It had been a while since I had run a float through for whatever comes along so I headed to a stretch of river that was real Mr Crabtree type fishing or maybe Isaac Walton, all twists and turns, shallows, rushes and overhanging trees, many of which were starting to show early signs of Autumn. Clearly no one had told the woodpigeon what time of year it was as it sat in the tree opposite on a nest, an out of sync bird sharing the swim with an out of sync angler, I had been having a mare lately with the last trip aborted due to me forgetting my fishing jacket so this time I had all the gear and I was keen to wet a line.
Naturally I set up in the most awkward, narrowest spot possible so just for fun I rested my rod tip on the far bank thus gauging it's width to be a whopping six feet, throw in the far bank himalayan balsam that was bent over in the water I had a mere three feet of water to play with, I wanted to run a float through but with it a bit slow I reverted to the matchstick again. Something about the swim looked right though and as the matchstick drifted under the overhang each time it moved and a few small roach and chub kicked things off, the latter doing their best to acquaint themselves with the balsam, something a larger chub soon did successfully forcing me to step up a touch.
I was glad I went a bit heavier as the roach and chub were drawing the attention of something much larger, so with the odd follow and swirl it soon got fearless and started chasing a 10oz roach about as I played it under my rod tip. From my vantage point I could see it was a big perch, however the cunning roach seemed far too agile for the sergeant major and it's chase, I could have let it have a longer go but I bided my time knowing there's one thing perch seem to like gulping down more than anything else.
The perch was still around giving the odd chase and making the fishing hard but after going deeper I finally had what I was looking for, oh yes, a gudgeon. Now perch love gudgeon more than an idiot likes fishing awkward swims and sure enough it didn't hesitate in the attack, it's gills puffing out and sucking it in right under my feet with about a foot of line to my rod tip, my size 18 hook was soon transferred from goby to stripey which I knew would happen, it always seems to to do this, I don't know if it's a barbless thing but perch always seem to get hooked perfectly in the top lip whereas the prey fish gets off somehow and as I stood up a relieved gudgeon tore off into the depths whilst the perch tore up the narrow swim going everywhere, it was on, going like stink and my rod was bent double, with the clutch set perfect and the tip under water at times to avoid all the snags, it was a fun but hectic scrap.
Richard Walker once said "The perch is the biggest fish of all" and that is in no small part due to the fact a good one always seems massive, both in the water and out, this one was no different and looked even larger in the narrow confines of the swim as I drew it over the net. I don't catch many big perch and most are down to a bit of improvisation like this one so I consider anything around 2lb to be a really good fish. So as the scales went round to 2lb 10oz I was tad surprised as it looked so much bigger. I was happy though as it was a fine fish for someone just pottering about on a short pleasure session on a small river and it was the biggest fish of the day, not to mention the first good perch I'd had in ages.
I packed up soon after with the woodpigeon still sitting on it's nest nonplussed by all the goings on, I had hardly seen anyone all day and it was the perfect temperature so I took a slow walk back to the car wondering whether I should test my scales or my eyesight. "The biggest fish of all?" That's the old perch all right.
