Perch

My goal for 09 was beat my Lure caught Perch PB!!
Perch arent a species iv done much fishing for over the years... and after years of catching thousands of perch using lures some perch even nailing my big 8-9inch Pike lures!! eyes bigger than there bellies!
i finally got myself around to sorting my ass out and actually targetting Perch, with Ok-ish results on local waters when at the start of 2009 Julian Chidgey from Korum gets in contact saying do i fancie hooking up and fishing some local venues as he now lives locally and we are both avid Pred anglers.
we met a couple times and had a chuck with lures, first trip being one of the night sessions which also opened his eyes a bit! we then managed a trip out to some local drains with pike in mind and both of us landing jacks to a couple of pound, i have one hit and cranked it strate in thinking it was another tiddler jack pike! it turned out to be a Perch just over a pound taking a 6inch Savage-gear cannibal shad! thinking it was a fluke jules took a quick photo and we carried on, Jules mentioning that this venue had recently produced allot of decent perch to local guys which got my mouth watering, this was just the push i needed to crack the perch for 09!
we moved spots and instantly hooked pike the sport was good considering the hot pure blue skys! then Jules borrows one on my shads as the pike seemed to like these lures (before he actually slings the lure up a tree!! ha ha ) and he gets a hit instantly! cranking it in as if he had a jack on again! but NO its a good perch weighing over 2lb i believe! this really got me thinking and Jules put me in the right direction for perch venues he knew about, that was it i had to catch my PB perch!!

within the next few weeks i headed out still with perch on my mind when i fished one of the local canals where i had seen perch to over 3lb before, i stuck on the cannibal shad and slings it under this bridge where i see this shape come up behind my lure!! it had to be a pike that big!!...... but no, it was a perch and right in front of my eyes i watched this perch well over 4lb nail my shad comlpetely swallowing the 5inch shad! i crapped my pants striking and it was on.... i comlpetely paniced in the gin clear water i could see everything! this perch charged off i was in!!! BUT i had the drag set for full on "Pike punish" mode on my baitcaster, the perch pulled off the hook and skattered taking his 4-5 mates with him!! i could of cried.....
the very next day i headed out to the venue where Jules told me to try with revenge on my mind!! this day just happened to be one of those red letter days where everything just fell into place, the weather was spot on the day wizzed past to that couple hours before dark i sat on the bank of this Perch Stronghold excited and nervous as the things i had been told pointed to this being a cracking first ever sessiuon on a venue!!
in two and a half hours i bagged up a impressive nearly 20 perch, 10 0f them over one and half pound! 6 of those 10 being over the 2lb mark!! i was gob smacked, it takes allot to make me speachless but WOW what a session!! the biggest perch weighing 2lb 15oz and my lure PB! Massive Thanks to Jules for putting me on the Fish......
photos to follow