were not particularly large, 1.7, 1.14, and 1lb. The perch were not feeding in Andy’s swim but at least he was catching some of these crucians.

At 4pm I landed the largest perch of 2lbs 1oz.

We both then continued catching a few more perch and a couple of carp each as the evening approached. These pesky carp though take so long to land on light tackle and you tend to waste the best perch fishing time (dusk).

In 15 minutes before it got dark I had a flurry of 4 perch the largest 1lbs 10oz and as Andy came up to show me a 2lbs 1oz perch I had landed one fish and in the process of playing another. Happy days.

He helped me land this one and then of course there had to be a trophy shot.

Not large perch but good fun. 12 perch for me and 5 for Andy was the final result. I don’t think we will get too many big perch from here, however there will be a chance of a 3lber later in the spring.