I'm constantly rewatching your videos, the curlytail video saved my winter Pike season, Lure fishing University! Thank you so much for your generosity. I do have one question, my local lake (at the end of my street!) is a notoriously difficult water that holds many specimen Perch and Pike. It's a smallish 12ft deep former reservoir / gravel pit with about 3ft water clarity, the water temperature is about 12/13 degrees atm. All I ever catch is Pike regardless of tackle choice, any tips on getting bites from Perch?
Hi Chris thanks for the comment. There’s a few things…. 1 - does it get bait fished a lot? On venues that see a lot of bait like worms/maggots the perch can be tricky to catch on lures 2 - pike are more aggressive so if you’re catching a lot of pike even on perch kit you may be fishing too fast/aggressive. Slow down and try a Ned or small creature bait. 3 - How big is the venue? Sometimes they just like areas out of reach of casting range. Usually from 12°c and up they should be coming in to shallows though. 4 - As general rule keep lures small
As a newbie lure fisherman, it would be great if you could include the hook sizes you'd use for each of the soft baits you recommend. Great video though!
Cracking video Thom , as always. … definitely know what you mean about the weather. I work outside all the time and yesterday morning was 4° and this morning was 14°. … very strange but as said that’s how it always is this time of year. Love your selection of lures that you mention and as I’ve messaged you in the past I’m not the most advanced lure angler by a longshot and only been doing it a couple of years but there’s something I tried on the canal the other day and I tried them when I went trout Fishing a couple of weeks ago just when the season started. … a lure you didn’t mention ,,, an old one at that … The humble spinner …. The ones in question I had were called a joes flies spinner ….. I just tried them the other day on the canal as they worked great for the trout. It was just to see what happened…. Well, at first I was trying to drop shot and some small rubber lures as you show your video , then I thought I will try one of them Little spinners I’ve just mentioned. …. Whether it was just a bit of luck or maybe the fish had just switched on I’m not too sure but I ended up catching a couple of small perch and 2 pike upto 7lb ,…. I know nothing impressive but I was well happy…. It was at the weekend just gone when it was quite mild and really windy so maybe that had something to do with it … who knows …. I just wanted to mention them lures as they are often forgotten about and it is a type of lure I always use in the summer and work a treat. Anyway, all the best to you and yours and look forward to seeing your next Fishing video with you on the Bank catching some fish my lad 👍😁🎣
Cheers for the message 👍 Yeah the spinner has to be one of the oldest lures but till the most reliable. Can’t leave home without one! Well done and doesn’t matter on the size, with a light set up it’s great fun.
Great video Thom! Im going to give them a try this weekend, maybe that's the piece I was missing, on the flash I've been fishing the perch seem to have disappeared, they might be spawning or it might be the water that is still to cold.
You will notice a period when even the small perch seem super fat, then suddenly they disappear for a couple of weeks but when they start up again that’s when the chatterbait bait and Jerkbait can be deadly
@@Thomhuntfishing i have westin t finness rod crack rod in 5 /20gm would it be wise to go down to 5/15 grm t.c finness rod in spinning and t.c finness rod. All my Westin lures are just up to 9 gm bit more bullybite and soft bait crecerw.
@@pennybolitho2669 I had a couple many moons ago and they were ok. Any good quality spinner like Mepps, Blue Fox etc are good. The last 2 years I’ve used the Westin Optic 360 and really like the fact it comes in unusual colours with memorable names like ‘Caution Bee’s!’ And Pickled Sardine
For Topwater you have 3 options really. Poppers Stickbaits for ‘walk the dog’ ‘Winged’ style cicada baits. They all have their day but small stick baits of 7-9cm can be great (not suited to fast rivers though)
I want to fish 1-2g jig heads with small soft plastics targeting perch on the canal but pike & zander are present, how can I set up a wire trace after my fluorocarbon leader
Hi Kenny, for really light wire traces look at 6.6lb AFW Micro Surflon Ultra or 6lb Nitinol titanium traces both very thin and finesse. Just make sure your clips are small also and try to avoid things like swivels 👍
Hi Thom, thanks for taking your time to reply… I will definitely be buying myself a spool of AFW wire in 6.6lb! I’m stuck on how to attach the wire to the fluorocarbon without using a swivel any tips would be greatly appreciated🎣👍🏼
@@kennythomas736 It’s coated wire so if you make a loop in the end of the wire you can either knot on the Flouro (I use a blood knot ) or you can loop to loop it on 👍
Our rivers are shut from March 15- June 15 but lakes and canals still open! it’s strange how each country has different rules. Be sure to tune in for my May tips then!
