Big Perch On The Fly

Dick Walker described the perch as “the biggest fish of all.” David West Beale shares the tactics and flies that have seen him catch numerous specimen stripeys.

- Dick Walker

Splosh. Wait. Hop… donk! There’s no mistaking the take. The 5-wt buckles over again and another good perch is on. This is fun!

It’s lunch time and I’ve left the insanity of the office behind for a lightning raid on the Grand Union Canal. Time is short but the action comes thick and fast. I’ve had the good fortune to drop onto an active pod of hungry perch feasting on the signal crayfish that have colonised the canal. I’m trying to imitate the escape swim pattern of the crayfish with a hopping retrieve and it’s doing the trick.

As I lift, the line skates away and pings taut and I find myself connected to a much heavier fish; just what I was hoping for. Big and bold and with bags of attitude, these fish know how to scrap. Hook one in a bad mood and it can pull like a horse. Oh, and they never give up, all the way to the net they keep scrapping.

More big perch are lost in those last seconds at the net than at any other time. It’s because of that fin arrangement, which allows them to turn on a sixpence to hit scattering fry. It comes in useful for rolling off the hook too, as many perch fishers will attest – the perch ‘death roll’ is legendary.

After a spirited tussle, though, I manage to horse her in and she comes to hand, 3½lb of stripey loveliness.

Big perch are simply breathtaking. Richard Walker described the perch as “the biggest fish of all” and I think this captures beautifully their mystery and intrigue. We are so accustomed to those tiny easy to catch ones that when we are lucky enough to meet with a whopper its sheer scale seems jaw-droppingly improbable by comparison – almost like perch on steroids.