DRENNAN CUP
THE GAME CHANGER
CATCHES OF THE WEEK
2023 - 2024 SEASON
“A FEW years back I caught a 2lb perch from the Yorkshire Ouse while pike fishing.
“I planned to return, but it’d slipped my mind until recently, when I stumbled across some old match reports from the stretch.
“They revealed that contests were often won with bags of perch, including fish to over 3lb. This reignited my interest in the area and, in between floods, I’ve been fishing it. Initially, I caught lots of smaller perch, before figuring out where the larger specimens were.
“I’ve had my best results on lobworms, but I fish them slightly differently. Sometimes I’ll present them on the bottom, but injecting them with air through a fine-gauge syringe, which pops them up, then twitching them through the swim, is my preferred way to do it.
“This is a tactic that’s served me well in the past when all else has failed. Because perch are sight feeders, I think a twitched worm wafting just off bottom can grab the attention of a fish that isn’t really interested in eating.
“When fishing this way, I prefer not to feed anything, relying solely on the hookbait. Feeding can draw in smaller fish, but I’m after the big ones, and on a twitched worm the perch I catch are generally of a good stamp. Once I’ve found where the larger residents are, I’ll target them with a single hookbait.
“Using a link leger set-up, I’ll pop up the worm between six inches and a foot off-bottom, straight off the link. This could hold anything from a single SSG to a quarter-ounce bomb, depending on the flow, but I’ll always go as light as I can get away with. Hardware is a 4lb mainline down to a Kamasan B983 hook, between sizes 4 and 8. Crucially, I use a light glass quivertip, which minimises resistance to a taking fish.
“When injecting a lobworm with air, other than being careful not to inject yourself, it’s crucial to consider the depth of water. I’ll always drop the rig in the margins to make sure it’s sitting well, but when you’re fishing in deep water, the pressure is very different at the bottom. The stretch I’m on is 10ft deep in many places and, as such, I ‘overfill’ the worm slightly, so it’ll pop up comfortably even under more intense water pressure.
“On a recent session I had my best result to date, landing a 4lb 10oz fish alongside perch of 2lb 12oz and 2lb exactly. I’d arrived at first light and found the river just about fishable. After casting out, I twitched the worm every minute, and bites often came straight after moving the bait. These were very positive, with my light quivertip wrapping round confidently.
“I had those fish in a short spell. With cold weather rolling in, and lots of rain, the perch seemed to kno