Tom I got some new lures babybite and bullybite to rawbite do u think the work as well as soft baits like ones in video of set of diff ones of them..top video and top tips..
May in to June can be great for perch (well for all predators) July and August I find difficult unless you’re prepared to get up at first light as they usually do all their feeding from 4-7am Then September and October is great before it starts to get really cold
Thom, Essex Angler posted a video with you fishing with him. Quick question, what waiste bag are you using? I bought the Westin W3 Leg Bag, its a life saver for my back,but it doesnt look as big as the one in the video.
Yeah I use the W3 Leg bag as well but in the video that’s from our new Put&Take trout range called the Stalker bag. Comes with 2 boxes and main compartment is quite a bit wider/bigger than the leg bag
Thanks for the video, was looking for some advice as a new angler if possible: I started fishing local uk club ponds looking for perch, but the water is really muddy (chocolate color), i want to lure fish for the perch in here, what would you suggest for such a venue? the only other species in the ponds are rudd roach bream tench. i tried using a mepps aglia silver spinner but didn't get any bites.
It’s a bit early for a spinner, they usually get good from May/June. It really depends what you mean by ‘muddy’ If you lower your lure in to the water, can you see it 2” down, 6” down or 12” down?
@@Thomhuntfishing About 2 inches id say, and it’s like this all year round. I watched your video from a few years back regarding this which had some great tips was just wondering if your approach would be different with it being a commercial lake style water instead of canal or river
@@moiki8861 2 inches is pretty low to be honest and as perch are predominantly sight feeders I would doubt if there were any good numbers of them even in a place like that. And then trying to catch them on lures will also be tricky. You will get the odd one but I coloured commercial all year round simply isn’t the type of venue for decent perch Fishing on lures
@@Thomhuntfishing Yeah thats understandable cheers for the advice, there are decent perch in there pushing 3lb but all the catch reports are using coarse fishing setups. looks like im stuck with that until river season opens up not to worry
@@moiki8861 by all means try lure fishing, in muddy water they will be close to the bottom or close to snags a lot of the time. So something like a skirted jig with creature bait on would be good, fished fairly slow
Depends on venue. My videos go out across the whole of Europe and beyond so depends where you are. Most of UK might be around March-May usually majority of perch do it all in a 2-3 week period but that could be start of March or end of May so even in one country it varies. Scotland usually later.
i tried the shadteez hollow last spring, and i totally agree with you. its much easier for the perch to swallow the shad when its hollow and the perch i caught on it last year were munching it down like no tomorrow. Btw, when you say 10 and 14 degrees, is it then air or water temp?
Depends on the size of Zander but soft baits are always my No1 for Zeds in terms of numbers of bites. The 2 I mentioned in this video Shadteez Slim 5cm and Shadteez Hollow 8cm are great, and also the 6.5cm Crecraw and the 7cm Ned worm have their day as well when they’re really inactive
Great as ever Thom and immediately saved to my essential lure fishing playlist. Ace 👍
Thanks for the kind words Paul! Hope it comes in useful!
Hi Tom, your UA-cam channel has taught me so much and I’m now catching more Perch on each trip, thank you.👍🏻
Wow thanks I love messages like these ones! Glad you’ve learned a thing or 2 and it’s helping! 💪 🎣
great vid! ive just got a w4 streetstick 2-10 are these as good as t&c because ive heard everyone raving about them
Yes the Street is a great rod. Lighter and thinner than the Finesse T&C but a slightly different action
ShadTeez Hollow saved my arse this weekend, two Jacks this afternoon. Perch are eluding me, haven't had one in a while :(
I'm constantly rewatching your videos, the curlytail video saved my winter Pike season, Lure fishing University! Thank you so much for your generosity. I do have one question, my local lake (at the end of my street!) is a notoriously difficult water that holds many specimen Perch and Pike. It's a smallish 12ft deep former reservoir / gravel pit with about 3ft water clarity, the water temperature is about 12/13 degrees atm. All I ever catch is Pike regardless of tackle choice, any tips on getting bites from Perch?
Hi Chris thanks for the comment. There’s a few things….
1 - does it get bait fished a lot? On venues that see a lot of bait like worms/maggots the perch can be tricky to catch on lures
2 - pike are more aggressive so if you’re catching a lot of pike even on perch kit you may be fishing too fast/aggressive. Slow down and try a Ned or small creature bait.
3 - How big is the venue? Sometimes they just like areas out of reach of casting range. Usually from 12°c and up they should be coming in to shallows though.
