• One of Shaun's big three
  • The big stripeys fell to lobworms
One of Shaun's big three

30.03.12

Big Perch Bagged on QM1s

Guru all-rounder Shaun Hodges has been in touch to tell us about some fantastic fishing that he enjoyed in the lead-up to the end of the season on the River Thames.

He takes up the story. “I had been targeting perch for the last six weeks of the river season on both rivers and lakes, with limited success. I’d been catching a fair few two pounders, although I’d yet to bank a three and I was getting pestered by plenty of pike.

A good friend of mine had been having some success on the Thames and invited me down. Conditions were not ideal on my first trip; we’d just had a load of rain and the river was high and coloured. However, I did manage a few two pounders, but there was still no sign of the three pounders that were my target.

On the very next session, conditions changed in my favour. The river had the merest tinge of colour and conditions were overcast and drizzly. I chose to target a near-bank slack, that I initially thought was featureless, but it turned out to hold a big underwater snag (which cost me a coupe of fish).

I set up my quivertip rod, tackling up with a free-running 1/4oz lead, a 4lb N-Gauge hook link tied to a size-10 QM1 hook, baited with a whole lobworm. Continual catapulting of red maggots brought bites, and what bites they were! I finally found the threes, banking fish of 3lb 12oz (a new PB), 3lb 4oz and 3lb 10oz.

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