perch, livebaiting

i havent done to much fishing for perch really, but i do like the species very much! but on the odd occasion ive done a bit of livebaiting for them, with some success (excuse the spelling).
my tactics have normally been a small floatfished gudgeon liphooked on a size 6!
like i said ive had a fair bit of success (yes the spelling again lol), not with sizes but numbers really.
i caught alot of fish between 12oz and 1lb 8oz im not worried about the size of fish i catch etc. but i will be (maybe this weekend)doing abit of livebaiting on a local pond and i have a few qeustions.
how do perch take the bait, head first or tail first? i really cant remember 3 months back as to how the fish were hooked etc. i just wonder as should i be hooking the fish liphooked or through the tail or along the back? what are peoples prefernces?
And lastly has anyone found perch prefer particular species when live baiting?

Thanks in advance
Christian

Hi Christian

The rivers around my way are thick with bleak in the summer, tail hook one and paternoster just off the bottom near some feature or a drop off, I think Steve Burke and Archie Braddock have got some good articles on the web about this

Good Luck

Nick

thanks Nick i will have a look for them!

I have done a fair bit of livebaiting for perch, with varying success. In rivers I find the method you describe as good as any; a gudgeon liphooked on a size 6, five pound line and a loafer or similar float with a couple of swanshot about two feet above the bait (or at mid depth if the water is less than four feet deep).

A couple of refinements are as follows: put a float rubber over the point of the hook after putting the bait on - essential if like me you use barbless hooks, but useful anyway, as gudgeon are masters of escape.

Secondly, if there are any pike in the water, do not be tempted to use a wire trace as this will almost certainly ruin any chance of a perch taking the bait. I used to rely on ordinary nylon and an immediate strike, but I was shown a much better method by Don Neish of Don's of Edmonton. Take about four feet of braid - any type will do; I use 4lb Berkeley Fireline. Double it and thread a hook onto the braid so that two strands go through the eye. Slide the hook halfway along and tie a double overhand loop or blood bight loop in one end, with the hook trapped in the loop. Bring the two pairs of strands together.

Now comes the tricky bit, although it is harder to describe than to do; you need to adjust the length of the strands so that they are all slightly different, in other words so that one is say eight inches long, one ten, one twelve and one fourteen. Tie a blood bight or similar loop in the end to hold it all together.

Put this hooklength onto the end of the line in the normal fashion. The idea behind it is that is allows the bait freedom of movement, so the perch are not put off; should a pike take only the shortest of the four strands will actually be in tension. It is impossible for a pike to bite through a slack line, so it can only bite the one strand. When that one goes, the next one comes tight and you are still in contact. Then the third, and so on.

In practice, I have caught pike to nearly ten pounds on this rig and have never even had the first strand broken. To be safe, if you do catch a pike replace the hooklength anyway, even if it shows no sign of damage.

Perch will drop a bait if they feel any resistance, so in stillwaters I prefer to omit the float and use a running paternoster. An Arsley bomb is attached to one end of about four feet of line; to the other end tie a small swivel. Thread the reel line through this swivel, tie on the hook and put a stop shot or whatever six inches from the hook. Attach a gudgeon and cast out. One the bait has sunk put the rod in rests as far off the ground as you can, with the tip pointing towards the sky. This lifts the bait away from the bottom so it will keep swimming around and be visible to the perch.

Put a bobbin on the line that is just heavy enough to hold the bait off the bottom, and allow it to hang just clear of the ground. This will give you about six feet of line which the perch can take before it feels any resistance; even then you get some takes which slam the bobbin against the butt ring before you can react! Often, you get a preliminary twitch on the bobbin which I think is the gudgeon attempting to get away from an approaching perch; this gives you time to pick up the rod before all the slack line is taken up.

Nice one Fred cheers,
luckerly no pike in either of my waters but i will remember that anyway sounds like a good one!
ive thought of trying a paternonster but never had the confidence i think i may give it ago.

cheers

christian

do not be tempted to use a wire trace as this will almost certainly ruin any chance of a perch taking the bait.

having caught hundreds of perch on wire traces i'd say that's a load of rubbish.

Having spent years fishing for eels in waters containing perch I would say using wire will affect your catch rate, but you will catch. If there are pike around I would always use wire - drennan 15lb soft strand is good. As an alternative you could use double lob on a size 4 and present your bait way off bottom using a sunken float paternoster to avoid the majority of unwanted fish such as bream. If I am fishing for perch I find using 4lb drennan doule strenght mono good or fluo carbon in clear waters. Tail hooking lives using a large hook to avoid bait masking reduces deep hooking too.

he's spot on about the lob worms best perch bait there is in my opinion.
i don't like double strength my self found it breaks too easily and can't see sny reason to use anything other than fluorocarbon for hooklengths when i'm not using wire in daylight.
braid does have it's uses at night though.