4 - As general rule keep lures small
Thanks Thom, this is Gold! Hope to see you in Oxford some time.
@@christopherjarman1349If you’re in Oxford and the Reservoir starts with an F then it’s insanely difficult to catch perch there!
Thanks Thom
No problem thanks for watching
As a newbie lure fisherman, it would be great if you could include the hook sizes you'd use for each of the soft baits you recommend. Great video though!
Cracking video Thom , as always. … definitely know what you mean about the weather. I work outside all the time and yesterday morning was 4° and this morning was 14°. … very strange but as said that’s how it always is this time of year. Love your selection of lures that you mention and as I’ve messaged you in the past I’m not the most advanced lure angler by a longshot and only been doing it a couple of years but there’s something I tried on the canal the other day and I tried them when I went trout Fishing a couple of weeks ago just when the season started. … a lure you didn’t mention ,,, an old one at that …
The humble spinner …. The ones in question I had were called a joes flies spinner ….. I just tried them the other day on the canal as they worked great for the trout.
It was just to see what happened….
Well, at first I was trying to drop shot and some small rubber lures as you show your video , then I thought I will try one of them Little spinners I’ve just mentioned. …. Whether it was just a bit of luck or maybe the fish had just switched on I’m not too sure but I ended up catching a couple of small perch and 2 pike upto 7lb ,…. I know nothing impressive but I was well happy…. It was at the weekend just gone when it was quite mild and really windy so maybe that had something to do with it … who knows …. I just wanted to mention them lures as they are often forgotten about and it is a type of lure I always use in the summer and work a treat.
Anyway, all the best to you and yours and look forward to seeing your next Fishing video with you on the Bank catching some fish my lad 👍😁🎣
Cheers for the message 👍 Yeah the spinner has to be one of the oldest lures but till the most reliable. Can’t leave home without one! Well done and doesn’t matter on the size, with a light set up it’s great fun.
@@Thomhuntfishing thank you buddy and just want to add I appreciate you taking time out to giving the little fish a reply 😁😁…. Yer a Top bloke 👍😁🎣😎
Great video Thom! Im going to give them a try this weekend, maybe that's the piece I was missing, on the flash I've been fishing the perch seem to have disappeared, they might be spawning or it might be the water that is still to cold.
You will notice a period when even the small perch seem super fat, then suddenly they disappear for a couple of weeks but when they start up again that’s when the chatterbait bait and Jerkbait can be deadly
@@Thomhuntfishing that's absolute gold. Thank you so much Thom. Will get the chatterbaits and the jerkbaits ready!🤜🏼🤛🏼
Fantastic video.
What size of hook would you marry up to the 5cm Shadteez slim please?
Something around a size #1?
Thankyou.
Hi Phil, no a #1 is way too big. I fish them on the new Westin Micro Jig heads which are a #4, and anything from 1-3g is about right 👍
@@Thomhuntfishing sorry Tom your gent I shound be trying to tell diff sizes when u know what the best to use srry about jumping in.
@@darrenanthonyshortt9157 no probs I appreciate the comments it’s good for everyone to chat 👍
@@Thomhuntfishing i have westin t finness rod crack rod in 5 /20gm would it be wise to go down to 5/15 grm t.c finness rod in spinning and t.c finness rod. All my Westin lures are just up to 9 gm bit more bullybite and soft bait crecerw.
@@darrenanthonyshortt9157 Yeah I love the Finesse T&C 5-15g for all round perch fishing it’s one of the best in my opinion
awesome stuff do you use blue fox spinners much?
@@pennybolitho2669 I had a couple many moons ago and they were ok. Any good quality spinner like Mepps, Blue Fox etc are good. The last 2 years I’ve used the Westin Optic 360 and really like the fact it comes in unusual colours with memorable names like ‘Caution Bee’s!’ And Pickled Sardine
Managed couple better fish on chatterbait last week around two pound mark nice to get back on active fishing hopefully start chasing soon
Yeah everything is starting to wake up now which is awesome!
Good advice like normal 👍
Thanks Gary glad you enjoyed it
Another great Tom, thanks. I really want to give top water lures a go this year for perch, can you recommend any lures please?
Another great video, I meant
For Topwater you have 3 options really.
Poppers
Stickbaits for ‘walk the dog’
‘Winged’ style cicada baits.
They all have their day but small stick baits of 7-9cm can be great (not suited to fast rivers though)
@@Thomhuntfishing when is best time to use cicadas and stick baits like barkey j walker poppers .
