After the freeze had finally ended and the lakes began to thaw, I fancied having a crack for a big perch.  The thought of a 4lb perch had wetted by appetite the last couple of seasons and was a fish I dearly wanted to catch.  With endless commercial waters up and down the country many of these venues have the potential to produce specimen fish.

I had been keeping a close eye on a small water that I had been tipped off held a small number of very big fish.   After sorting out my kit I was up early ready to make the long journey to the venue, a total of a 3 hour round trip.   Using match style tactics my first visit drew and blank and I knew then that a change of approach would be needed if I were to succeed.  The next week I booked Friday off of work and made the long drive.

The evening before the planned session I rigged up two Korum Precision Multi Feeder rods with a float paternoster rig on each.  The first hour was spent catching a few small roach, enough to last the day and I soon had two live baits presented.  Feeding regular but small balls of P-Mix and red maggots covered in Supercrush Green kept the small fish in the area.  It wasn’t long before I had my first bite and a small fish weighing around a pound was being released.  Twenty minutes later my bite alarm signalled another bite, which resulted in a nice fish weighing 2lb 15oz. This signalled an end to the action I couldn’t wait to get back.

The next morning I was back and after following the same routine I soon had two live baits presented in a snaggy corner of the lake.  Soon after casting the rod fished tight against the overhanging braches signalled a confident bite and on striking I knew I was connected to a good fish.  The fish pulled hard for the cover and after a short tussle I soon had the fish away from danger.  The lake being shallow in depth the fish was sending up big boils and when it surfaced I was glad to slide the net under it.  Weighing 4lb 1oz it was the fish I had been after. Time to move on, I had big roach on the brain again.