Car Topping, Cherry popping, Perch fun!

After the first loch session on the boat, I had been itching to get back and so I made plans to fish the following weekend with Ritchie Bewsey. Ritchie had never tried for perch before and he was keen to try to get his first one. I had also managed to get a 30lb thrust electric motor for the boat so was looking forward to some powered perching.

Ritchie met me at my house in town bright and early and together we loaded the boat into his van. The forecast was cloudy but otherwise fine, although the wind would get up a bit in the afternoon.

An hour's drive later and we were at the loch after buying our permits and getting the key to the slipway. We unloaded the boat, got our gear stowed and launched into the loch. The old engine, which is held together mostly by gaffa tape, performed perfectly and we silently cruised to our first destination.

Tackle-wise we were both using our LRF gear and mine consists of a 7' 9" GraphiteLeader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000 reel, PE 1 Pontoon Exteer braid. On the business end it was my standard drop shot rig 3' 8lb Fluorocarbon leader and about half way up I tie a #8 offset worm hook via a palomar knot and I clipped on a 7g dropshot weight 30cm from the hook. I went with my go to lure, a Lake Fork Live baby Shad in watermelon red flake.

We anchored and began to cast 360 degrees around the boat. I worked the lure back very slowly with little twitches, hops and pauses. Our first couple of spots yielded nothing but it was easy to engage the engine and silently motor to our next spot.

After about 30 minutes of fishing we started to get interest from the fish and Ritchie managed to bag his first ever perch. The fish gave a good scrap and as he played it towards the boat . I duly did my landing net duties and a very happy Ritchie held his first ever perch, a nice fish of around three quarters of a pound.

Job done! Ritchie displays his first ever Perch.

I was quick to follow suit, all be it with a smaller fish which was quickly unhooked, photographed and put back. We managed a few more before the action dried up and we had to motor off to find them again.

Mine was considerably smaller!

We silently cruised around to a point where a burn entered the loch and began our casting around the boat. Yet again Ritchie was first into a fish and it was another nice perch again nudging the pound mark. I managed a couple of smaller ones before we decided to head out into deeper water.

Ritchie's new PB a beautifully marked one pounder

I was enjoying some great fishing too

The moved proved ridiculously successful. I had cruised out to maybe 100 meters from shore and anchored up to stop us drifting. First cast was nailed by a perch as the lure dropped to the bottom of the loch. It was not a big fish but was very wild and I had to play it back some distance to land it. Meanwhile Ritchie was also into a fish, again not big, being around the half pound mark but likewise was great fun on our light rods. We quickly unhooked the fish and recast to exactly the same result, double hook up and a fun fight.

The fishing went silly at this point and we caught perch after perch after perch. Ritchie and I were really having a laugh, it was just like coalie bashing with hoards of ravenous perch mercilessly attacking our lures.

We began to have fun by trying lures that we had never caught on before. These consisted mostly of creature-type baits and we whipped through a fair old selection, all of which were getting hammered by the perch.

Fish Arrow Flash J pintail, the perch loved these!

 Ecogear Bug Ants were also readily attacked by this golden mouthed specimen.

As the weather began to deteriorate we began to prepare ourselves to motor back to the slipway, having a goodly number of " last casts" before we upped anchor and headed back. The short run back was rather unpleasant with a squally head wind making it quite choppy and cold. The engine was running low on battery power and this and the headwind combined to make it a slow, arduous journey. Instead of taking 15 minutes to do the run back it took an hour, with swans overtaking us such was our slow pace.

Eventually we got back and got the boat loaded into Ritchie's van and, although cold and tired, we were both completely blown away by the number of perch caught. As always the perch were pristine and although we caught nothing larger than a pound the non stop action had us buzzing all the way home. One thing's for sure, I do need to get a petrol outboard for the boat as it will open up more of the loch to us and make the journey back to the slipway bearable!

Tight Lines
Schogsky