April maybe, but deffo try them from May 👍
I want to fish 1-2g jig heads with small soft plastics targeting perch on the canal but pike & zander are present, how can I set up a wire trace after my fluorocarbon leader
Hi Kenny, for really light wire traces look at 6.6lb AFW Micro Surflon Ultra or 6lb Nitinol titanium traces both very thin and finesse. Just make sure your clips are small also and try to avoid things like swivels 👍
Hi Thom, thanks for taking your time to reply… I will definitely be buying myself a spool of AFW wire in 6.6lb! I’m stuck on how to attach the wire to the fluorocarbon without using a swivel any tips would be greatly appreciated🎣👍🏼
@@kennythomas736 It’s coated wire so if you make a loop in the end of the wire you can either knot on the Flouro (I use a blood knot ) or you can loop to loop it on 👍
Top man, appreciate it🎣👍🏼
Unfortunately we can’t fish in holland till the end of may 😢
Our rivers are shut from March 15- June 15 but lakes and canals still open! it’s strange how each country has different rules. Be sure to tune in for my May tips then!
@@Thomhuntfishing Will do👌
Tom I got some new lures babybite and bullybite to rawbite do u think the work as well as soft baits like ones in video of set of diff ones of them..top video and top tips..
Yeah they’re all fantastic hard baits. Generally when the perch are active in May-Sept 👍
Hi thanks again for great content, ,,not quite there yet,, when do you think is best time to go perch fishing other then wait till october thanks
May in to June can be great for perch (well for all predators)
July and August I find difficult unless you’re prepared to get up at first light as they usually do all their feeding from 4-7am
Then September and October is great before it starts to get really cold
Great many thanks for the info hope till then weather will be better more stable and with less rain.
Thom, Essex Angler posted a video with you fishing with him. Quick question, what waiste bag are you using? I bought the Westin W3 Leg Bag, its a life saver for my back,but it doesnt look as big as the one in the video.
Yeah I use the W3 Leg bag as well but in the video that’s from our new Put&Take trout range called the Stalker bag. Comes with 2 boxes and main compartment is quite a bit wider/bigger than the leg bag
@@Thomhuntfishing brilliant thanks for taking the time to respond
Thanks for the video, was looking for some advice as a new angler if possible:
I started fishing local uk club ponds looking for perch, but the water is really muddy (chocolate color), i want to lure fish for the perch in here, what would you suggest for such a venue? the only other species in the ponds are rudd roach bream tench. i tried using a mepps aglia silver spinner but didn't get any bites.
It’s a bit early for a spinner, they usually get good from May/June. It really depends what you mean by ‘muddy’
If you lower your lure in to the water, can you see it 2” down, 6” down or 12” down?
@@Thomhuntfishing About 2 inches id say, and it’s like this all year round. I watched your video from a few years back regarding this which had some great tips was just wondering if your approach would be different with it being a commercial lake style water instead of canal or river
@@moiki8861 2 inches is pretty low to be honest and as perch are predominantly sight feeders I would doubt if there were any good numbers of them even in a place like that. And then trying to catch them on lures will also be tricky. You will get the odd one but I coloured commercial all year round simply isn’t the type of venue for decent perch Fishing on lures
@@Thomhuntfishing Yeah thats understandable cheers for the advice, there are decent perch in there pushing 3lb but all the catch reports are using coarse fishing setups. looks like im stuck with that until river season opens up not to worry
@@moiki8861 by all means try lure fishing, in muddy water they will be close to the bottom or close to snags a lot of the time. So something like a skirted jig with creature bait on would be good, fished fairly slow
Will they not be spawning yet?
Depends on venue. My videos go out across the whole of Europe and beyond so depends where you are. Most of UK might be around March-May usually majority of perch do it all in a 2-3 week period but that could be start of March or end of May so even in one country it varies. Scotland usually later.
i tried the shadteez hollow last spring, and i totally agree with you. its much easier for the perch to swallow the shad when its hollow and the perch i caught on it last year were munching it down like no tomorrow. Btw, when you say 10 and 14 degrees, is it then air or water temp?
Water temp. Get a small thermometer off eBay with a 1m cord to the sensor. Used for fish tanks. Only about £5
Great info Thom, what lures do you suggest for Zander on canals this time of year
Cheers.
Depends on the size of Zander but soft baits are always my No1 for Zeds in terms of numbers of bites. The 2 I mentioned in this video Shadteez Slim 5cm and Shadteez Hollow 8cm are great, and also the 6.5cm Crecraw and the 7cm Ned worm have their day as well when they’re really inactive