Perch hook ups

[Mike v]

I have just started fishing for some decent size perch at a water with some success so far but i seem to be missing quite a few fish on livebaits. Is this the norm or is there anything that could help. I dont want to leave runs longer as I have had a few fish that have woofed the bait back. At the moment my stats are almost 50/50 on takes to hook ups?

[LB]

I had similar problems whilst using deads. I suspect some of the takes maybe eels?

[Mike v]

At least two of the Perch I have seen on the surface before the bait pops out. I dont think they were hooked more the livebait half wedged in their mouths.

[pete webster]

It's a way of life with big perch.
Use a bigger hook and strike hard would be my advice.
If lip hooking?,try a single I the dorsal or the tail and see how that goes.

[LB]

It's a way of life with big perch.
Use a bigger hook and strike hard would be my advice.
If lip hooking?,try a single I the dorsal or the tail and see how that goes.

That's how I do it too, it seems to give the best hook-up ratio. As Pete says - you do miss a few.

[Rik W]

Wait until you start hooking them only to then see them come off at the net!!!! By far the hardest fish to keep on the hooks!!!!

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

After watching perch feed in tanks and in the wild, I can say that they swallow the baits head 1st with more reliability than pike, almost 100% of the time.
The initial take may be from behind as the perch chases their meal, this is an attempt to slow the fish down, I have even seen small fish engulfed from behind, only to be spat out and taken head 1st
Hooking the bait in the lip only as with tradition, can lead to deep hooking so a while ago, after some thought I tried using just one treble in the dorsal area with great success.
As with other species, keeping the bait size down helps no end with hook ups and as I always say the best bait possible for a big perch, is a little perch .

Cheers Alam

[Mike v]

Thanks gents. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going mad. I am using a single size four and lip hooking at present so I think i may change to the dorsal. I have had trouble catching small enough baits with most being around four to five inches so I think that may be contributing as well.

[Quince]

I have recently started hooking live baits using a single hook towards the tail. So far the hook up rate has been good. I have tried to match the hook size to the bait size ie a size 8 for a 2-3 inch bait, size 6 for a 3-4 inch bait etc. I also believe that using a 'balanced hook' through between the dorsal and the tail might results in a better presentation.

[bens4321]

All sounds a bit fishy to me Mr Vickers. I put your bad hook ups down to the fact you put your mate in a bum swim the other side of the lake whilst you enjoy all the action.

[Monts]

Wait until you start hooking them only to then see them come off at the net!!!! By far the hardest fish to keep on the hooks!!!!

I'm lucky that I have some good Perch fishing on the rivers I fish, mainly using lures. SP's and Crankbaits. I've lost count of the times I've gone to lift the net out and the hooks are in the net. Can't get my head around that, maybe a slackening off of the line? I may switch from braid to mono when using Crankbaits to see if it makes a difference, don't want to lose any before they get in.

It's a case of get the fish in the net and quick, before they know what's going on.

[Law]

What hooks are you using?
I had a 50/50 land rate when livebaiting, so changed to drop shotting hooks. They are much finer wire, but still strong enough. My land rate is prob gone up to 75/25 now. The added bonus is that as the hook is fine wire, the bait stays alive for longer.

On a side note, I've never lost a fish when using tiny gudgeon for livebait. I've no idea why, but the takes are always insane.

[Fentiger01]

I had one late yesterday afternoon on a 6in Roach livebait. I was fishing 3 rods, 2 deads, a live and the drop-off arm took a whack which being the nearest rod, I hit pretty much instantaneously and got lucky. Feeling something wriggling away on the end which was a little heavier than the baited rig but not the Pike or Zed I'd expected, I was really surprised to see a Perch hit the surface ready for hand landing. Luckily it was solidly hooked by one of the trebles in the scissors so I managed to land it. It went 1.13 and is one of only 3 I've ever landed on bait whilst Piking / Zandering over the years.

The bait looked huge against such a modest Perch and the trace wasn't particularly subtle either - fairly heavy gauge wire and size 6 hooks.

[Mike v]

What hooks are you using?
I had a 50/50 land rate when livebaiting, so changed to drop shotting hooks. They are much finer wire, but still strong enough. My land rate is prob gone up to 75/25 now. The added bonus is that as the hook is fine wire, the bait stays alive for longer.

On a side note, I've never lost a fish when using tiny gudgeon for livebait. I've no idea why, but the takes are always insane.

I have been using a Korda wide gape but the wire is quite heavy. I may look to see if I can find something finer.

[Mike v]

I tried some drop shot hooks but have now binned these as they had a "beaked" point and I dropped 6 fish on Saturday! Going in the wrong direction!

[Mike v]

I also started hooking in the back as suggested but I was experiencing more tangles from the bait. I am presently using a float pattenoster with a short trace in a sort of "helicopter rig" with a rotating swivel between two trapped beads. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Paul_the_piker]

I haven't don't much perch fishing so this is a totally uninformed idea (outside the box) but how about lip hooking the bait as normal and then attaching a small treble (size 12) stinger on light 49 strand wire to the eye of the bait holding hook and lightly whipping the stinger to the bait with a couple of turns of bait elastic around the tail wrist.

It works when they're tail nipping lures rigged on a jighead, but would obviously require an immediate strike.

[Mike v]

No trebles allowed I'm afraid.

[cookiesdaughtersdad]

No trebles allowed I'm afraid.

Doubles could be the answer for you

Cheers Alan

[Mike v]

No trebles allowed I'm afraid.

Doubles could be the answer for you

Cheers Alan

[Goose144]

a rubber anti tangle sleeve (find them in the carp section if you can steel yourself for the price induced nosebleed) on the trace would help with tangles.

[Owl1967]

I've done OK with pike using big circle hooks and the bait hair rigged using a maggot clip to attach. 99% of those landed hooked in scissors and I haven't noted any difference in ratio of landed/lost compared to trebles. Much nicer to fish with but I always use smallish baits.

In theory circles should be great for perch with the way they feed (no striking!). Can't say I've tried it for perch though.

[ADAM-F]

Unfortunate that trebles are not allowed as a 10 or 8 would be my choice over a single because of an increased hook up rate for me. I would always suggest an immediate strike too as perch can gobble a bait very quickly.

I found the hook position very interesting as I changed from hooking bait fish in the dorsal to hooking them in the lip for Perch with immediate success. Some of the rivers and drains I fish can be very clear and I have observed perch swimming up to my bait and then aborting the take as if something was not quite right. A hook position change to lip hooking stopped this behavior and it also led to many more takes as i slowly retrieved the fish in this more natural presentation.

[ADAM-F]

The other point i found interesting was someone mentioned the perch taking baits head first. I haven't seen a lot of this behavior and I did have a 1lb perch in a glass aquaria for more than 12 months. This character always woofed the baits down tail fist sometimes even side ways, the only time he swallowed fish head first was when the prey fish were larger than normal say 5-6 inches then he would make a noticeable effort to catch them head first, smaller baits 2-3" were always nailed very quickly he usually polished off 3 in 3 seconds!
Maybe bait size is the key I know when I use bigger baits to target bigger perch the proper bites can dry up and baits are sometimes killed with nothing more than a few bobs on the float but no proper take. I have observed small perch less that 1lb being responsible for most of this behavior and reverting to smaller baits sees many more perch landed but not necessarily the size we are after.

[Mike v]

I am still refining everything and deffinately feel that the set up is better. I had a P.B last week so it is going in the right direction. I now feel that they do take baits in all directions as you say as I have had tails and heads swallowed first.

[ADAM-F]

Congratulations on your PB.
Good work!

[B Samuel]

well done Mr Vickers x